Bourbon Shankarpali

I had tasted sandwich shankarpali in Mumbai many years ago but have never tried it at home yet. Somewhere in my mind the taste and the innovative idea stayed. I was off to the North East of India on a holiday and till the last minute I had many things to wind up at work. I did not have enough time to get more munchies made and neither had I done shopping for the ingredients.

The idea of sandwich shankarpali was playing in my head as the verdict was cake and shankarpali for the Khaoo chi bag - marathi for bag of eatables. In the pantry there was wheat flour but no maida/all purpose flour, a tin of cocoa powder beckoning to be opened but no chocolate cake yet as I had made it just sometime ago. Finally the sandwich shankarpali and bourbon biscuits merged in my kitchen and this new creation was born.

Ingredients

1/8 cup crushed jaggery
3/4 cup water
1 heaped cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Ghee to fry

for the chocolate filling

1/2 cup Cadbury's cocoa powder
1 tablespoon Hershey's chocolate syrup
2 tablespoon granular sugar
1 teaspoon milk (or more)

In a saucepan add the crushed jaggery and water a bring to boil. It will give a slightly sticky syrup. Put off the heat and add whole wheat flour to it. Mix well and turn out the boiled dough onto a counter. Knead the dough well. Divide dough into 4 balls. Roll out four chapatis of 6 inch daimeter. Keep aside.

Next in a bowl mix together the cocoa powder, chocolate syrup, granular sugar and milk to get a paste. Spread this paste on two of the chapatis. Cover with the other two chapatis. Now you will have 2 chocolate filled chapatis. Roll out further each one to increase the daimeter to get 8 to 9 inch.

Now cut into shape of choice using a pizza cutter. I cut it into rectangles. They looked really pretty. Fry in Ghee on medium heat. They brown easily so reduce to sim if the ghee becomes too hot. Do not stir too much in fact turn over only once and remove else the layers separate.

Drain on a slotted spoon and remove on a paper napkin lined mesh. Allow to cool complete and then store in an airtight container. Resist the temptation to eat hot, jaggery can scald the tongue.

This is one more recipe with my comparatively newfound love for jaggery. The smell does not bother me any more.