


Every thing about GAVVALU–SWEET SHELLS | Vahrehvah :

Gavvalu means shells and this sweet is shell shaped traditional sweet made in Andhra Pradesh. Earlier our grandparent’s days, most of the sweets and savory were prepared at home. These were done basically to make in hygienic conditions, nutritious and economical too. But in modern India, we find in most of houses that both parents working to catch up with the fast paced life, hence not much time to cook anything special But these types of sweets do not take much time for cooking as they are easy to prepare.
Gavvalu is a sweet made of all purpose flour (maida), ghee and little water fried and mixed in sugar syrup. Firstly put the required quantity of maida in a bowl and add a pinch of salt. It is said that if a pinch of salt is added to any sweet it enhances the sweet flavor. Add ghee or butter or oil and mix well to form crumbles.
When you mix well and form nice crumbles the Gavvulu would be crispy at the outer side and soft inside. It will also give nice texture.  Add little water and knead to form a tight dough as you make for the chapati or puri dough. Make small roundels from the prepared dough. To make the gavvalu (shell shape) you need to have a grooved plate or wooden gavvalu peeta. You can also use a new comb or the fork.
The best would be the fork as it would be available in everybody’s house. Flatten the small roundel of dough and slightly press them over the fork and roll to form the shape of shell and remove from the fork and place aside. Once all the gavvalu or shell shaped are formed, heat oil in a pan and deep fry the gavvalus.
Deep fry on a low or medium flame so that the inner side of the gavvalu is fried well. Fry till it turns a nice golden color. Remove and keep aside. Now take sugar in a pan add a very little water and cook till it becomes double string sugar syrup. Once done add the fried gavvalus to the sugar syrup mix well and shift it to a plate. Once the sugar syrup cools down they get crystallized and stick to the gavvalus.
Cool and store in airtight box. Tha gavvalu gives a nice doughy taste. Gavvalu can be eaten during snack time or these types of sweets are normally prepared during festival seaons and eaten as time pass snack while burning crackers or flying kites. Kids even put them in their pant pockets and run to the ground to play and keep eating in between.
This sweet would fascinate the kids because of the shell shape of the sweet. Do prepare this as it can be made in less time and store them for kids especially during holiday they would love eating gavvalu. Gavvalu are a sort of candy sweet. Watch the video and learn making of Gavvalu at:

Recipe: Sweet shells - gavalu

Summary: shells made with maida flour and sugar


  1. Ghee - 2 - tbsp
  2. maida - 2 - cup
  3. oil - 1 - to fry
  4. salt - 1 - pinch
  5. sugar - 1 - cup
  6. water - 2 - tbsp


  1. Take a bowl pour maida into it add ghee and mix well.Now add water to make dough, the dough should not be too hard or soft. Take a Fork turn back side, then take a small piece of dough into hand and press at the back side of the fork and remove oppsite direction repeat the same way for all the dough. keep the shells a side.
  2. Now take a pan add oil for fry add the shells into the oil and deep fry till light golden brown colour fry in a low flame. once it is done remove from oil and keep it a side. Now take another pan add sugar and little water and let it boil till you get a thick consistency and remove from the flame. Add the fried shells to the sugar syrup once the sugar sticks to shells transfer these shells into another plate.

Cooking time (duration): 25

Diet type: Vegetarian

Number of servings (yield): 4

Meal type: snack


Recipe by Vahchef.

