When you think of Chickpeas, a lot of people think of savory recipes. Have you tried making sweets with a chickpea base? If you haven’t, you really ought to. This Chana Doce is a Goan sweet served at Christmas time, weddings and special occasions. It is made with chana dal and coconut and mildly flavored with cardamom. There are heaps of Indian sweets that use some form of chickpeas as a base, like these Besan Laddoos or even these sweet flatbreads called Puran Poli. These two are just the tip of the ice berg and I hope to try and bring you some more Chickpea deliciousness in the future.
Today, I’m sharing with you a Goan sweet recipe. This Chana Doce is a Goan delicacy and makes an appearance at Christmas time, weddings and special occasions. The recipe calls for chana dal, which is hulled and split chickpeas. Everytime we visit Goa, we always bring some back home with us. A good Goan bakery is paradise if you have a sweet tooth. Our typical haul would include this Chana Doce and a Coconut variant, the ever popular Bebinca, Dodol, Baath, Bolinhas and Pinag. I think that about covers it. Our favorite place to buy these treats is a quaint little bakery in Mapusa called Simona’s. They also have outlets in Porvorim and Sinquerim. What’s your go-to place to buy your favourite Goan treats?
It’s hard for us to get back to Goa as often as we did when we were in Mumbai, so I’ve decided to try and make these delicacies at home. And after some experimenting, I’ve finally got a recipe for Chana Doce that I’m happy with. This is a softer version of the sweet and just melts in your mouth. The commercially available one is a little harder and has a slightly longer shelf life, but its slightly more difficult to make. We actually quite like this softer version and hope you do too.
Chana Doce
Course: DessertCuisine: GoanDifficulty: Medium800
grams20
minutes45
minutes3 hours
A melt in your mouth sweet made with chana dal and coconut and mildly flavored with cardamom.
Ingredients
1 cup Chana Dal (hulled and split chickpeas)
1/8 tsp Salt, or to taste
6-8 green cardamom pods
1 coconut, grated (approx. 2 1/2 cups)
2 cups sugar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp of ghee (clarified butter)
Directions
- Wash the chana dal by passing it through some water at room temperature 3-4 times. Add enough water to cover the dal by about 2 inches and let it soak for 3 hours. After letting it soak, drain the water, pass it through some fresh water and drain again. Cook the chana dal with 1/8 tsp of salt and sufficient water till soft. Drain the dal and reserve the cooking water. Let the dal cool to room temperature.
- In the meanwhile, crack the cardamom pods open and grind the seeds to a powder.
- Grease a large tray or board, the back of a large spoon or spatula, a rolling pin and a sharp knife with a little more ghee.
- Grind the coconut to a smooth paste using just a little of the reserved cooking liquid from cooking the lentils. Use as little water as you can. Place the ground coconut in a large heavy bottomed pan.
- Grind your chana dal with a little reserved cooking liquid to a smooth paste. Again, use as little liquid as possible. Add this to the pan.
- Add the sugar to the pan and stir well to combine.
- Place the pan on a medium heat and cook till it thickens and starts leaving the sides of the vessel, stirring continuously. As it thickens, drop the heat to a medium low, add the cardamom and 1 tbsp ghee and continue cooking. This process takes around 30-45 minutes.
- Once the mix starts forming into a ball, take it off the heat and immediately transfer to the greased tray. Level it using the back of a spoon and tidy it off with the greased rolling pin. Set it aside to cool.
- Using the greased knife, cut into the traditional diamond shapes or any other shape of your choosing.
- Leave the cut pieces on the kitchen counter to cool down completely and set. Your Chana Doce is now ready to serve or store. Store in an airtight container. This will keep refrigerated for a 6-8 days.
Enjoy!
Recipe Video
Notes
- You can cook the chana dal in the pressure cooker or in a pot on the stovetop. The pressure cooker will cut down cooking time drastically. Mine takes about 10 minutes to cook all the way through. Cooking time will differ among different brands of pressure cookers. Follow your manufacturers instructions to cook the lentils till well done.
- Use as little water as possible to grind the coconut and the chana dal. The more water you add, the longer you’re cooking time will be.
- Always use a heavy pan to cook this Chana Doce. It keeps it from burning easily. If possible, use a wide pan. A wide pan, increases surface area and decreases cooking time.
- Cooking time will vary depending on a number of factors like amount of water used while griding, heat level used during cooking, size and thickness of the pan, width of the pan etc. It took me 32 minutes in total. Like most Goan sweets, its hard to time the cooking process. You need to go by what you see and feel. My step-by-step video will help with this.
Just love your demo & easy to make the channa doce. My mum always made this for us at Christmas or at any time when I went down to Mumbai. I enjoy now making it as mum passed away in 2017 she was born on Christmas Day .May she R.I.P.
Thank you Sandra.
Dear Trisha Vaz,
From where you have got heavy bottomed pan and the spatula spoon pls.
Hi Janet, I bought this pan about 5 years ago from a local Kitchenware / Homeware store (Victoria’s Basement)in Sydney. The spoon is from the same shop.
Hi, thanks for the easy peasy recipe..do you mind sharing the brand/specs for your cooking pan?
Hi Lou, you’re welcome. This is a 4 1/2 Qt (4.3L) Kitchenaid Pan.
Hi Trisha,
I came across your blog on YouTube….
I love your recipes which is step by step easy to follow… Please add me to your subscribers list for any future updates.
Thank you,
Monica Joseph
Hi Monica, thank you. I’m really glad you like them. Please click on the subscribe button on my YouTube Channel and turn on notifications by clicking the bell icon. That way you will get notified everytime a new recipe is posted.
Hi Trisha
Loved your recipe.. However wanted to check if we can use jaggery instead of sugar and what quantity would that be. And can I also use dessicated coconut and what quantity.
Thanks Preeti. I’ve never made it with jaggery so really don’t know about the quantities. I wouldn’t recommend dessicated coconut (It has a different flavour), fresh coconut is best, but if you cant get your hands on it, try some frozen coconut.
Hi Trisha..I made the chana doce.. Followed your recipe to the ‘T’… The only difference is that I added jaggery to make it a bit guilt free ?.. The doce turned out well.. Thank you
That’s great to hear Preeti. Thank you for letting me know.
Hi
I prepared the doce recipe now. Waiting for it to cool down inorder to cut into the diamond shapes.
Thanks for the detailed method.
God bless you and have an awesome Christmas.
Augusta
Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Dear I love your receipes and explaintion, please give measurements in grams too.
Thanks Julie, I will try and do that soon.
Hi Tricia,
Can one use frozen grated coconut or desiccated coconut instead of fresh coconut. Fresh coconut is a hit or a miss in the US. If yes, would it be the same quantity?
Same here Ang, you can use frozen grated coconut and yes, the same quantity.
Hi Trisha
Came across your recipe of Chana Doce mentioned in a recent posting in Goa net. My compliments on the description and ilustration of this sweet. My aunty D. Cacilda Peres da Costa, from Curtorim used to make it. She called it Doce de Grão and served it in rectangles as you do.
Have a few questions: Can you use integral chick peas instead of split peas ? Have you ever used orange-red split peas instead of the whitish yellow split peas
Hi Carlos! I’ve only ever used these yellow split peas to make this doce. You wont get the same results with a different legume. As far as whole chickpeas are concerned, I believe the skin will impact the final outcome. Hope this helps.
Also, what is’Goa net’? I’ve never heard of it before and would love to check it out.
Hi Trisha
Loved your recipe.. However wanted to check if we can use jaggery instead of sugar and what quantity would that be. And can I also use dessicated coconut and what quantity.
This is a super easy recipe . Thank You so much for sharing the steps !
It really is easy Ulricka and turns out really tasty too. I hope you enjoy it.
I loved it. Could you tell me the ingredients quantity to be used in Grams pls?
Hi,
I followed the recipe but my doce is still soft even after leaving it to dry overnight. Please help
Any test to make out when the doce is to be removed from the fire? Am going to try it soon and will let you know. 🙏
Thank you for your recepies, made both your doce n milk cream. The way you have explained them, make them look easy and want to try it. The sweet came out 😋. Thanks again for spreading the joy of cooking. Merry Christmas to you and your family.