How to make palm sugar?

Are you tired of eating glucose syrup disguised as ‘natural sweeteners’ in your favorite foods? Well, look no further because making palm sugar is simpler than you might think! Not only does it provide a healthier option compared to its artificial counterparts, but palm sugar has also been used in traditional medicine for centuries. So without any further ado or apologies, let’s begin!

What is Palm Sugar?

Before we get started with the process of making palm sugar, let’s understand what it is. Palm sugar, also known as jaggery or gurk in some regions, is a natural sweetener made from the sap extracted from different species of palms like date palms and coconut palms.

Palm Tree

Equipment Needed

The first step towards achieving that golden goodness at home is making sure you have everything required for the job:

Equipment Usage
Cutting knife (any sharp knife can do) To cut shallow incisions into the tree trunk
Collecting pots/reservoirs To collect sap
Mud stove/other heat source To cook sap
Cooking pot To contain cooking liquid

Now that we have our equipment lined up
without wasting time (no one likes to waste time), let us focus on how to obtain that precious sugary sap.

Obtaining Sap

Finding a matured date/coconut palm with multiple leaves can help guide us about whether they are ready for tapping their sweets reserves.

To extract sap:
Cut slits into the bark vertically or horizontally (to form an inverted V-shape).
Place collecting pots or reservoirs around the tree to capture sap.
Wait for a few hours till enough liquid has accumulated in the collectors.

Sap Extraction

Processing Sap

Collecting raw palm sap (not your average ingredient!) is only half of the story. The actual processing of sap needs more attention, and patience as well.

Cleaning

Before cooking, it’s essential to clean collected sap properly by

 Passing it through a fine sieve 
 Removing debris / impurities
 Heating briefly over low heat until smaller foreign particles coagulate on top

 ![Cleaning Sap](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1529949535210-ba98c3fb131d?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&auto=format&fit=crop&w=500&q=60)

Cooking and Reducing

After cleaning your collected sap, its time you reduced its volume down through boiling, often done outdoors above an open flame.

      Pro tip:
        If available, use a clay stove (like earthen chulha) which provides steady heat necessary for thorough evaporation.

An hour or two should be sufficient to get thick syrup; while stirring occasionally for consistency sake and avoid uneven temperature change.

     Note:

    Keep in mind that the longer you cook sugar syrup,   
    denser (>90%) -that means stickier will be final texture 
    More like chewy candy than anything else

Cooked Palm Sugar Syrup

Pouring, Cooling & Setting

After reducing the sugary liquid into desirable consistency, it’s time to pour it into molds for cooling down naturally to form solid chunks or bars.

Pro tip: To prevent sticking and ease the removal process of syrup from its container try lightly oil/jaggery before pouring hot sap in.

Keep stirring any powder residue on top while you wait

(nothing is that easy) for all sugar crystals/powdered substances to dissolve during this process.

Palm Sugar In Molds

After it has cooled (which does not take long), your precious homemade palm jaggery is ready! Let’s savor our final product.

Using Palm Sugar

There are a plethora of ways in which one can use palm sugar politely,

  • Use as an ingredient in North Indian sweets such as Gajar ka Halwa
  • It blends well with tangy Southern curries and chutneys
  • Sprinkle over fruits or smoothies etc.,

However my personal favorite use (and possibly yours too),is tea made with fresh homemade milk boiled together with grated date/chopped gurk directly added for that tantalizing flair!

  Final Thoughts:

Now wasn’t that fun and straightforward?.Who knew making tasty potent natural sweetness like palm sugar could be done at home so easily; just some patience required along ,with focus,and good knife skills!!

So next time when planning for dessert/snack why not crank up the volume on creativity, add more nature-friendly tastes,& try making some new recipe using homemade Palm Jaggery?

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