Description
Cheeni Thekua is the sugar-sweetened expression of Bihar’s most cherished Chhath Puja prasad — lighter and more golden than its jaggery cousin, with a clean, even sweetness that households favour for everyday eating and for children who find gur too intense.
It begins with stone-ground whole-wheat atta kneaded slowly with sugar syrup, a whisper of fennel and cardamom, and pure desi ghee. The dough is pressed by hand into carved wooden saanche moulds — the same patterned blocks Bihari families have used for generations — so every disc carries the signature star-and-petal relief on its face before it meets the kadhai. Each piece is deep-fried in ghee over a measured flame until the surface turns crisp and amber while the centre stays tender.
Heritage. Thekua sits at the heart of Chhath, the four-day Sun festival observed across Bihar in Kartik and again as Chaiti Chhath in spring. Prepared under strict ritual purity and offered to Chhathi Maiya at the riverbank ghats, it is the prasad families carry home in cloth bundles. Its sturdiness once made it the traveller’s biscuit of the Gangetic plains, keeping for days on long journeys by boat and rail.
Pair it with strong morning chai, tuck it into school tiffins, or set it out at gatherings where everyone — not only jaggery devotees — can reach for a piece. Hand-made by women home-cooks in our partner village kitchens in Bihar. Net weight 500g. Store airtight, away from moisture. Shelf life 21 days from packing.
Ingredients: whole-wheat flour, sugar, pure desi ghee, fennel, green cardamom. No preservatives, no palm oil, no artificial colour. Each batch is fried fresh to order and packed by hand, so the count per box varies slightly with the size the cook presses that day — a sign of genuine handwork rather than machine uniformity.
From the makers
Vaishali Women’s Kitchen Collective — a group of home-cooks across Vaishali district who have hand-pressed thekua for Chhath in their own kitchens for generations. Every disc is shaped in a carved wooden saanche mould the way their mothers and grandmothers did. We pay each woman directly per batch — no middleman, no factory line. The recipe is hers; we just bring it to your door.
