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Mysore Pak (soft)
By
DK
on Apr 19, 2011
The word "Mysore Pak" does wonders to an Indian's palate (esp. a South Indian). Immediately as if a switch went on, there is an instant drool. This has to be one of those most complicated yet most loved and popular sweets of all. Takes lots of practice and experience to make but the result - so damn worth it. When I think of Mysore Pak, I think of a sweet which is slightly hard and crumbly with a honey comb texture since that's what I grew up with. But then came another new (and improved?!!?) version from the famous South Indian Sweetmeat shop called Shri Krishna Sweets where they made theirs which was exceedingly soft with a melt-in-the-mouth texture oozing with ghee and sugar. Extremely high calorie and extremely delicious. People thronged in like crazy over these and that passion continues till date. The honey comb texture is still made and loved but these melt-in-the-mouth types, I think, are a full head ahead in the race.
This version is similar. I say similar and not the exact same cos its not brimming or oozing with ghee nor it is saccharine 'I-am-going-to-puke-sugar-with-another-bite" sweet. But its close. :) It melts just like the ones at the shop and its DELISH. Regular readers know that I am all anti sweets but even I couldn't save myself from a total sugar high (ate 4 big squares without any prodding or begging! Come to think of it, I don't even remember my mom offering one!) Talking of whom, this was made by my mom.
She is a queen of Sweets - be it in making them or for eating them- royally. She can survive on those alone - so much unlike me.:) And well - since this is one of the most complicated sweets, it is certainly not an ideal one if you want to capture the steps of making one! Lots of screaming, scolding and cursing happened while this process was being shot . Although the steps below seem to mislead a viewer of the length of the process, let me tell you - it takes only about 15 minutes. The process is extremely fast and it is not 'my-kind-of-recipes'. By that mean which allows for multitasking! I survive on multitasking (not by choice, believe me) and this is move-i-will-bite type of recipe...but man! It is sooo worth it :) We use part oil instead of all ghee and if you made a face - trust me, you will not know it!
Basic Information
Prep Time: Under 15 min
Cook Time: Under 15 min
Serves: 8+ people
Yield: About 15 med-large pieces
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups Gram flour (Besan), sifted
- 1 cup Ghee (we used solidified)
- 1 cup Olive oil (light. NOT Extra Virgin). or use all ghee
- 2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup water
Method
1
Heat the oil and ghee together.
2
In another pan or vessel take the sifted gram flour(besan)
3
Now add few tablespoons of the hot ghee to the flour.
4
Just about 1-2 tbsp enough to mix it a little so that it forms into crumbs. This process is done so that it prevents the flour forming lumps while you add it to the sugar syrup mixture.
5
Now soft this flour well.
6
Meanwhile mix the water and sugar together in a heavy pan.
7
Let it come to a boil and keep it going until you get a one thread consistency. ( The candy thermometer would show 220º F - 222º F)
8
This is where you need more than one hands (surely not a great situation when you want to take photos). Keep stirring the pan while you sprinkle the flour evenly all over the syrup's surface.
(Please give a warm welcome to my mom's hands at Chef In You ;))
Note: Please get used to the word "stirring" cos from this point on to almost the end of the post I am going to be using this term repeatedly to the point of boredom. But I hope to be excused cos this action is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT for the well being of Mysore Pak as well as the consumer later on :)
9
Once all the flour is in and well stirred this is how it will start looking. Mind you - you are still going to keep stirring.
Tips : At this point keep the flame to Low-Medium heat. This is to make sure that the flour does not turn red very soon. Also make sure that the ghee mixture on the side is Med-High flame. You want to keep it at that temperature (so keep the flame going for ghee)
10
Take a ladle of ghee mixture and pour it evenly on the flour surface at the same time keeping the stirring going. The minute you add the hot ghee to the flour, it will froth up like the picture below. Yes, dont worry - we need that :).
11
Continue stirring
12
When you see the flour absorbing the ghee and starts becoming thick (which will be in just few seconds), pour another ladle of ghee. It will froth up again,
13
wait for few seconds till it starts to look like its thickening slightly,
14
add more ghee.
15
Keep stirring.
16
Keep repeating this process and you will soon see that the mixture keeps getting thick and also changes color from bright yellow to brownish yellow. At this point you will also be hit with a amazing aroma of Mysore Pa. The deepening of color is dependent on the flame. If kept high, it will turn deep red (or deep brownish red)
17
Also the flour mixture should start leaving the sides. The stirring action will show that the flour mixture starts moving more easily without sticking to the sides or bottom. As you can see below, the bottom of the pan is seen more clearly than it did before.
18
If you stop stirring for a second, you will also find the mixture rising up with lots of frothing action that it actually starts looking more like the surface of a bubbling molten lava !!.( Sorry I couldn't come up with any other appetizing word. I think its the closest thing to describing how it looks )
Tip: You can try one trick which my mother insists works more often than not, to find out the correct "padham" or "doneness". While stirring, quickly put a drop of the flour mixture on a plate. You should be able to shape the mixture into a small ball that is soft in consistency.
Warning: Make sure that you do this all fast cos the sweet goes from not done to done to overdone in matter of milli seconds.
19
Keep stirring once again - the mixture should now move more freely, will be very aromatic, becomes thick - sort of comes together into a floaty mass and the bottom of the pan is seen more clearly.
Tip: When you run the spatula through the middle of the mixture in a straight line, it should part leaving a clear trail. The best example I can think of right now would be like how Moses parted the red sea (!!) - See [ IMAGE ]. Of course it wont stay that way until the followers can pass through!!! But you get the idea. Once you can do that, you know its time for the next step.
20
Take a well greased plate or pan and pour the hot mixture into it.
21
Pat the Pan on the surface couple of times to make sure that the mixture spreads evenly on all sides. Let it sit for some time to cool down a little. You don't want to cool it down all the way. You just want to cool it down until it hardens up a little. This is because you need it to be still soft enough to cut it into shapes. Otherwise it will be too hard to do it properly.
22
Once set, cut them into desirable shapes. We did a simple square.
23
Now cool it completely and then slowly using a knife, remove the pieces.
Yummy, melt-in-the-mouth Mysore Pa all ready to be devoured. If you can stop eating them enough to have leftovers, then store them at room temperature in a zip lock bag or in a regular container. It keeps well for a long time.
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49 Responses to “Mysore Pak (soft)”
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I made this right now…..it came sooooooooooooooooooooo very well. Its like unbelievable to me. Thanks for posting this recipe. Another Thanks for explaining it soooooooooooooo well.
Any chance of this working without Ghee? We vegans like sweets too!
Thanks for the detailed receipe with your lovely tips.
i read the blog half an hour ago and tried mysore pak… but i dnt know what went wrong it was extremely brittle. the moment i was putting oil in the same ( the third time) i saw it was not at all like a paste but chura. still i managed to put that in the bowl and pressed it with some bowl. but my final outcome was not smooth one… the taste was awsome, it melted the moment i kept in my mouth but all broke with very few pieces intact.. i think they too will break once i hold them to eat…. PLS let me know what went wrong so that next time i can correct….
If the mixture turned crumbly then it means that it was overcooked. You should have removed it few seconds before that. This sweet is indeed tricky in the sense that it gets overdone in matter of seconds. Please do refer my steps 18 and 19 for more details. I personally vouch for step 18 where I keep a small plate just nearby and drop a little of the mixture occasionally to see if I have reached the state of “done”ness. Hope this helps you the next time in making the perfect consistency. –DK
I don’t know what went wrong. I was slowly adding the flour the sugar syrup n half way thru the sugar surup sucked up all the flour ( I still had remaining flour) and it started forming lumps…:( my first attempt… thought of suprising hubby for our anniversary…:(. I started adding ghee in the hope of making it smooth but to it was still lumps and finnaly at one point the ghee started oozing out but i still had the lumps. I have transfered into a greased pan hoping i make some shape…:(.
Dk
can you tell what would have gone wrong. I used 2 cups sugar, 1/2 cup water and got the 1 string kambi patham… I like to try agian if you could clarify my doubts
Thanks
Priya Naveen
mm…First of all – Happy Anniversary Priya
Sweet wife, you sure are to attempt an immensely tricky but awesome sweet for this occasion. But don’t give up. Lets see – Did you follow the first step of adding HOT ghee to the flour and then when it forms crumbs, sifting it into fine flour? This is done precisely to avoid the lump formation when adding it to sugar syrup. See Step 4. Also there should be lot of stirring. You have to keep moving your hands, stirring them non stop. See Step 8. –DK
Looks simply yummyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well it looks great. Mouth waterinG!! LOL
OMG!!!
Hi I tried your recipe, but it came ordinary Mysore pak not melt Mysore pak. What could be the wrong thing I did?. Can you explain what the difference between ordinary Mysore pak vs melt Mysore pak by recipe or incredients/preparation methods. It seems both type have the same steps to prepare.
I am in search of the perfect Mysore pa recipe and will surelytrythis tomorrow. But I want the crunchy one too. Anyplace I can get that recipe?
you are awesome with your explanations and make one want to read and read. love the subtle sense of humour thrownin hear and there.
Hi,
I tried this with exactly 1/2 measurements and full ghee, but unfortunately it went out into crumbs … I think I reached overdone stage. Is that right ? Please clarify. So that i can stop it the stage before the overdone one. You are correct, it happend in milliseconds.
Yes, unfortunately I think it was overdone and u kept it a tad longer…well Mysore Pa is a v difficult sweet so dont think twice about this…do the test I have mentioned in Step 18. It might help the next time to get that perfect consistency.
it looks super.i will make this for my wedding day this week
One clarification. whether besan is raw or fried
Raw
Hi! I love your recipes and the way you write. You should start your channel on youtube and post videos of your recipes. Thanx for this wonderful recipe.
Hi, me and my mom made this but it did not come out like a paste (as seen in the above pictures). It came out more like a thick greasy dough.
I think this part is where we went wrong: “Just about 1-2 tbsp enough to mix it a little so that it forms into crumbs. This process is done so that it prevents the flour forming lumps while you add it to the sugar syrup mixture.”
Do we have to leave out the not-so-fine parts of the flour and make the mysore pak with the fine flour, or should we use the whole thing?
I also felt like the proportions were not right. By the way, it definitely more than 15 minutes to do this.
And this is why Mysore Pak is a difficult sweet to conquer
. Now to answer your query – You have to press the crumbs into fine powder and add them too. If you discarded it, that might explain why your proportions are off.Actually my mom made this in 13 min. I put 15 min hence 
Hi
for the first try itself. I just love your website, my search ends here for Mysore Pak.
Myself and another friend of mine tried this Mysore Pak recipe, I dont believe it, it turned out soooo gooood
Thanks a ton, Keep posting.
Can I take the risk of making it??? wonderful photo stream.
thanks, hopefully to try one day.
hi
if i dont want to use olive oil can i substitute with oil and if so then what will be my measurement coz adding another 1 cup ghee wud be too much plz hepl i would like to make these