Mysore pak recipe is a super delicious and a popular sweet from mysore. It is made with just three main ingredients – besan, ghee and sugar.
This melt in the mouth rich sweet is so called as its was invented in the kitchens of the mysore palace. Here ‘pak’ or ‘paka’ refers to sugar syrup. Since the besan is cooked in sugar syrup along with ghee.
I had got some requests for mysore pak recipe and now I am sharing the way I prepare it. This is one recipe which was pretty troublesome and I must have tried it numerous times. Now even if someone wakes me up from sleep and asks me to make mysore pak, I will be able to make a decent mysore pak.
Basically there are two versions of mysore pak. One is the soft version made famous by Sri Krishna sweets and the traditional version. This recipe is neither the soft version or the traditional version. It comes in between. It is not that firm nor it is soft.
Also since I have made the traditional version before, I will share its recipe too in due course of time. I will also share the krishna sweets soft mysore pak. I have had both the sri krishna sweets mysore pak and badam halwa. I have already added Badam Halwa, which is similar to theirs.
Mysore pak recipe looks easy with just using three ingredients, but it is not easy. You do need some experience with cooking Indian sweets while preparing the dish.
Also you have to continuously stir non-stop, especially after adding ghee. I have given tips and suggestions in the post itself, so that you do not find the mysore pak recipe too daunting and can make it easily.
You can also check this recipe of 7 cup cake which is easy to make as compared with mysore pak.
Wish all who celebrate a happy and prosperous Diwali.
How to make Mysore Pak
I have shared extensive process shots of the making of mysore pak with a lot of details and tips mentioned in the steps.
Preparation
1. Firstly take all the 3 ingredients – 1.25 cups sugar (200 to 210 grams sugar), 1 cup besan (100 grams) and 1 cup ghee (200 to 210 grams).
2. Sieve the besan once or twice. This helps in reducing the lumps if any while mixing besan in the sugar syrup.
3. A pic of the sifted besan below.
4. Grease a pan or tray with some ghee. Use a pan or tray which can give you some depth and height, so that you can get rectangular or square pieces of mysore pak.
Making sugar solution
5. Now take the sugar in a heavy thick bottomed kadai. Since a lot of stirring happens, I would suggest you to Use a heavy and large aluminium or iron kadai. Please do not use non stick pan as due to the heat and lot of stirring, the non stick coating can get affected.
6. Add ½ cup water in the sugar.
7. Keep the pan on the stove top. On a medium-low or medium flame, heat the sugar syrup.
8. Stir so that the sugar dissolves.
Heating ghee (clarified butter)
9. Simultaneously also take the ghee in another pan and keep it on stove top.
10. Let the ghee melt on a low flame or sim. The ghee has to be hot when we add it in the besan mixture. So let it be on a slow simmer.
11. Let the sugar syrup start bubbling and boiling. We are not looking for one string consistency in the sugar syrup. Just let the sugar solution come to a boil and then we have to add the besan.
Cooking besan (gram flour) with sugar syrup
12. Add the besan in three to four parts. First add some of the besan.
13. With a wired whisk, stir the besan briskly, so that it dissolves with the sugar solution.
14. With one hand, add the besan and with the other hand mix it with a wired whisk.
15. Finish of all the besan this way.
16. Stir very well, so that the besan has got mixed evenly with the sugar syrup.
Adding ghee
17. Then add ghee in parts. First add a ladle full of the ghee.
18. You will see a lot of bubbles and frothing in the besan mixture after you add ghee.
19. As soon as you add ghee, mix it with the besan with a spoon or spatula. With one hand add ghee and with the other hand mix it.
20. Then add the second part of ghee and again mix it very well. Keep the flame to a medium-low or medium.
21. This way finish off adding all the ghee in parts. Mix very well.
22. Do use a bigger kadai and also some gloves on your hands, as there is a lot of sizzling, frothing and bubbling that happens.
23. All the ghee will be absorbed first and what you will see is a smooth molten besan mixture.
Stirring non-stop and cooking further
24. On a medium-low to medium flame with non-stop stirring cook the besan mixture.
25. You have to continue to cook and stir till you start seeing many bubbles in the mixture and the ghee is released from it. The mixture will also start to leave the sides of the kadai or pan.
26. So continue to cook and stir.
27. While stirring also scrape the bottom of the kadai and the sides. If you do not scrape, then the mixture starts sticking and gets browned or burnt. So you have to non stop stir and scrape. Do use flat steel spatula (palta) as this helps in scraping the besan mixture.
28. When the mixture comes together in one mass and you see some ghee at the sides, then also continue to stir and scrape.
29. When you see many small bubbles and holes in the mixture, then switch off the flame. When you reach this stage, you have to be attentive as a few seconds here or there and it will ruin the texture of the mysore pak.
30. If you cook too much, then you will get a very hard mysore pak. The following pic, shows you the texture to get a hard mysore pak. Thus do not cook till you come at this stage. This photo was taken when working on a disaster recipe. Sharing the photo to show the difference.
Setting mysore pak
31. Immediately and quickly tilt the kadai and pour the whole mixture in the greased pan.
32. It falls in one lot and you don’t need to use any spoon for it.
33. level with a spatula or the back of small glass or a small steel bowl.
34. Let the mysore pak mixture become warm or cool down. If there is too much ghee at the sides or top, then invert the pan after 20 to 30 minutes, so that the excess ghee is removed.
You can use this ghee while preparing dosa or greasing idli plates. once warm or cooled down, then just invert the pan on a chopping board or tray or plate. Tap the sides and the bottom of the pan. The mysore pak block falls of easily.
35. Then slice the mysore pak. Store in an air-tight container. Mysore pak stays good for about a week to ten days at room temperature.
36. Serve mysore pak as a festive sweet to your loved ones.
Few more popular sweets recipes on blog are:
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Mysore Pak
Ingredients
- 1.25 cups sugar or 200 to 210 grams sugar
- 100 grams besan (gram flour) or 1 cup besan
- 1 cup Ghee or 200 to 210 grams ghee (clarified butter)
- ½ cup water
Instructions
Preparation
- Firstly take all the 3 ingredients – 1.25 cups sugar (200 to 210 grams sugar), 1 cup besan (100 grams) and 1 cup ghee (200 to 210 grams).
- Seive the besan once or twice. This helps in reducing the lumps if any while mixing besan in the sugar syrup.
- Grease a pan or tray with some ghee. Use a pan or tray which can give you some depth and height, so that you can get rectangular or square pieces.
Making mysore pak
- Now take the sugar in a heavy thick bottomed kadai. Since a lot of stirring happens, I would suggest you to Use a heavy and large aluminium or iron kadai. please do not use non stick pan as due to the heat and lot of stirring, the non stick coating can get affected.
- Add ½ cup water in the sugar.
- Keep the pan on the stove top. On a medium-low or medium flame, heat the sugar syrup.
- Stir so that the sugar dissolves.
- Meanwhile also take the ghee in another pan and keep it on stove top. let the ghee melt on a low flame or sim. The ghee has to be hot when we add it in the besan mixture. So let it be on a slow simmer.
- Let the sugar syrup start bubbling and boiling. We are not looking for one string consistency in the sugar syrup. Just let the sugar solution come to a boil and then add the besan.
- Add the besan in three to four parts. first add some of the besan.
- With a wired whisk, stir the besan briskly, so that it dissolves with the sugar solution.
- With one hand, add the besan and with the other hand mix it with a wired whisk.
- Finish of all the besan this way.
- Stir very well, so that the besan has got mixed evenly with the sugar syrup.
Adding ghee
- Then add ghee in parts. First add a ladle full of the ghee.
- You will see a lot of bubbles and frothing in the besan mixture after you add ghee.
- As soon as you add ghee, mix it with the besan with a spoon or spatula. with one hand add ghee and with the other hand mix it.
- Then add the second part of ghee and again mix it very well. Keep the flame to a medium-low or medium.
- This way finish off adding all the ghee in parts. Mix very well.
- Do use a bigger kadai and also some gloves on your hands, as there is a lot of sizzling, frothing and bubbling that happens.
- All the ghee will be absorbed first and what you will see is a smooth molten besan mixture.
- On a medium-low to medium flame with non-stop stirring cook the besan mixture.
- You have to continue to cook and stir till you start seeing many bubbles in the mixture and the ghee is released from it. So continue to cook and stir. the mixture will also start to leave the sides of the kadai or pan.
- While stirring also scrape the bottom of the kadai and the sides. If you do not scrape, then the mixture starts sticking and gets browned or burnt.
- So you have to non stop stir and scrape. do use flat steel spatula (palta) as this helps in scraping the besan mixture.
- When the mixture comes together in one mass and you see some ghee at the sides, then also continue to stir and scrape.
- When you see many small bubbles and holes in the mixture, then switch off the flame.
- If you cook too much, then you will get a very hard mysore pak.
Setting mysore pak
- Immediately and quickly tilt the kadai and pour the whole mixture in the pan. It falls in one lot and you don’t need to use any spoon for it.
- Level with a spatula or the back of small glass or a small steel bowl.
- Let the mysore pak mixture become warm or cool down.
- If there is too much ghee at the sides or top, then invert the pan after 20 to 30 minutes, so that the excess ghee is removed. You can use this ghee while preparing dosa or greasing idli plates.
- Once warm or cooled down, then just invert the pan on a chopping board or tray or plate. Tap the sides and the bottom of the pan. the mysore pak block falls of easily.
- Then slice the mysore pak into rectangular or square pieces.
- Store in an air-tight container. It stays good for about a week to ten days at room temperature.
- Serve as a festive sweet to your loved ones.
Notes
- Recipe can be doubled, but this would mean a lot of stirring.
- A few seconds here and there once the mixture starts leaving ghee makes a lot of difference. So be attentive towards the last few steps once the mysore pak mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan.
- Do use a heavy aluminium or iron kadai or pan. Or else the besan starts sticking and gets browned or burnt at the bottom.
Hi Dassana…
When I was stirring the mixture, after adding ghee…. there was lot of ghee floating around….
I kept stirring; thinking it will get absorbed, but it did not.
I had of course taken the 200 grams ghee which you mention in the recipe.
So, after a little more stirring, I emptied out the ghee into a steel vessel, and then set the Mysore Pak.
When I inverted it, it turned out to be very hard…
Where did I go wrong?
Thanks for your reply.
Nikhil
Hi Nikhil, looks like the pak mixture has been cooked too much and hence the hardness. It looks like the sugar syrup has got cooked to half-string or one string consistency when the ghee was added and this is the reason the ghee was not getting absorbed. The sugar syrup just needs to be hot & bubbling and all the sugar has to be dissolved before besan is added. Depending on the size of the pan, thickness of the pan and the flame intensity, the timing will change and this can overcook or undercook the dish. So by the time the ghee was added, the sugar had already started thickening. The texture of mysore pak comes from the sugar syrup. So for a semi-hard to hard mysore pak, it should be 2 to 3 string consistency works when the pak mixture is inverted in the pan. For a soft texture it should be 1 to 1 and ½ string consistency when the mixture is inverted in the pan. I hope this helps.
Hi Dassana,
I tried this recipe step by step and the mysore pak came out amazing. It was soft and without any lumps. Thanks for the tips.
Regards,
Kezia
Great to know and thanks for sharing the lovely feedback and the rating as well. Welcome and happy cooking.
Dear Dassana
Have been a regular visitor to your site and made some amazing food for my family.
However chose to send a comment for this recipe as this was my mother’s super dish. She was the ultimate expert. Your recipe was the closest to hers. She used to use homemade ghee for her recipe.
Thanks for this amazing recipe and bringing back the sweetest memories.
dear vaijayanti. that is so touching to know and thank you for sharing a part of your sweetest memories here. i am touched and grateful as well. thanks again and wish you all the best.
Hello Dassana,
I tried this mysore pak recipe today. And it turned out well. My whole family loved it. Thank you so much.
glad to know shilpa and thank for sharing the feedback. happy cooking.