Kaju Katli

Kaju katli (Kaju Katli) is a sweet made mainly from cashew nuts and sugar, rolled out thin and cut into pieces. It is well known for its diamond shape topped with edible silver leaf. Kaju means cashew nut and katli refers to a thin slice, so both the ingredient and the shape are in the name. Unlike thick milk sweets, a single thin piece is packed with fine particles of nut, fat and the sweetness of sugar.

The Cashew Nut That Crossed the Sea

The cashew tree is native to Brazil and was brought to India by the Portuguese in the 16th century. It spread along coasts such as that of Goa and in time came to be used as the main ingredient of sweets as well. India’s cashew research institute explains that it was originally planted to protect soil and water. The seeds of a tree that crossed the sea became the heart of a sweet in which they are ground into powder and bound with sugar.

This history of the crop is separate from the history of when the sweet kaju katli itself was invented. In today’s kaju katli, rather than concentrating milk, the nuts are ground fine, and their fat and the sugar are brought together into a single thin sheet.

How Finely to Grind the Cashews

Methods include soaking the nuts in water and making a paste, and grinding them dry into a powder. How the dough is made varies by shop and household. When starting from powder, it is important during grinding not to draw out too much of the nuts’ oil and to reach a fineness that is easy to work with.

Chef Sanjeev Kapoor demonstrates a method of grinding by repeatedly running the machine briefly and stopping it, so that the machine’s heat does not spoil the aroma. Because nuts contain fat, obtaining a powder is not the same as making nut butter. Fineness is needed for a smooth sweet, but if the nuts become a flowing paste from the start, the way the dough handles when combined with sugar also changes.

From Syrup to a Dough That Can Be Cut

Sugar is dissolved in water and heated, and once the syrup has been cooked down, the nuts are added. The dough is then brought together, rolled out while still warm and soft, cooled and cut into pieces. It is not a cookie made by baking a wheat-flour dough until firm, but a sweet in which thick syrup and ground nuts are combined and brought to a firmness that can be cut.

Kapoor’s 2011 recipe (the ingredient proportions and method) uses 400 grams of powdered cashew nuts to 240 grams of sugar, heating the syrup to 118°C and then adding glucose syrup (liquid glucose). This syrup is obtained by breaking down starch and contains dextrose, maltose and other sugars. It helps suppress sugar crystallization and adjust the texture. Proportions and the degree of heating vary from maker to maker. Another example by the same chef uses the thread stage of the syrup as a guide, so there is more than one way to judge when adjusting the method.

If the dough is too soft, it does not hold its shape well; if it is overheated, it loses its moist mouthfeel. To finish, it is kneaded lightly on a greased surface, rolled flat and adjusted to an even thickness. The diamond shape does not come from a special mold but from cutting a flat sheet diagonally.

Silver Leaf Is Not a Skin but a Thin Decoration

The silver on the surface is vark, an edible metal leaf. It is applied to the surface of the dough as an extremely thin decoration. Some versions have no silver leaf and show the pale color of the nuts as it is.

The silver leaf that gives this sheen is made not by confectioners but by separate metal-leaf artisans. On Panigaron ka Rasta in Jaipur, Muslim artisans have long stacked small pieces of silver between sheets of paper into booklets and beaten them out repeatedly with hammers. A 2017 on-site report records the sound of hammers in the workshops, along with shops packing sweets covered in silver leaf into gift boxes. The finish of the thin diamond involves the skills of both the artisans who work the nuts and the artisans who beat metal so thin that it is translucent.

Many shops display kaju katli on the same shelf as barfi, a milk sweet, but kaju katli is distinctive in that it can be made mainly from cashew nuts and sugar alone. On the other hand, some products and recipes use dairy ingredients or ghee. Whether dairy ingredients are included depends on the formulation of each product.

Thin Diamonds in Festive Boxes

Kaju katli is also used for celebratory gifts at Diwali and other occasions. When the flat diamonds are arranged in a box, the silver leaf shines on the pale dough. At Karachi Sweets in Pune, ahead of the 2025 festival, the shop said that while it also offers new sweets made with chocolate or figs, many customers choose kaju katli as gifts. Some also prepare small gift boxes for businesses, and beyond celebrations between households, this sweet is chosen for workplace greetings as well.

There are also kesar kaju katli made with saffron, versions made with dried figs, and versions combined with gulkand, a sweet rose preserve. Kaju pista roll, in which a pistachio dough is wrapped in a cashew dough, is a related sweet that changes the way the ingredients are layered. The katli, cut from a single sheet, and the roll, made by wrapping a core, differ in how they show the combination of nuts in cross-section.

Glossary