Mysore Pak (Recipe from Dakshin Bharath Dishes by Jaya V Shenoy)

Mysore Pak (Recipe from Dakshin Bharath Dishes by Jaya v Shenoy) - Mysore Pak is a very popular sweet in India, made of gram flour (besan), ghee and sugar syrup. Recipe from Dakshin Bharath Dishes by Jaya V Shenoy (Jaya maayi). Color of the Mysore Pak may varies from yellow, light yellow, light brown, brown ... depending upon the color of the ghee / pure ghee / desi ghee / oil / sugar / raw besan / dry roasted besan ..

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.

1/2 cup good quality besan (gram flour / kadala maav / chone pitti) (Here I’ve used Indian standard measuring cup of ½ cup / 100 ml / 4 oz capacity).

1 cups sugar

1/2 cup water

2 cups melted ghee or 1 ½ cup melted ghee  (or ¾ cup (3/4^th level of measuring cup) melted ghee and ¾ cup sunflower oil. Please do not use coconut oil).  Keep it ready melted ghee and hot oil near kitchen platform with a steel ladle.

Extra 1 tablespoon  ghee (to  roast gram flour)

Other gadgets:

1 fine sieve (to sieve gram flour)

1 kadai or non stick pan (to dry roast gram flour)

1 steel bowl (to make sugar syrup)

1 steel ladle (to pour ghee)

1 strong iron sieve (to strain sugar solution)

1 wide non stick pan

1 thick wooden spatula

1 steel thali or a baking dish (square or rectangular)

Method

For the  gram flour:

Sieve gram flour. Heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a non stick pan / kadai on a medium heat. Add sieved gram flour and dry roast on a medium to low heat for 5 minutes until lightly fragrant. Do not dry roast on high heat. It’ll turn into brown color immediately.

For  the sugar syrup:

In a wide bowl, boil sugar and water on a medium heat. Sugar will dilute in water and become a smooth solution, solution will boil well and lots of bubbles appear on the top of the sugar solution (it may take 5 - 7 minutes). Do not make it half thread to 1 thread consistency. Switch off the heat. At this stage, strain the hot sugar solution through a fine iron sieve. Now it is a clear sugar solution without any dirt and impurities.

2nd stage:

Heat a non stick pan / or any other pan on a medium heat. Pour hot sugar solution into it and boil for another 5 – 7 minutes (sticky syrup  - Sugar solution slightly thickens / like the texture of the honey and a string appear between thumb and forefinger when testing (approximate time for all these process is 7 minutes on a medium heat). I'm not sure about other temperature settings (like candy thermometer).

3^rd stage:

At this stage, pour roasted gram flour 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 it will become creamy in texture.

Please keep hot ghee (ghee - oil) near your kitchen stove with a steel ladle.

4th stage:

Now add melted and hot ghee (or ghee – hot oil) and mix well. Ghee will float on the surface. 2 ladle ful at a time (please add slowly and keep a safe distance from the stove) and stir continuously.

 Now one can see lots of pours on the top the gram flour and also featherlight in structure when stirring. Gram flour mixture moves very easily when stirring because of hot ghee (ghee – oil). It won’t stick into the pan. 

Pour ghee / ghee – oil in 2 – 3 batches and stir continuously. Do not stop stirring in between. Stir continuously for 2 - 3 minutes. When the mixture is ready, the gram flour mixture turns light golden with ghee float on the sides of the pan (boil vigorously too) and becomes porous and spongy (like a bread slice). 

All these changes will happen within 3 - 4 minutes after adding ghee (or ghee – oil). Do not cook until ghee gets dries up / mixture leaves form sides of the pan. Then it won’t form Mysore pak. It will become a brown color dry chutney powder (thamble puddi).

5th stage:

At this stage, switch off the gas flame and transfer this hot ghee mixture into a thali or baking dish (including ghee). Shake the plate / thali / baking dish in  such a way that the mixture flattens and spreads by itself (or gently spread with a thick spatula). Gently pour off excess ghee from one corner of the thali / baking dish.

Keep aside for 2 minutes and cut into desired shape and size. It can remove very easily from the steel plate / baking dish.

Here's the recipe link of Microwave Mysore Pak (Easy recipe)