Mysore Pak - Deepavali Is Just Around the Corner !

Mysore Pak - Melting Ghee-licious South Indian Sweet

Mysore pak - I was not a very big fan of Mysore pak during my childhood days. But I saw people going crazy for this simple not-so-soft or not-very-flavourful south Indian sweet. Especially my father. I remember, this Mysore pak used to be an important sweet in the wedding sweets ("Kalyana seer palakaram" list along with boondhi laddoo and badusha).

To my knowledge.. I can say that this Mysore pak has taken two forms. One is before Sri Krishna Sweets (SKS), Chennai, and another is after SKS has introduced their Mysore paks in market. The one before SKS was little hard, limited ghee, long shelf life and more tedious procedure. The other one (after SKS) is soft, ghee-licious and easy to make Mysore pak. This is also called as ghee Mysore pak. The tradition type porous-Mysore pak took a revolutionary change after the SKS introduced their Mysore pak. Even though the this sweet calls for just 3 ingredients, the recipe for traditional Mysore pak is tedious and the ghee Mysore pak recipe is very easy. But of course.. while making this sweet, you need to know the stage where you need to turn off the heat.

Now, since Deepavali is in the air.. I thought of trying out Mysore pak for the festival. Believe me.. even though I had the recipe in hand for long time.. I haven't tried making this sweet before. Now.. made it for the first time. Friends, I swear this is a fool-proof recipe.. Mysore pak came out very good at first attempt itself. 

Anybody who hasn't tried making Mysore pak at home.. please do not wait anymore. Try this recipe and relish this divine tasting sweet. Please try this and tell me how you liked it !

Ingredients:

• Gram flour - 1 cup
• Sugar 1 to 1 and 1.5 cups 
• Ghee - 2 cups
• water - 1/2 water

Procedure:

• Melt ghee and keep aside.
• Dry roast the gram flour/besan till nice aroma comes.
• transfer this roasted gram flour into a bowl and add one cup of melted ghee. Mix well and bring it to a consistency like dosa batter. Keep aside.
• Grease a tray with ghee and keep aside. (this is to pour the hot Mysore pak mixture when ready).
• take a thick bottom pan. Add sugar. I use only 1 cup sugar. You can use 1.5 cups of sugar too if you have a sweeter tooth. 
• Add 1/2 cup of water to the sugar and boil it to make syrup to one-string consistency.
• once the syrup has reached one-string consistency, add the ghee-gram flour mixture. Keep stirring continuously.
• Now.. keep stirring.. keep stirring and keep stirring.. till the mixture turns light brown colour and emanates awesome aroma.

adding ghee

Getting little frothy in the ends

Transferred to a greased plate

Took it out after 30 minutes.

• Now add 1/2 cup of melted ghee. Stir for few more minutes till the ghee disappears. 
• Again add the rest of the 1/2 cup of ghee. Stir. 
• The mixture becomes little more thick and darker colour. 
• At this stage the Mysore pak becomes little frothy at the circumference. This is the time to remove from heat.
• Turn off the stove and transfer it to the greased tray. 
• Let it cool for 5 minutes.
• Take a sharp knife and make cuts. Do not separate them yet. 
• Let it cool for another 30 minutes.
• Now try separating the Mysore paks.
• Awesome tasty.. melting-in-mouth, ghee-licious Mysore pak is ready.

Tips: Use the best quality ghee, sugar and gram flour available. Since these are the just three ingredients used.. they need to possess their best fragrance and flavour to yield the best Mysore pak.

Make this Deepavali festival special by serving this easy semi-traditional Mysore pak sweet to your family and sharing with your friends. Easy to make and good to eat. 

Happy cooking !!