Madatha Kaja/South Indian Sweet rolls

Yet another Andhra delicacy from my kitchen to yours! Today I attempted to make the famous Kakinada Kaja which turned out really well and Yummy. For people from my place, this dish needs no introduction. But for people who does not know, these are layered sweet rolls made out of all purpose flour and dipped in sugar syrup with each layer filled with that finger licking sweet syrup with a hidden note of cardamom powder.

These sweet rolls are an absolute feast for people with sweet tooth. Hope you guys will try this out and enjoy this dish!!

Ingredients

2 cups All purpose flour(Maida Pindi)
4 tbsp rice flour(Biyyam Pindi)
2 tbsp + 4 tbsp melted butter(Neyyi)
Pinch of baking soda
Oil for deep frying

For Sugar Syrup

5 cups Sugar
3 cups water
couple of pinches of cardamom powder(Yalukkaya podi)

Method

In a large bowl mix all purpose flour, 4 tbsp melted butter and baking soda. Once the butter is well incorporated into the flour add little water and mix the flour and make a dough like chapati or poori dough. Cover with damp cloth and set aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
Now clean the surface and divide the dough into four equal parts. Keep some all purpose flour by the side for dusting. Now roll each dough ball into thin round chapathi. Once each chapathi is rolled cover it with damp cloth and set aside.

Once all the balls are rolled, in a small bowl mix rice flour and 2 tbsp melted butter into a paste. Take one rolled out chapati, smear it with the rice paste all over and place another chapathi on top of this one. Smear with paste and continue the process. Smear the last chapathi facing up with rice paste. By now it will be a stack of 4 chapathis. Now roll the stack like a mat and make sure the edges are sealed. Cut the edges to make the roll uniform. Now cut the roll into 1 inch pieces. With a rolling pin roll each piece little bit lengthwise. Set them aside.
Meanwhile take the sugar and water in a pan and make sugar syrup. Make sure the syrup is not too thick and not too thin. The consistency should be just below single thread consistency(220F on candy thermometer). Turn off the heat. Make sure the sugar syrup is little more than warm by the time the kajas are ready.
Now heat oil in a deep pan. The oil should not be too hot. If you drop a pinch of dough it should raise to the top very slowly. If now add more oil to the pan to bring down the temperature of the oil. Now add in the rolled out kajas slowly to the oil. Do not overcrowd the pan. Fry the kajas till golden brown. Once they are golden brown take them from the oil and drop them immediately into the sugar syrup. Let them sit in the sugar syrup for 5 minutes. Take them out the syrup and set them onto a plate. Continue the process till all the kajas are fried and soaked in syrup.

Final Step

Make sure the leftover sugar syrup is warm. Else warm it up on the stove top for couple of minutes. Add in the cardamom powder to the syrup. Now take the kajas one by one and dip into the sugar syrup and arrange them on a plate. This second coating of syrup will let the first coating sealed up and give that glossier look.

Note

Just 3 chapathis are enough to make pefect kaja. I added an extra chapathi because I love having lots of layers oozing out sugar syrup when I bite into it. You can go with as many or as layers as you want.