Makkan Peda 5/5 (2)

When I thought of Diwali sweets, being my first post for the festive season, I wanted this heavenly royal sweet from our own state Tamilnadu, a small town Arcot in the Vellore district. The reason why I wanted this recipe to be my first festive recipe is one for its origin, our very own state; and also it’s my paternal grandfather’s native place (Vellore). Second, for its scrumptious taste and the richness in this delicacy. It’s inspired from the Arcot Nawab’s family sweet, which took a little transformation in its filling, to what we have today.

As the name mentions peda, it’s made of khoya (milk solids obtained from evaporated milk), mixed with maida (all-purpose flour), curd, ghee, and leavening agent – baking soda,  made into a fine smooth dough, rolled into balls, finally with a royal filling of nuts and dry fruits, deep-fried and drenched in sugar syrup…now this delectable delicacy ready to melt in your mouth, and not in your hands…😉😍😍. Hence, it derives the name for its mouth-melting texture as butter ( makkan).

Though it looks a lot like gulab jamun, I can, to some extent relate it to kala jamun, for it’s appearance but texture and composition are completely different.

Kala jamun has a hard texture outside and a soft texture inside, whereas the makkan peda is soft and smooth throughout. Also, kala jamun is denser while makkan peda is soft in and out. The ratio of khoya and maida differs in both the sweets. In jamuns and kala jamuns, maida is just added in scanty ratio to khoya, but in Arcot Makkan peda, khoya and maida are either added equally or half the ratio of the other.

This recipe includes the preparation of instant khoya with milk powder. Few recipes suggest preparing it from instant store-bought jamun mix or store-bought khoya. I haven’t tried those so I cannot vouch for them. But I highly recommend you to try this instant khoya recipe which yields a yummy, super soft, mouth-melting makkan peda. In addition, I made soft khoya instead of a hard khoya, which resulted in a super moist and juicier pedas. Since the pedas are made with this soft khoya, it also reduces the soaking time,i.e. it hardly needs an hour of soaking. Store-bought khoya has to be crumbled or grated to avoid any lumps, also little more effort is needed to knead and mix the dough. Advantages of homemade soft khoya are –

• super fresh – in taste
• super moist – in texture
• super easy – to knead
• super soft – to eat.

Click here to jump to recipe card!

To prepare the soft khoya, add 4 tbsp ghee to a thick bottomed pan. Heat in medium flame and spread the ghee evenly by rotating the pan gently.

Then add the milk and mix thoroughly. Start adding the milk powder gradually, reduce the flame to low, and keep stirring constantly to avoid any lumps.

If any lumps formed keep pressing with the back of the ladle to smoothen it.

After a few minutes of constant stirring, the milk solid is formed as everything rolls out into one solid lump. Switch off the flame, transfer to a deep bowl, let it cool.

To the softened khoya, add curd and baking soda and combine the mixture with a spoon or whisk.

Add the all-purpose flour or maida, gently knead into a soft dough. Do not over knead the dough. Add 1 or 2 tbsp ghee as required to smoothen the dough. Do not work on the dough too much, it’s enough if it is are well combined.

Also, the khoya will be super soft, it reduces your effort to knead. Generally, store-bought khoya would be dry, it needs grating or crumbling and needs milk or water to combine well as a dough with an extra effort to knead. Also, there will be no hassle with this homemade soft khoya, as it will be pleasant to work with. Smear the dough with ghee, cover it, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile finely chop the nuts and dry fruits and keep it aside in a small bowl

Prepare the sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a wide pan and keep stirring in medium flame till the sugar melts, once it gets dissolved, let it boil for few minutes till it reaches a sticky consistency. (Roughly takes 5-10 minutes).

Add cardamom powder and a pinch of saffron, switch off the flame and keep it aside.

Apply ghee in your hands, roll big marble-sized balls and dig a hole into the ball.

Stuff the dry fruit filling, seal it tightly, and again gently roll the ball with your greased palms, flatten it slightly and arrange it on a greased plate.

Similarly, do with the remaining dough, it’ll yield roughly 15 pedas.

Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan or kadai in low medium flame. Use a neutral flavoured oil like pomace olive oil, canola oil, or corn oil. Do not fry with any flavoured oil like groundnut, coconut, gingelly oil as it may impart its flavour to the pedas, ruining it’s taste. Alternatively, you can add few tablespoons of ghee to the frying oil to enhance the flavour as it may not be economical to fry completely in ghee…💰💰😉.

Always maintain the temperature at a medium-low flame, and deep fry the pedas in small batches of 3, as overcrowding will disintegrate the pedas.

Keep flipping the pedas to ensure even browning, once it reaches golden brown, drain them on a kitchen tissue till the oil gets absorbed.

Once drained immediately add it to the hot or warm sugar syrup. Parallelly, keep frying another batch of pedas in the oil. Repeat the pattern till all the pedas are done. Also, turn the pedas in the sugar syrup and bathe them with the syrup generously to ensure even soaking of the syrup.

As this is homemade soft khoya, the ratio of khoya and maida are equal and the sugar syrup was warm, pedas hardly need 1– 2 hours of soaking. Remove them from the sugar syrup if they have soaked enough and garnish them with nuts. Delicious Arcot Makkan peda is ready to serve.

RECIPE CARD

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweets

Yields: 15-16

Author: Manimala

Ingredients:

For instant soft khoya:

Milk powder – 1 cup

Milk – ½ cup

Ghee – 4 tbsp

For the dough:

Instant soft khoya – 1 cup

Curd – 4 tbsp

Baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate – ¼ tsp

All-purpose flour / Maida – 1 cup

Ghee – 1- 2 tbsp

Oil + ghee – for frying

For stuffing:

Cashew finely chopped – 1 tsp

Almond finely chopped – 1 tsp

Pistachios finely chopped – 1 tsp

Dry fig finely chopped – 1 tsp

Raisins/ Dry grapes – 1tsp

Chironji/ Charoli/Saraparuppu – 1tsp

For sugar syrup:

Sugar – 2 cups

Water – 2 cups

Cardamom powder- 1 tsp

Saffron – a pinch

 Instructions:

1. To prepare the soft khoya, add 4 tbsp ghee to a thick bottomed pan. Heat in medium flame and spread the ghee evenly by rotating the pan gently.
2. Then add the milk and mix thoroughly. Start adding the milk powder gradually, reduce the flame to low, and keep stirring constantly to avoid any lumps. If any lumps formed keep pressing with the back of the ladle to smoothen it.
3. After a few minutes of constant stirring, the milk solid is formed as everything rolls out into one solid lump. Switch off the flame, transfer to a deep bowl, let it cool.
4. To the softened khoya, add curd and baking soda and combine the mixture with a spoon or whisk.
5. Add the all-purpose flour or maida, gently knead into a soft dough. Do not over knead the dough. Add 1 or 2 tbsp ghee as required to smoothen the dough. Do not work on the dough too much, it’s enough if it is are well combined. Also, the khoya will be super soft, it reduces your effort to knead. Generally, store-bought khoya would be dry, it needs grating or crumbling and needs milk or water to combine well as a dough with an extra effort to knead. Also, there will be no hassle with this homemade soft khoya, as it will be pleasant to work with.
6. Smear the dough with ghee, cover it, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile finely chop the nuts and dry fruits and keep it aside in a small bowl
8. Prepare the sugar syrup by mixing the sugar and water in a wide pan and keep stirring in medium flame till the sugar melts, once it gets dissolved, let it boil for few minutes till it reaches a sticky consistency. (Roughly take 5-10 minutes). Add cardamom powder and a pinch of saffron, switch off the flame and keep it aside.
9. Apply ghee in your hands, roll big marble-sized balls, dig a hole into the ball and stuff the dry fruit filling, seal it tightly, and again gently roll the ball with your greased palms, flatten it slightly and arrange it on a greased plate. Similarly, do with the remaining dough, it’ll yield roughly 15 pedas.
10. Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan or kadai in low medium flame. Use a neutral flavoured oil like pomace olive oil, canola oil, or corn oil. Do not fry with any flavoured oil like groundnut, coconut, gingelly oil as it may impart its flavour to the pedas, ruining it’s taste. Alternatively, you can add few tablespoons of ghee to the frying oil to enhance the flavour as it may not be economical to fry completely in ghee…💰💰😉.
11. Always maintain the temperature at a medium-low flame, and deep fry the pedas in small batches of 3, as overcrowding will disintegrate the pedas.
12. Keep flipping the pedas to ensure even browning, once it reaches golden brown, drain them on a kitchen tissue till the oil gets absorbed.
13. Once drained immediately add it to the hot or warm sugar syrup. Parallelly, keep frying another batch of pedas in the oil.
14. Repeat the pattern till all the pedas are done. Also, turn the pedas in the sugar syrup and bathe them with the syrup generously to ensure even soaking of the syrup.
15. As this is homemade soft khoya, the ratio of khoya and maida are equal and the sugar syrup was warm, pedas hardly need 1– 2 hours of soaking.
16. Remove them from the sugar syrup if they have soaked enough and garnish them with nuts.
17. Delicious Arcot Makkan peda is ready to serve.

Notes:

• I made this soft khoya with the above-mentioned ratio of milk powder and milk. If you want your khoya to be hard, reduce the ratio of milk powder to milk as 1 cup to ¼ cup and add 1 tbsp ghee, this khoya can be used for laddoo, gujiya, halwa, and burfi. But hard khoya doesn’t go well with pedas and jamuns.
• Roughly it’ll take 5 – 10 minutes for the khoya to form as a solid, it’ll start pushing the ghee, indicating that the khoya has reached its right state.
• You can prepare the khoya a day before to reduce the cooking time and store it in the refrigerator. On the day of preparing pedas, take the khoya 2 hrs prior from the refrigerator to bring it to room temperature. It should be soft and pliable to work.
• I used full-fat milk powder, it’s best to get the required texture for peda.
• Do not over knead the dough. Also, this recipe uses homemade khoya, due to its super soft texture, it doesn’t need extra effort to knead. It’s so supple, easily blends with other ingredients, and form a soft dough with little effort.
• Sugar syrup has to reach a sticky consistency. It’ll need less than 10 minutes. If you leave it boiling for more time, then it may form crystals after cooling, forming a layer on the pedas.
• Do not overfill the stuffing, as it may tend to crack while frying if not properly sealed.
• Filling ingredients can be to your choice and availability. No hard and fast rules.
• Do not overcrowd while frying, maximum of 3 or 4 will do. When frying the first batch, pedas may tend to stick to the bottom due to the milk content. Once you drop the pedas in the oil, immediately disturb the pedas to ensure it doesn’t stick to the bottom. Keep flipping frequently for even browning.
• Temperature of the oil is very crucial, do not overheat as the pedas will turn brown quickly without cooking inside. On the other hand, if the temperature is too low, pedas may crack open. To ensure the temperature of the oil is right, drop a small ball, if it raises immediately, then the temperature is perfect. Keep it in low medium flame throughout frying.
• As I mentioned above, use neutral flavoured oil. Frying the pedas completely in ghee would be divine but wouldn’t be economical. To balance it, add a few tbsps of ghee to neutrally flavoured oil. Drain the fried pedas on a kitchen tissue to avoid any oil smell later.
• Soaking time differs according to the khoya/ mawa used. If you are buying store-bought khoya, the quality of the khoya differs, in which case, it may need extra time for soaking. If you touch the pedas, you can feel the texture and the extent it has soaked.
• While dropping the pedas in sugar syrup, make sure syrup is hot or warm. Also, give a nice bathe by flipping and drenching the pedas in sugar syrup once you drop it.
• Once it reached the desired level of soaking, remove them from the sugar syrup and store it in a dry place.
• You can save the sugar syrup, while serving, you can drizzle them on the pedas.
• It has more shelf life if stored in a refrigerator.