Sakkare Achchu/Sugar Figurines for Sankranti

Taste of Mysore wishes all it's readers a very happy Sankranti and Pongal.

Sankranti or Sat Kranti which means 'good movement' is the transimigration of sun from one zodiac to another. Most of us celebrate this as a harvest festival too.Whoever celebrates it  as the harvest festival  should thank Earth for blessing us with fertile land so that we can sustain ourselves. 

A little prayer to Bhu Devi (godess Earth) :

Samudhra vasane devi, parvatha sthana mandithe,
Vishnu pathni namasthubhyam pada sparsam kshamasva mae.

which means...

Salutations to you consort of Lord Vishnu,

Who is clothed by oceans,

And is adorned prettily by the mountains,

Pardon me mother, for setting my foot on you.

In Karnataka people celebrate it by exchanging sesame & jaggery  mixture along

with sugarcane and banana. Sugar Figurines are made and packed along with sesame 

& jaggery mix. As children we enjoyed 'ellu beerodu' (exchanging sesame &

jaggery mix) and the making of sakkare achchu. We were rewarded with a sakkare

achchu if we kept quite till mom finished her work. We lined up and sat obediently

without asking questions. It was ajoint effort of my mother and uncle in making 

lovely, yummy figurines.

In my in-laws house my MIL and SIL brings the memories of making of  sakkare achchu

by my hubby. He had dug a hole in the tumbler as he could not get the sugar cube out of the tumbler. ahahaha..

We bought a simple mold to make these figurines to make them for the festival. He very fondly made

them and me and my son were very obedient audience....

So presenting his recipe for making sugar figurines..

you need the following :

sugar : 1cup

water :1/4 cup

milk:1/4 cup

food coloring :  a pinch

Gadgets : wooden mold (soak the molds in water for 1 hrs before you make figurines. 

Secure them together with rubber band.

Method :

a.Dissolve sugar in water and bring to boil. When you see water bubbling, add milk

and bring to boil. 

b.Switch of the stove and filter the solution using a muslin cloth or a tea filter. 

c.Milk is added to remove the impurities of sugar.

d.Add the food coloring to the filtered sugar solution and bring to boil. The syrup

thickens as you boil.

Check!! ...

1.With a spoon pour a drop of solution on a clean surface. After 3-4 seconds take a

match stick and try to remove the drop and the drop should come out as a whole and

should not break which indicates the solution is thick enough to pour into the

molds.  

2. Another way is to hold a drop of solution between your thumb and forefinger and

pull the solution. 

e.If the string formed during the pull stays for 2 seconds without

breaking the solution is ready to pour into the molds.

f.Pour the thick sugar solution to the molds and wait for 5-8 mins before you

remove them.

g.They are very delicate..handle them carefully. Remove them from molds when 

they are little wet.

h.Remove them to a plate and let them dry before you store them in airtight 

container. 

Sending these sugar figurines to Priti's Festive Food-Makar Sankranti