On an Indian railway ride, we’ve all heard the monotone of the platform merchants, “chikki-chikki-Lonavala-chikki.” They hold a particular place in our memories as well as our sugar cravings, and for good reason. Bringing back loads of them home in every flavour available at the outlets of the neighbouring hill stations of Mumbai also serves as a souvenir.
The legacy of chikki in modern India is intricately related to the expansion of the locomotive business in this technique of selling!!!
So, what is “Chikki” exactly?
“A sweet confection eaten as a snack, in which crunchy materials like roasted groundnuts, sesame seeds (black & white), cashew, pistachios and almond nuts, musk melon seeds, gourd seeds, puffed rice, and the like are kneaded into a hot viscous solution of jaggery or sometimes sugar, into small slabs or orbs that set hard upon cooling at room temperature,” writes food historian KT Achaya But, whether it’s an energy-boosting evening snack, a cheat dessert, or a holiday delight to be savoured in Lonavala’s misty hills, chikki has a way of sticking in our minds as well as in our teeth. In reality, the word “chikki” is derived from the Marathi word “chikkat,” which means “sticky.”
So where did chikki originate?
Brittle sweets comprised of nuts, seeds, and melted sugar have been manufactured for generations all throughout the world. There’s Greece’s ‘Pastelli,’ sesame bars; Mexico’s ‘Alegra,’ amaranth sweets; Georgia’s ‘Gozinaki,’ walnuts cooked in honey; and Vietnam’s ‘KẹoLạc,’ studded with almonds, pecans, and peanuts. According to The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, the dessert has most certainly thrilled us since ancient era.
‘Chikki,’ on the other hand, is a distinctively Indian invention from the nineteenth century.The journey began during the British Raj, when the Empire hired labourers from Maharashtra to build a railway line from Bombay to Lonavala, the closest hill station.
Laying railways across the Western Ghats was no easy task, and the British quickly realised that their employees required additional fuel to keep going. Maganlal Aggarwal, an entrepreneurial sweet-shop owner in Lonavala, took up the challenge and produced ‘guddani’ using readily accessible high-calorie ingredients like as jaggery, ghee, and peanuts.
It was a hit with the workers, and as the railroads were completed, this simple snack began to spread across the country.Railway officials recognised a financial potential and commissioned Aggarwal to produce ‘guddani’ for passengers travelling between Bombay and Lonavala. The snack was dubbed Maganlal Chikki by Aggarwal, and the rest is sticky history.
The sweet treat’s success spawned a slew of imitators—think of all the Maganlal Chikki shops you’ve passed on your way through Lonavala. Don’t be deceived, though. The original Maganlal Chikki in Lonavala is located close beyond the Lonavala railway station and features blue-and-white signage (rather than the standard red-and-yellow).
How to make Lonavala chikki: recipe and ingredients
The jaggery in the chikki was melted down with white sugar throughout time, most likely due to the rise of Maharashtra’s sugar business. Lonavala chikki is simple to prepare; it will take you no more than 30 minutes. A short tip: don’t allow the sugar to get dark brown during caramelising or it will become bitter.
Epilogue
Usually chikkis are made by first making a hot jaggery syrup with a minimum of water to melt down the jaggery, then coating the pre-roasted nuts in the syrup, transferring them to a wooden mould, rolling them to a thickness of about 6–8 mm with a wooden roller, cooling, cutting into slabs, and packaging. Smaller volumes are rolled by hand with wooden rollers in households. With growing demand, the modern manufacturers are increasingly using automation for the prep of chikkis and to provide contactless products to their consumers.