Video
Recipes
4 Servings
Make the perfect shankarpali recipe at home this Diwali with a handful of pantry ingredients. These golden, diamond-shaped bites are lightly sweet, crisp and melt-in-the-mouth, and they keep well for weeks, which is why they have a place on every Diwali faral platter. Fried in King's Sunflower Oil, this sweet shankarpali turns out evenly crunchy and light, ready to enjoy with evening chai or share with family and guests during Deepawali.
This traditional shakarpara recipe uses a simple dough of maida, milk, sugar and a little oil, rolled out and cut into neat diamonds. Frying in King's Sunflower Oil, a light sunflower refined oil with a neutral taste, gives an even golden colour and a crisp bite without overpowering the milky sweetness. It is an easy make-ahead snack that lets you finish your Diwali sweets platter well before the festival rush.
Sweet shankarpali has a mild, buttery sweetness with a gentle hint of cardamom. The sugar and milk dough is kneaded stiff, rolled evenly, cut into diamonds and fried slowly in King's Sunflower Oil over low to medium heat, so each piece cooks through and turns crisp. Prefer a savoury snack? Swap the sugar for salt, ajwain and a little chilli powder to make namkeen shankarpali with the same method.
Follow these simple steps to prepare this recipe with balanced flavor and texture.
Warm ½ cup of milk in a pan until it is lukewarm, not hot.
Add ½ cup of sugar and stir until it dissolves completely.
Mix in ¼ cup of King's Sunflower Oil, ½ teaspoon of cardamom powder and a pinch of salt.
Let the mixture cool slightly before adding it to the flour.
Take 2 cups of maida (refined flour) in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of fine semolina (sooji) for extra crunch, if you like.
Pour in the sweet milk mixture and mix well.
Knead into a stiff, smooth dough, adding a spoon of milk only if needed.
Cover the dough and rest it for 20–30 minutes.
Divide the rested dough into 3–4 equal portions.
Roll each portion into a thick chapati, about 5–6 mm thick, dusting with a little flour if it sticks.
Cut into diamond shapes using a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.
Separate the pieces and keep them covered with a cloth to stop them drying out.
Heat King's Sunflower Oil in a deep kadai over low to medium heat.
Drop in one piece to test: it should rise slowly to the top without browning at once.
Fry the shankarpali in small batches, stirring gently, for 6–8 minutes until light golden on both sides.
Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Cool completely, then store in an airtight container.
For festive fried snacks like crunchy shankarpali, the cooking oil you pick shapes the final taste and texture. Because Diwali faral is fried slowly and eaten over several days, you need an edible oil that is light, steady at frying temperature and free of a strong smell. King's Sunflower Oil is a dependable choice for sunflower oil for cooking, helping you get an even golden colour, a crisp bite and consistent frying results batch after batch.
Mustard oil has a sharp, pungent flavour and groundnut oil brings a nutty note, while ghee adds richness but can make fried sweets heavier and costs more for deep frying. King's Sunflower Oil has a neutral flavour that lets the cardamom, milk and sugar in sweet shankarpali shine. Its smooth frying performance makes it a good cooking oil for many other Indian snack recipes, from chakli and chivda to namkeen shankarpali.
