Makkan Peda - Go Nuts to See the Nuts

Makkan Peda - Go Nuts to See the Nuts..

Makkan peda - I had just heard the name for many years but did not get to eat one. I was not curious to know about it too. After marriage, whenever we visit any sweet shop, my husband would enquire about this makkan peda. I used to wonder what is the big deal about "makkan peda". It seems my husband had it once when he was a kid and fell in love with it. Then he tried to explain me about how it will look like, how it would taste like etc.,

For more sweet recipes click the link - Sweets
For more - Deepavali, Festival foods.

Since it was a long time my husband too had any makkan pedas, one day I remember, my husband bought a small size honey-soaked-bun thinking it was a makkan peda..😂😅. After so many years, one fine day we had a chance to eat makkan peda in a function. The credit goes to my grandmother. No.. it's not what you think.
It was on my grandmother's 13th day ceremony lunch, they served makkan peda as a dessert. 😆. The makkan peda they served were sooo good.. I cant wait to see how many were going to be remaining so that I can taste one more. I know its cruel to think like this on one's grandmother's 13th days ceremony.. but come on let's be practical.. its the first time I had such a divine sweet and I got just one to taste. Is it not fair to expect one more..?😈

After that memorable episode of the close encounter with makkan peda, I searched for the recipe. I tried few recipes and made few corrections to my convenience. This recipe is now my friendly-recipe. Even though I do eye-ball measurement, I am very convenient with it as I now know the consistency of the dough for the makkan pedas.

The recipe is almost the same as gulaab jamoon. Here we use the gulaab jamoon dough as the outer layer with nice and crunchy-nut fillings inside. It is the juicy filling with crunchy nuts which takes this sweet to the edge.

In this recipe, I am using unsweetened khoya/mawa/khova, maida/all purpose flour and few more ingredients for making the dough. We can even try it with the commercially selling gulaab jamoon mixes. But somehow  feel that the commercial mixes crack open or not very smooth as we need to fill with nuts, or not soft or does not have the flavour of the jamoon which is made with khoya. The jamoons/makkan pedas made with khoya have this excellent rich milk flavour.

Many of you might have already been using khoya for making jamoons. But for those who are not confident about using khoya to make jamoons, please give it a try. You are missing the actual flavour and texture of jamoons. They are lot more softer.. looks even outside and inside, smoother outside, soak up well (unlike the jamoons made from the mixes which remain crunchy/hard outside even after being soaked for long time.)

This recipe is little tricky, but you can definitely master it by trying it couple of times. I sincerely want you all to try this jamoon-icious, nut-icious and delicious sweet and please let me know how it came out. Now let us see the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Unsweetened khoya - 200 grams 
• Maida (all purpose flour) - 1 cup plus 1/2 cup 
• Ghee - 1 tablespoon
• Curd - 1 tablespoon
• Cooking soda/baking soda - 3 big pinches
• Oil - for frying

For filling:

• Almonds, cashews, raisins, pistachios, cantaloupe seeds - all chopped - 1/2 cup
•  Green food colour - 2 drops (optional)

For the syrup:

• Sugar - 500 grams
• Water - just 1 inch above the sugar level
• Cardamom - 1/4 teaspoon
• Ghee - 1/2 teaspoon

Procedure:

• Add water to the sugar and get ready with the syrup to the sticky consistency. Add the half spoon of ghee and keep aside.
• Also keep the oil in the frying-pan on stove or frying.
• Take the unsweetened khoya in room temperature in a wide mouthed vessel. 

• Initially, add 1 cup of maida.
• Add the cooking/baking soda, curd, and ghee. 
• Now knead altogether. It will be little sticky right now.
• You will definitely need more maida flour. So keep adding that extra 1/2 cup maida, one spoon at a time.
• And keep kneading till you get a soft non-sticky dough as shown in the picture. 
• Once you get the non-sticky dough, take a very small bit and make a ball. Drop this in the hot oil and see how it fries.
• If it opens up or if you see any obvious crack, it means the flour is not enough hence you need to add more maida flour. 
• Then add another spoon of flour and knead again. Try again with a tiny ball of dough in hot oil. 
• Repeat this few times till you see the dough frying in perfect shape.
• To reach this consistency of the dough, you must have added at least that extra half cup of flour fully by now. (that extra 1/2 cup which I mentioned in the ingredient list). This extra 1/2 cup of maida might vary in amount depending on the brand of khoya we use too. So keep an sharp eye on the small ball test-frying. That will help you catch the right consistency of dough. There won't be a big problem in the addition of flour. If you add less flour then, the balls will have a crack or open up. Then add more flour. If you add excess flour, then the jamoons will be firmer. That is all. But when you are using khoya for the first time, practice making gulaab jamoons couple of times and once you are confident about using the khoya, then you can do makkan peda.

• Once you got the perfect dough, reduce the heat under the oil to low and come to the dough to make the pedas. 
• Take one small portion of the dough, say around 1/4th of the dough or still less. 
• Add the green food colour to this and add the chopped nuts too. Knead this to make a sort of tight dough with lots of nuts. The dough here is just to hold the nuts together. Other wise, if we just used the nut pieces to fill, it will be difficult to fill and close the pedas. It might not be easy to make smooth seal.

• Make tiny balls of this green-nutty filling and keep aside.
• Take the main dough to make the outer covering. Take a portion bigger than the green nutty-ball dough and make a small cup. 

• Place one green ball inside and try to close it and seal it evenly.

• Keep it in between your palms and roll it to smooth roundels and at last flatten it slightly. 

• Keep the heat under oil in low before dropping the peda.
• First try deep frying one makkan peda. Wait till the bubbles stop and the makkan peda turns to that beautiful golden amber colour.
• Mostly it will be a success.

• Then go with few in a batch next time and finish it up all.
• Initially keep the heat in low, then raise the heat to medium after the pedas have been cooked.
• Transfer all the fried makkan pedas into the hot syrup and let it soak for at least 5 hours. (but my little Miss. Precious could not wait even for one hour to gobble).

Thus, the delicious makkan pedas which made me shamelessly crave for one more on my grandmother's 13th day ceremony - is ready to be indulged.

Tips:

• Just bring the sugar syrup to sticky consistency.
• All the ingredients should be in room temperature.
• Can use room temperature butter instead of ghee. But somehow I prefer ghee it contributes more flavour.
• You can use rose essence to the syrup instead of cardamom powder.
• Always before dropping the pedas in oil, make sure the heat is in low. You can later raise the heat to medium.
• The reason why I am mixing the nuts with some jamoon dough, is because when we use the dry nut mixture as such, it is very difficult to seal the outer covering smoothly. Some bits of nuts stick out which gives lot of chances for the pedas to open up in oil while frying. This is very risky. But when you mix nuts with little dough to hold them altogether and fry the pedas, even when there is a very slight crack on the peda, the nuts don't come out and float in oil. The nuts stay intact inside the makkan peda. So I follow this technique. 
• You can mix the nuts with the dough without any food colour too. I generally do not add any colour. Today, just to show you the difference I added the food colour.
• You can also mix gulkand to the nut mix which gives that exotic rose flavour to the pedas.
• Getting smooth jamoons will never be a problem if we use khoya to make them.

That is all friends. Try this at your home and enjoy with your family and friends on this festival season. 

Happy cooking !!