Traditional gujiyas score over its modern counterparts

SNothing beats a ‘ghar wali gujiya’ prepared with love, hard work, combined effort and best of ingredients. ZULFIQAR HUSSAIN, Entrepreneur and chef

weet shops and bakeries in Lucknow are flooded with a variety of gujiyas to attract the customers and cater to different taste palettes.

This delicacy is a must have on the Holi platter so the focus is mainly on adding new flavours and variants to the traditional gujiyas. But there is no match to the traditional gujiyas, feel the sweet shop owners and foodies in the city.

In addition to the usual traditional dry gujiyas, the variants being offered are kesariya navratan, mini, sugarfree, dates, chocolate, fig, rose, mango, pistachio, almond, anjeer, gulkand and gold. Bakeries too are offering a range of baked, wafer-crust gujiyas with dry fruit stuffings and even honey.

“We can make 10 more varieties, but for the festival people often come looking for the traditional dry ones or kesariya gujiyas. We must be having 20 varieties at present but they all contribute to only 15-20% of the sales,” says Pankaj Gupta of Ram Asrey Sweets.

Entrepreneur and chef Zulfiqar Hussain feels the traditional gujiyas win over the other flavours.

“Nothing beats a ‘ghar wali gujiya’ prepared with love, hard work, combined effort and best of ingredients. Its only shortfall is less amount of filling and a thick crust which not everyone is able to balance.

In the market, I guess it’s a normal gujiya that scores over the dozens of variants available. For me, baklawa in wafer-crust baked variant is a big no...and priced too high,” says Hussain.

Chhappan Bhog has introduced rose, mango and orange gujiyas this year. “Ranges are being introduced but it’s true that traditional dry, chashni-wali and baby gujiyas are the one that contributes to maximum sales,” says Ravindra Gupta, owner.

Ved Prakash Gupta of Classic Radhey Sweets adds, “We even have gold gujiyas priced at Rs 50,000 per kg and a two-piece pack is pegged at Rs 1,500 but traditional ones that score.”

Bakers are also having a field day. “People are looking at healthy options. Our gujiya with thin crust shell, dry fruits and khoya filled with honey is being sold like hot cakes along with the baked ones,” says Vikas Gupta of Danbro by Mr Brown bakers.

HT PHOTOS Rush at a sweet shop. (Left) Different varieties of gujiya and (right) baked ones