Kesar Peda

Kesar Peda, a soft + creamy saffron milk fudge that is perfect for any occasion. This small batch recipe makes ten pedas! 

Pedas are popular Indian sweets that are specially made during festivals. They are shelf stable for a few days and can easily be gifted, and transported which makes them perfect for gifting. Pedas can be flavored with nut powder, fruits or spices. One of my daughters’ favorites are kesar peda!

Krishna Janmashtami is the annual festival celebrating the birth of the Hindu deity Krishna, the eighth avatar of Lord Vishnu. There are thousands of colorful tales sharing the naughtiness and sweetness of Bal (Baby) Krishna. Storybooks are filled with tales of his love for butter and yogurt and how he & his friends would sneak into neighboring homes and devour all their dairy.

{Similar Reads: Celebrating Krishna Janmashtami with Kids}

On the day of the celebration babies and toddlers are dressed up as Bal Krishna. The next day, competitions are held where teams of young men form human towers to reach high-hanging pots of butter to break just as Krishna and his friends would do. Many stay up fasting until the wee hours of early morning when he was born.

Back to the Kesar Peda. This recipe is a small batch recipe that can easily be doubled or tripled. I love when I can make a small amount of an indulgent dish.

{Similar Reads: Dhood Peda: Sweet Milk Truffles}

WHAT YOU NEED FOR KESAR PEDA

Milk Powder: You can find milk powder in the shelf stable dairy aisle or at your local South Asian Market. 

Condensed Milk: This helps gives the Peda the sweet, fudge like taste that you find in most store made pedas. Because of this you will notice that I haven’t used sugar in this recipe, as the condensed milk used is sweet enough.

Other Ingredients: Aside from the dried and condensed milk you’ll need whole milk, saffron, cardamom powder and ghee (or butter). 

BLOOMING THE SAFFRON/KESAR

To get the most flavor out of saffron it needs to be bloomed. One of the best ways to extract flavor from saffron is to soak the threads in a hot liquid for at least 15 minutes.

Kesar Peda

 

Save Print

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

Kesar Peda, a soft creamy saffron milk fudge that is perfect for any occasion. This small batch recipes makes ten pedas!

Author: Nisha Vedi Pawar

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Serves: 10

Ingredients

• ½ cup + 2 tablespoon whole milk powder
• ½ cup condensed milk
• 1½ tablespoon ghee or butter
• ⅛ teaspoon cardamom powder
• 6-7 saffron strands
• 2 tablespoon whole milk

Method

1. In a small bowl add saffron strands to hot milk and let it bloom.
2. In a heavy bottom pan on medium low heat add the ghee or butter. When it melts, add the milk powder.
3. Mix well and bhunno/roast on low medium heat for 10 minutes. The mixture will resemble a sand type texture, watch it closely to ensure it does not burn.
4. Once it roasts, add the condensed milk and saffron milk. Quickly mix the ingredients to ensure no lumps form and keep mixing with a spatula.
5. Cook for 7-10 minutes until the mixture starts to thicken. You can tell the mixture is ready to come off the heat once the peda dough doesn’t slide off the spatula.
6. Add the cardamom powder, mix and turn off heat.
7. Have a plate ready and grease palms with ghee or butter.
8. While the mixture is hot but cool enough to handle (not burning), make tablespoon size balls and flatten a bit, alternatively you can use a design template.
9. Garnish with chopped pistachios or edible rose petals.

Notes

Store in an airtight tin at room temperature for 1-2 days or in refrigerator for 3-4 days.

3.5.3251