Winter dry fruits

The dry fruits most Indian homes eat more of in winter are badam (almonds), akhrot (walnuts), anjeer (dried figs), dates and chuara, gond (edible gum), til (sesame) and makhana. They go into laddoos, pinni, chikki, panjiri and hot milk, and into a handful eaten on a cold morning.

Many families believe these foods keep you warm through the cold months. That is a traditional belief rather than a medical one, but the habit is old and the recipes are worth keeping.

What Indian kitchens reach for in winter

• Badam. Soaked overnight and peeled in the morning, or ground into pinni and halwa.
• Akhrot. Walnuts come into their own in the cold. Walnut Kernels Two Pieces are the halves for eating as they are.
• Anjeer. Soaked, chopped into milk, or cooked into a barfi. Our note on soaked anjeer covers how families use it. Jumbo Anjeer is the soft, large one.
• Dates and chuara. Soft khajoor for eating, and dry chuara boiled in milk, which is one of the oldest winter habits in north India. Our guide to chuara, or dry dates, explains the difference.
• Gond. Edible gum, fried in ghee until it puffs, and the heart of a gond laddoo.
• Til. Sesame, in chikki, gajak and til laddoo, especially around Makar Sankranti and Lohri.
• Makhana. Roasted in a little ghee as a warm evening snack, or cooked into kheer.

Gond: whole or barik

We keep gond in two forms. Goond Whole is in larger crystals, which you crush roughly before frying. Goond Barik is already in fine pieces, so it fries quickly and evenly and saves a step.

Either way, gond has to be fried in hot ghee, a little at a time, until each piece puffs up white and light. Unfried gond is hard and sticks to the teeth. Once fried, it crushes easily and mixes into the laddoo.

What goes into winter laddoos, pinni and chikki

Gond laddoo

Wheat flour roasted slowly in ghee until it smells nutty, fried gond crushed into it, chopped badam, kaju and akhrot, a little dry coconut, and sugar or jaggery to bind. Some homes add saunth (dry ginger powder) and a pinch of elaichi. In Maharashtra the same idea is called dink laddoo.

Pinni

The Punjabi winter sweet. Whole wheat flour or urad dal roasted in plenty of ghee, sweetened, then packed with chopped almonds, sometimes a little gond and magaj (melon seeds), and pressed into firm rounds by hand.

Chikki and gajak

Jaggery cooked to a hard crack and poured over roasted peanuts, til, or chopped nuts, then cut while still warm. Til chikki made with Safed Tilly is the simplest: roast the sesame lightly so it tastes nutty, not bitter. Kaju and badam chikki use the same method.

Methi and dry fruit laddoos

Many families also make laddoos with methi (fenugreek), gond and several dry fruits together. The proportions differ from house to house, so follow the one your family trusts.

For the nuts in any of these, broken grades work perfectly well, because everything is chopped anyway.

Storing dry fruits in cold weather

Winter is the kindest season for dry fruits, but a few things still matter.

• Keep jars airtight. Dry winter air is fine, but foggy and damp spells in the north can soften nuts.
• Nuts in the cold can harden. Walnuts and cashews straight from a cold room may taste slightly firm. Leave them out for a little while.
• Soft dates may turn sugary. In the cold, soft dates can turn a little sugary on the surface. That is natural.
• Laddoos keep well in winter. Store them in a steel or glass container in a cool spot. Fried gond and nuts go stale faster once the ghee around them turns, so make batches you will finish in a few weeks.
• Buy walnuts in smaller lots. Even in winter, walnut oil turns faster than other nuts.

You can find everything for winter cooking on our dry fruits shelf. Orders start at ₹1,500, every order ships free, and delivery takes a few days.

Questions people ask