Mathura ke pede is a traditional Indian sweet which is prepared with mawa/ khoya (dry evaporated milk). Actually in “Mathura ke Pede” Mathura is the name of a city in Uttar Pradesh and Peda is the name of the sweet. Pede prepared in Mathura city are very famous for their wonderful taste, so now they are popular with the city name attached to it.
The months of May and June are kind of dull in terms of festivals in India. In North India, these two months are very hot, so it is not even healthy to cook rich food. But from July the weather starts changing and rain showers bring a lot of relief. Now you are able to tolerate the heat of the kitchen while cooking or frying snacks to accompany your evening tea.
With monsoon, festivals start with a tap on your desi ghee ka dabba!! Indian festivals are incomplete without homemade sweets for prasad, and Indian authentic sweets mean desi ghee, full-fat milk, rich dry fruits and nuts and lots of frying.
During my childhood days, my parents never bothered about calories. Mother used to prepare a lot of stuff during these festivals and we used to relish them for 15 days at least. We used to walk a lot (no school van luxury) and in the evening used to play outdoors. With lots of physical activity, we had the capacity to digest all rich heavy food and homemade sweets. During festivals, I try to prepare certain dishes and sweets in traditional ways so that Apoorva will remember the authentic taste of our traditional sweets.
A few days back I was experimenting with brownies. Manish and Apoorva both were my tasters. I was packing brownies for Apoorva’s snack box daily and more than Apoorva, her classmates were very happy. But after some days Manish got so bored with brownie and he requested to prepare some pure traditional Indian sweet. Then one day my favorite blogger Gayathri Kumar posted ‘Mathura ke Pede’ in her blog https://gayathriscookspot.com/ . That tempted me so much that I decided to prepare them and surprise Manish.
You might have tasted different varieties of pedas in all cities, but my personal opinion is, that nothing can beat the taste of Mathura ke pede.
Manish and Apoorva gave big thumbs up after trying them and I was extremely delighted😊
To prepare peda we need khoya/mawa. I have used homemade khoya for which there is a separate post in my blog Khoya/Mawa from milk. But we can use the market bought khoya as well.
To make peda sweet, instead of using powdered sugar I have used boora/tagaar. Boora is prepared with sugar syrup, and it has very fine granules that add a nice crunch to dry sweets like Besan ke ladoo. But now it’s difficult to find good quality boora in the market – instead, you will find powdered sugar in the pack. I was lucky to get good quality, so bought two kgs, and I keep on using it occasionally. But you can as well use homemade powdered sugar.
Always remember that if you are using boora, it will soak the moisture of khoya, so while roasting keep enough moisture in it. Otherwise, khoya will be dry and it would be difficult to bind it as peda.
I have used Nandini full fat cow’s milk to prepare khoya.
My mother’s precious tip:
If khoya dries up after adding boora/powdered sugar and you are not able to bind it, don’t panic. Add 1 tbsp hot milk to it, add more if required, mix everything together and prepare pedas.
Special note for Gayathri Kumar :
Gayathri, Manish has conveyed thanks to you for inspiring me to prepare them!!
Ingredients :
Khoya/Mawa 200 grams
Powder Sugar/Boora (tagaar) 150 grams (this quantity was slightly more for me, so you can reduce)
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Pure ghee (clarified butter) 2 tbsp
Milk 4-5 tbsp
Process :
Heat one heavy bottomed pan, add ghee to it, let it melt and add khoya. Adding ghee, in the beginning, will help khoya not to stick in the pan.
Keep on roasting khoya till it gets nice brown colour. Don’t let it stick at the bottom of the pan. If khoya is becoming too dry, keep adding 1 tbsp milk to keep its moisture intact as while cooling down khoya becomes slightly dry.
When khoya becomes golden brown in colour, switch off gas and shift khoya to a separate vessel to cool down.
Never add boora or powdered sugar in hot khoya otherwise the sugar will melt and you will get wet mixture that will be difficult to bind in peda.
Sieve boora or powdered sugar before adding in khoya.
Once khoya is warm enough to touch, add boora or powdered sugar and cardamom powder in it.
Work a little fast here because if khoya cools down completely it will be difficult to bind. Mix everything together and prepare peda in any shape you want.
If interested, sprinkle or roll them in boora/powdered sugar.
Surprise your family with this homemade delicious sweet.
