It's fun Cooking

This is a very delicately prepared sweet dish and tastes awesome with fine flavors of saffron, khoya and almonds. Pumpkin coating which is cooked in sugar syrup adds nice bite to the stuffing and gives a very unique flavor. Pumpkin khoya roll is a sweet dish, which I wanted to try from many days and finally decided to prepare and also post.

I have already given many benefits of pumpkin in my earlier post of Kumbalakai huggi. However sweet delicacies always add some calories no matter what’s the ingredient

I realized how much of an art it is to carefully prepare these sweet delicacies with the right texture, color, shape, decoration and of course the right sweetness. That is why one gets tempted just looking at them when displayed in the shops which sell them. As this requires good amount of patience and skills, I would recommend trying this only at your leisure.

The skill here is to get these fine layers of pumpkin peel from the long cut pieces of the large pumpkin and then cooking these in the sugar syrup.

Once these thin pumpkin slices absorb the sugar and slightly cooked, take them off from the syrup and allow settling. Ensure they are not overcooked and are not very soft.

The next step is preparing khoya stuffing. Grate the khoya and start heating in a pan. Once khoya starts becoming soft (this would take approx. 7-8 mins) add sugar and allow this mixture to cook and blend well. Then add saffron which was immersed in milk.

Garnish it with crushed almond slices and mix it well to get the pieces in each bite of the Pumpkin khoya rolls stuffing.

On a flat surface take each sheet of the cooked pumpkin slices and take approximately half spoon of the khoya stuffing and place it on one side. Start rolling the pumpkin slice to get the shape as shown in the picture below.

Preparation and cooking time 45 mins to 1 hour

Serves 4-5

Ingredients for making Pumpkin Khoya roll

Ingredients for making sugar syrup 

(depending on the quantity of rolls, more sugar syrup can be prepared)

Method for preparing pumpkin peel in sugar syrup

1. Peel the yellow pumpkin and cut into approx. 1.5 inch’s width by a length of approx. 3-4 inch.
2. It is slightly difficult to get the right size, If carefully peeled a thin layer can be peeled.
3. Make sure they don’t break while peeling.
4. With a peeler peel the pumpkin pieces into a thin layer of 1 to 2 mm. (This has been shown in the pictures above)
5. Prepare the sugar syrup by heating water in a vessel and add the sugar.
6. Allow this mixture to boil for 8-10 minutes.
7. In this sugar syrup boil the pumpkin peeled length wise for 3-4 minutes till they absorb the sugar and slightly change the color.
8. Do not over boil and allow them to become soft.
9. Transfer the pumpkin peels to a plate separately and allow them to cool.

Method for preparing khoya stuffing

1. In a hot pan add the grated khoya and allow it to become soft.
2. Continue to mix well for approx. 7-8 mins on a low flame.
3. Soak the saffron strands in warm milk.
4. Once the khoya is soft add approx. 1 tbsp sugar or slightly more depending on the sweetness required. (Note the pumpkin peel also has some mild sweetness)
5. Once the sugar has melted and mixed well with khoya turn off the flame.
6. Add the crushed sliced almonds, cardamom powder and soaked saffron.
7. Mix the stuffing mixture well and set it aside.

Method for preparing khoya roll 

1. On a flat surface place the pumpkin slices which were boiled in sugar syrup.
2. Wipe the pumpkin slices if there is any moisture or water.
3. Take approx. half tsp. of the khoya stuffing and place on the edges of the pumpkin peel.
4. Start rolling the peel along with the stuffing till the edges.
5. Continue to roll the other pumpkin slices with the khoya stuffing.
6. Each roll can be decorated with a saffron strand which also gives a very nice flavor.
7. Optional: The final stuffed roll can be decorated with edible silver leaf but I don’t personally prefer using silver leaf because of its ill effects.

Tips

• Boiling the pumpkin peel in sugar syrup for right amount of time is very important
• The pumpkin peel should absorb the sugar and still be slightly stiff to roll
• Other dry fruits like chopped Pistachios or Chironji can be added to the khoya stuffing

Enjoy this beautifully rolled pumpkin khoya roll for special occasions !