I was thinking of posting a suitable recipe for Valentine’s Day for quite some days. At last I settled with this sweet bakery dish Dhilkush- meaning “making mind/heart happy ”, which appeared to me well apt for the occasion. Dhilkush is basically sweet, soft, buttery bread filled with sweetened coconut, tutti-fruiti and nuts. You can see multiple variants of dhilkush recipe with slightly varying ingredients for filling and richness in appearance in Indian Bakeries.
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour ( Maida ) : 2 cups
- Active dry yeast : 1 ½ T sp.
- Warm milk : ~ ¾ cup
- Oil : 2 Tbl sp.
- Salt : A pinch
- Sugar : 2 Tbl sp.
- Egg -white : 1
For filling :
- Grated coconut : 1 cup
- Chopped cashews : ¼ cup
- Tutti-frutti : ¼ cup
- Raisins : ¼ cup
- Sugar : ½ cup
- Dates (chopped) : 5
- Cardamom powder : ¼ T sp.
Method
- In a bowl take half cup of warm milk, add the sugar along with yeast and mix it well. Keep it covered for 5-10 minutes , it will rise double in size.
- In a vessel add the flour and salt and mix it well, then add the yeast mixture and knead the dough, with remaining (~ ¼ cup) warm milk ,adding little by little to get soft, smooth and non-sticky dough.
- Finally add 2 Tbl sp oil and knead it again and keep it in an airtight container for fermentation for about 3 hours.
- After three hours the dough should be double in size and become very soft. So make sure to use a container of sufficient size .
Filling
- Keep a kadai/ pan on the stove and add the coconut and roast it for about 2-3 minutes and then add the sugar
- Stir it until the sugar melt completely
- Add the rest of the filling ingredients and mix it together and switch off the flame.
- Make the dough into four equal parts and take one portion and roll it with the help of a roller pin about 7-8 inch diameter .
- Add the filling in the middle leaving some space at the edges.
- Now Roll dough into the same size and gently keep on top of the first one and seal it well on the edges (see the picture). May use a fork for sealing which will be useful for adding some design, same time making the sealing perfect
- Now do an egg wash generously to the top part.
- Keep a baking tray with parchment paper and grease it with oil and keep the pastry on it.
- Do the same process again for remaining dough.
- Preheat the oven for ~ 350 deg F
- Keep the tray in the oven and bake it for ~ 17- 20 minutes
Tips:-
- While baking open and check the oven after ~15 minutes whether it’s baked enough to golden brown on top, there may be heat variation between ovens. For me it took 20 minutes.
- Cut to serving sizes only after the bread is cooled to room temperature
