Khaja is the festival sweet of the region — sheets of wheat-flour dough layered with ghee, folded, shaped and deep-fried so they bake into dozens of flaky leaves, then dipped in sugar syrup. The famous khaja of Silao (near Nalanda) carries a GI tag, and the sweet is essential at Maithil weddings and sacred-thread ceremonies.
A simple method: make a firm dough of flour and ghee; roll thin, brush with a ghee-flour paste, stack and roll, then cut into pieces; deep-fry slowly so the layers separate and crisp; finish in a thread-consistency sugar syrup. Crisp outside, soft within, it keeps for days.