Nut Laden Vegan Date Rolls

I love Indian sweets. So Much. Especially Rasgullas and Rasmalais. Or should I say Roshgullas and Roshmolois? Hearing a Bengali pronounce these names gives me a silly, juvenile pleasure. The way they say it conjures up delicious images of perfectly round, soft, juice little roshgolla babies in my head. Aaaaaaaah :)

The thing about Indian sweets- They're so hard to veganize! They're unabashedly rich, and ooze with oceans of milk and ghee. And they're meant to. Sugar free sweets for diabetics are pretty common now, (however terrible they may taste) but suggest dairy free sweets to a sweet loving Indian and be prepared to be met with horrified  looks.

I am newly vegan, and I decided that this Janmashtami, I would make at least one vegan sweet and it would taste good.

I started with the impossible. Rasgulla. I tried a small batch of Rasgullas using soymilk.  (I know, I know, what was I thinking?) But the balls eventually cracked when I was cooking them and yes, they tasted chalky and beany. 

Then I found this PeTA recipe here. It's a recipe raining with nuts. One of those Burfis that your local sweet shop will sell for Rs 1000 a kilo.

I didn't want to use quite so many nuts, and I didn't want to rely solely on dates for the sweetness so I did modify it a fair bit.

Here's what you need.

500 grams dates, deseeded

100 grams blanched chopped almonds

a handful of chopped cashew nuts

two handfuls of chopped walnuts

6 tablespoons of sugar

1 teaspoon Cardamom powder

flour (to dust)

To prepare the date roll mixture:

1. Soak the dates in a little water for about an hour so that it becomes soft.
2. Blend the dates into a nice puree.
3. Pour the puree onto a pan and cook for about 5 to ten minutes, stirring regularly, till the puree dries. At this point the dates will begin to get that 'cooked' smell and will be of the consistency of a very sticky dough. 
4. Put the paste into a bowl.  Add the almonds, cashew nuts and cardamom powder and mix well with a spoon. The paste will be too sticky to handle with your fingers.
5. Refrigerate till cool. I refrigerated mine overnight.

To prepare the candied walnuts:

1. Put the sugar in a pan on medium heat. Once the sugar begins to met, stir continuously.
2. Once it all becomes a golden liquid, add in the chopped walnuts and keep stirring till the walnuts become brown. Be very careful not to let it burn.
3. Once done, immediately take off the heat and pour the mixture onto a flat plate. Don't make a towering mess of the candy, try and spread it out as much as possible and let it be as flat as possible.
4. Once cool, break into bits. For small pieces, place the back of a spoon on the candy and press hard on top.

To make the rolls:

1. Dust some all purpose flour on a tray. 
2. Take a small ball of the chilled dough and spread it out with your fingers on the flour as evenly as possible. The flour is just to help you knead the mixture. Try and get it into a rectangle shape, as thin as you can without it cracking.
3. Place some of the candied walnuts on the rectangle and roll it into a cylinder. (Don't place the walnuts too close to the edge, place them slightly away for easy rolling.)
4. Similarly roll out the rest of the dough. For each little cylinder that you make, use some flour to dust.

                        How do they taste? Strongly of dates. They are very sweet, and yes, load up on the candied walnuts because the sweet crunch in the middle is such a treat. If you have a sweet tooth, this sweet will leave you pretty satisfied, vegan or not. Date lovers, rejoice!