Sakkare Acchu

Sakkare acchu is a sugar sweet from Karnataka made by pouring syrup into molds. These small white sweets, shaped like flowers, animals and other forms, are given to people close to the giver during Makara Sankranti, a harvest-season festival.

Pouring into Paired Wooden Molds

Sugar and water are boiled, milk or yogurt is added, and the mixture is strained and then boiled down again until thick. In one cook’s method, the paired wooden molds are soaked in water in advance, and the two halves are fitted together and secured. The syrup is poured into the molds, and once it has set, the molds are gently opened and the sweets are removed. Some cooks use silicone molds.

In Kannada, sakkare means sugar and acchu means mold. A sign that the syrup is ready to pour into the molds is when it turns from clear to whitish and begins to thicken.

As the sugar sets, the liquid gradually turns white and opaque. Because the hot liquid changes even while it is being handled, the molds are prepared beforehand, and the syrup is poured quickly once it is ready. The fine carvings are transferred onto the surface of the sweets because the sugar holds its shape inside the mold.

Festival Gifts and Wooden Molds

At the festival, the sweets are sometimes given together with sugarcane and ellu bella, a mix of roasted sesame seeds, jaggery and other ingredients.

Nikhila Kurtukote, who had been familiar with this sugar sweet since childhood, could not find wooden molds when she tried to make it herself as an adult. An acquaintance of her mother came to the house with molds and, working alongside her, showed her how to make the sweets white and soft, she says. It is one scene of molds and know-how being passed from person to person ahead of the festival. Cook Smitha Kalluraya remembers helping as a child by setting out her mother’s wooden molds in pairs and tapping the molds lightly. Her mother made large quantities and shared them with family.

Another cook did not eat them as a child because they were too sweet, but later tried making them out of a wish to pass the method on to their daughter. This cook also remembers an aunt struggling to control the heat and the sugar scorching brown.

Besides being made at home, the sweets can also be bought at markets. At the pre-festival markets in Mysuru, sugar sweets, sugarcane, sesame seeds, jaggery, roasted legumes and more are on display, and the markets are busy with shoppers buying items to give to people close to them.

Glossary