Mysore Pak

Here's the recipe of Mysore Pak with less oil and cooking soda.

Here's the recipe of traditional Mysore Pak

Mysore Pak or Chennai special Ghee Mysore Pak

Mysore Pak is a very popular sweet in India, made of gram flour (besan), ghee and sugar syrup. Recipe from Cook & See by Meenakshi Ammal Part 1 & Karnataka cuisine by Ranee Vijaya Kuttaiah !!!

Makes: 325 g

Ratio is (homestyle preparation) normally 1 cup besan : 2 cups sugar & ½ cup water (for sugar solution): 1 cup ghee and Mysore pak ratio from a senior chef (Maharaj) is 250 g besan : 500 g pure ghee: 1 kg sugar.

Please use same measuring cup to measure besan, sugar, ghee and water.

Ingredients

Please keep all the ingredients and gadgets (iron sieve, steel bowl, thali …) ready near kitchen platform.

½ cup / 100 ml good quality besan (gram flour / kadala maav / chone pitti)(Indian standard measuring cup of 100 ml / 4 oz capacity)

1 cup sugar / 200 ml (Indian standard measuring cup of 200 ml / 8 oz capacity)

¼ cup water / 50 ml (Indian standard measuring cup of 50 ml / 2 oz capacity)

½ cup melted and warm ghee / 100 ml (Indian standard measuring cup 100 ml / 4 oz capacity)

Extra 1 tablespoon melted warm ghee (to mix gram flour)

Other gadgets:

1 iron kadai or any other pan (to dry roast gram flour)

1 fine sieve to sieve gram flour

1 small container (to mix gram flour and melted ghee)

1 steel bowl (to make sugar syrup)

1 strong iron sieve (to strain sugar solution)

1 non stick pan for final preparation

1 thick wooden spatula

1 steel thali and extra ½ teaspoon ghee (to grease steel thali)

Method

For gram flour:

Sieve gram flour. Heat an iron kadai or any other pan on a medium heat. Add sieved gram flour and dry roast on a medium to low heat for 5 minutes. Do not dry roast on high heat. Keep aside to cool for 10 minutes and sieve through a fine sieve. Transfer this sieved dry roasted gram flour into another another bowl and mix nicely with melted ghee.

For sugar syrup:

In a wide bowl, boil sugar and water on a medium heat. Sugar will dilute in water and become a smooth solution (it may take 10 – 12 minutes). At this stage, strain the hot sugar solution through a fine iron sieve. Now it is a clear sugar solution without dirt and impurities.

Heat a non stick pan on medium heat. Transfer clear solution into the non stick pan and boil again until half thread consistency and also a slight color change in sugar solution. Sugar solution slightly thickens / like the texture of the honey and a half string appear between thumb and forefinger when testing (approximate time for all these process is 3 -4 minutes on a medium heat). I'm not very sure about other temperature settings (like candy thermometer).

2nd stage:

At this stage, pour gram flour (mixed with melted warm ghee) evenly with one hand and simultaneously stir with a spatula with the other hand (like Upma / Uppumaav preparation). Mixing of gram flour in sugar syrup is very important when making Mysore Pak. It should be mixed evenly - else it may form lumps. Stir well until well combined with sugar syrup and creamy in texture.

3rd stage:

Now add melted and warm ghee and mix well (pour tittle by little and stir well continuously). Ghee will float on the surface.

Stir continuously on a medium heat for 10 minutes until ghee gets absorbed by gram flour. Later the gram flour mixture becomes frothy and leaves from the sides of the pan (also slightly thickens).

4^th stage:

At this stage, switch off the gas flame and transfer this hot ghee mixture into a greased steel thali. Shake the plate in a way that the mixture flattens and spreads by itself (or gently spread with a thick spatula). Keep aside to cool for 15 – 20 minutes and cut into desired shape and size. It can remove very easily from the steel plate.