Mysore pak is a traditional Indian sweet dish. It has a history of being created first in the kitchens of Mysore Palace by a cook named Kaksura Madappa using generous amount of ghee, sugar and gram flour. It comes in two varieties - the hard porous variety and the other soft ones which are famous these days. I tasted the soft ones from famous sweet shop "Shri Krishna sweets". They are too delicious oozing out oodles of ghee and sugar.
When you take a bite they just melt in your mouth and are highly addictive, if you taste one be sure you would be back for more.
I would indulge in the ready made ones from the famous sweet shop [a guilty pleasure] during our vacation time to India till last year, because the process of making this sweet meant lots of patience, practice and strong arms to stir in the mixture constantly!
Few months back, I came across its recipe on a food group by Usha Bhat. For me the main attractions of her recipe was use of just 1/2 cup ghee, no need of stirring constantly [as part of the method is done in microwave] and less time consuming. I immediately bookmarked it but was not sure if I would dare doing this recipe in microwave [blame it on my past experience of burning the gram flour in microwave while making besan burfis]. Usha akka tried this recipe many times and she says it works like "magic" for her. Thanks Usha akka for your step by step directions and successful attempts, that I finally gathered the courage and decided to try it. And the end result .... I was on cloud 9 after my first successful attempt. It was hit at home and kids kept saying "gimme more". After my first attempt, prepared it few more times [that's the reason you see so many pics from my different attempts] and indeed the recipe worked like magic for me too each and every time.
Let's go to the recipe now
Ingredients
Besan/ Gram flour 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar 1 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup or 8 tbsp
Milk 2 tbsp
Method:
Below oven timings apply if your Microwave is 900 watts.
Sieve the besan to remove any lumps.
Dry fry besan in a thick bottomed vessel till a nice aroma wafts into the room. Take care not to burn the flour while roasting it, hence the step should be done on low to medium flame . Grease a plate with ghee and keep it aside. Now melt 1/2 cup ghee in a microwave for one minute on high. Once the ghee melts, mix all the ingredients in the melted ghee and stir well. Microwave the mixture for 90 seconds [one and half minute]. Remove the mixture out of the oven and mix well. Microwave again for 90 seconds. Once you see bubbles on the mixture, microwave just for 30 seconds. This is exactly the required consistency, remove and quickly stir in well once again.
Pour it quickly on a greased plate. Spread the mixture evenly by tapping the plate lightly on a hard surface for couple of times. [ You can also even the mixture by flat ladle]. Cut into desired shapes after 5 minutes and allow it to cool completely before you remove the pieces from the plate.
The below pic is result of my attempt once again to please my taste buds while drafting this post :)
Note:
- The oven timings may vary depending on the power of your oven.
- If it is not 900 watts and if the mixture has not set as per the oven time mentioned in the above steps, pour the mixture back in the microwave vessel. Add 1 tsp of milk, mix well and microwave for 60 seconds again. You will get the timing right after one or two attempts.
- In the last pic, I have added pinch of turmeric powder [optional] while roasting the gram flour [a tip given by my friend] to get that color.
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