Silao Khaja (500g) — Authentic from Nalanda

Description

Silao Khaja is Bihar’s most celebrated layered sweet — a golden, multi-layered pastry that shatters at the first bite into hundreds of paper-thin sheets, each one fried to a deep amber in pure desi ghee. It takes its name from Silao, a small market town in Nalanda district that sits on the ancient road between Rajgir and the ruins of Nalanda Mahavihara, the great Buddhist university that drew scholars across Asia more than a thousand years ago. Travellers and pilgrims on that route carried khaja with them because it kept for days and never lost its crunch — and the town has been making it ever since.

What sets a genuine Silao khaja apart is the layering. A skilled halwai folds and rolls the dough by hand, building dozens of fine sheets before the sweet is fried and bathed in sugar syrup. Done right, the layers stay distinct and crisp rather than collapsing into a dense slab — a craft passed down through families of fourth-generation halwais in the Silao bazaar. We source ours directly from those original shops, so what reaches you is the real thing, not a factory imitation.

Lightly sweet and never cloying, khaja is the classic accompaniment to chai and a fixture at Bihari weddings, festivals and homecomings. Each piece is hand-fried in small batches, with no preservatives — simply maida, desi ghee, sugar and a whisper of cardamom.

• Net weight: 500g
• Shelf life: 30 days
• Ingredients: Maida, desi ghee, sugar, cardamom
• Vegetarian · No preservatives · Hand-fried in small batches
• Sourced directly from original halwais of Silao bazaar, Nalanda