Mysore Pak
Mysore Pak is a traditional South Indian sweet, which was first accidentally made in the Royal kitchen for the king of Mysore (a town in the state of Karnataka). The story goes like this…the king of Mysore used to end his meal with an exotic sweet everyday. One particular day, the chief cook had not made any sweet and in the last minute had to come up with something to please the king. In a hurry, he just made sugar syrup (pak means syrup), added chickpea flour and lots of ghee and the end result was this amazing sweet. The king loved it so much, praised the cook for serving such a delicacy and asked for a second serving! From then on it was called Mysore Pak.
Mysore Pak can be made in just half an hour, if you have aromatic ghee, fresh chickpea flour and sugar ready in your kitchen. Made the right way, it just melts in your mouth and leaves you craving for more! Actually there are two varieties of mysore pak – the hard, porous variety and the soft, melt-in-the-mouth variety. The hard porous variety requires a reasonable amount of expertise to make, whereas the soft variety is comparatively easy to make, for beginners too. Here, I’ve shared the recipe for the soft version, which is my favourite.
My cousin and I visited a very famous sweet shop in my hometown some 15 years ago and tried this sweet for the first time. Wow, it just melted in our mouth and we almost finished the entire box shamelessly before coming home. That day I decided to learn how to make this delicacy. After a number of attempts, I’ve zeroed in on the proportion of ingredients and small tips to make a perfect, soft Mysore Pak. Let’s celebrate this Deepavali with lots of lights, laughter, happiness and this amazing Mysore Pak!
Ingredients
Chickpea flour – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 1/4 cups
Ghee – 2 cups
Water – 1/3 cup
Yield
18 pieces
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
25 mins
Method
1) In a heavy bottomed pan, dry roast chickpea flour (on low flame) for 5 -7 mins. Keep stirring continuously while roasting the chickpea flour to avoid charring. So keep the heat in minimum and dry roast patiently (the flour should not change colour, but just the raw smell should go away and it should smell roasted). Transfer it to a wide bowl. Grease a square tray (20×20 cm) and line it with parchment paper.
2) Take the entire quantity of ghee in a pan and heat it up a bit, until it is just warm (do not heat the ghee too much). Take half cup of warm ghee from this and add it to the roasted chickpea flour. Mix well with a whisk and set aside.
3) In the same heavy bottomed pan in which you roasted the flour, take the entire quantity of sugar and add water. Heat it up on low-medium heat, stirring continuously until the sugar melts completely and starts to boil.
4) Boil the sugar solution on low flame for 6-8 mins. Stir occasionally in between. After about 5-6 mins of boiling, dip a dry spoon into the syrup, very carefully touch the syrup with the edge of your index finger (be very cautious, the syrup will be extremely hot), and check the consistency between your index finger and thumb (like how I’ve shown in the video). You should be able to stretch the syrup for up to 1 cm without it breaking halfway. This is called one string consistency. Keep checking the syrup every 30 seconds until you achieve this one string consistency.
Keep a small bowl of cool tap water by your side. You can quickly clean your fingers in this bowl every time you check the syrup consistency without stopping the stirring.
5) When the sugar syrup comes to one string consistency, add all the flour-ghee mixture to the syrup and stir until it mixes fully into a thick goo. Keep stirring. After 2 mins add 1/4 cup of ghee and stir until it gets absorbed fully. Keep adding ghee like this every 2 mins or so until you are left with approximately 1/4 cup of ghee.
6) At this stage the mixture will be almost cooked and look like this. Finally, add the remaining ghee and mix quickly. The Mysore Pak mixture will start to leave the sides of the pan and move with the spatula when you mix. This indicates that it is done completely and ready to be transferred to the greased tray.
7) Transfer the Mysore Pak to the greased tray and gently tap the tray twice for it to level out and for the air bubbles to escape (if any). Let it cool down a bit. When it is nearly room temperature (still a bit warm), invert the tray carefully on a cutting board or larger flat plate. Tap the tray twice gently and lift it up. The whole block of Mysore Pak will fall out easily. Now remove the parchment paper, and with a sharp knife cut it into rectangular blocks. Allow the cut blocks to come to room temperature.
8) Store in a an airtight container. Stays fresh for 2 weeks at room temperature.
Notes
- Make sure to just warm up the ghee at the beginning of the process and not heat it too much. The taste and texture of the Mysore Pak fully depends on the right consistency of the sugar syrup, good aromatic ghee and fresh chickpea flour. If any one of these is compromised then the desired taste and texture of the Mysore Pak will not be achieved. So I suggest to follow the recipe fully without any deviation.
- While making any kind of syrup, it is always better to cook it in a heavy bottomed pan on low-medium heat. This way you will be able to control the cooking process and not miss out the right syrup consistency.
- Many Indian desserts require good quality, aromatic ghee. It is best to make your own ghee at home.
Beginners’ tips
- Be careful while adding ghee to the sugar-flour mixture. It will sizzle and froth a bit on the sides of the pan when you add ghee. Make sure to make Mysore Pak in a reasonably big pan to avoid any splatters.
4 Comments
MotherOfNOMS
Hi Jeannie,
Happy deepavali to you too!
Do try this recipe and let me know your feedback. Thank you:)
MotherOfNOMS
Hi Leena,
Thank You 🙂 Happy you liked the visuals.
Try the recipe and do let me know how you liked it.
leena
This looks delicious! And I absaloutly love the visuals, you;ve made these steps so easy and clear to follow.
Jeannie
Happy Deepavali! Ive never tried this sweet treat before but Im keen to try because the ingredients are so easy and accessible for me.