Pinniਪਿੰਨੀ
⏱ Prep 10m🍳 Cook 30m🍽 Serves 20🌿 Vegetarian
Video: Your Food Lab (YouTube)
Pinni is Punjab's cold-weather energy sweet — dense, nutty, faintly aromatic balls of whole wheat flour roasted long in ghee, then set with powdered sugar, chopped almonds, and often edible gum for a satisfying chew. Traditional kitchens make big batches in December and January when the cold demands something that sustains. A single pinni eaten with a glass of warm milk is a complete small meal. They keep at room temperature for two to three weeks.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪atta (whole wheat flour) — ਆਟਾ2 cups
- ▪ghee — ਘਿਉ¾ cup + 2 tbsp
- ▪powdered sugar (pisi cheeni) — ਪਿਸੀ ਚੀਨੀ¾ cup
- ▪almonds, blanched and roughly chopped — ਬਾਦਾਮ¼ cup
- ▪edible gum (gond / gaund) — ਗੋਂਦ3 tbsp
- ▪makhana (fox nuts / lotus seeds) — ਮਖਾਣੇ¼ cup
- ▪walnuts, chopped — ਅਖਰੋਟ2 tbsp
- ▪green cardamom, powdered — ਇਲਾਇਚੀ½ tsp
- ▪dried coconut (copra), grated (optional)2 tbsp
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Edible gum (gond) is the traditional ingredient that gives pinni its characteristic chewy centres; find it at Indian grocery stores labelled as gaund, gondh, or edible gum — do not substitute xanthan or cornstarch.
- Makhana (fox nuts) are increasingly stocked at Whole Foods and Costco in North America; if unavailable, substitute with an equal weight of puffed rice (murmura) for crunch without the same nutrition.
- For a jaggery version: replace powdered sugar with ½ cup tightly packed powdered jaggery — add it slightly warmer than for sugar, as jaggery needs heat to distribute.
Method
- 1Fry the gond first: heat 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy kadai over medium heat. Add the gond crystals a few at a time — they puff dramatically in seconds. Remove immediately with a slotted spoon before they brown; drain on paper. Crush the puffed gond lightly once cool.
- 2In the same pan, add a little more ghee if needed and fry the makhana until crisp (2–3 minutes). Remove and crush coarsely.
- 3Add remaining ¾ cup ghee to the kadai. Add atta and roast on low-medium heat, stirring constantly and methodically so every grain browns evenly. This takes 20–25 minutes; patience is the whole technique. The atta is ready when it turns a warm biscuit-brown and smells deeply nutty — no raw flour smell.
- 4Remove from heat. Let the roasted atta cool for 10–12 minutes until warm but not hot (important: adding sugar to very hot atta makes it greasy).
- 5Add powdered sugar, crushed gond, makhana, almonds, walnuts, cardamom, and dried coconut. Mix thoroughly with a spoon, then with clean hands, until everything comes together into a uniform mixture.
- 6While still warm enough to hold shape, divide and roll into round balls about 4 cm in diameter, pressing firmly — they should hold together well. If the mixture is too dry to bind, warm a tablespoon of ghee and drizzle it in.
- 7Cool completely on a plate before storing. Keeps in an airtight tin for 2–3 weeks at room temperature in cool weather, or up to a month refrigerated.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.