Desserts

Kesar Peda

Name: Kesar Peda
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 25 min
Yield: 12–14 pieces
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1½ cups milk powder (or 250g crumbled khoya); 1 cup condensed milk; 3 tbsp ghee; A pinch of Baby Saffron powder (or 12 threads, bloomed); ½ tsp cardamom powder; Pistachio slivers, to decorate

The melt-in-the-mouth milk sweet handed around at every celebration — made quick with milk powder or khoya, scented with saffron and cardamom, and pressed into little golden rounds.

Golden kesar peda milk fudge rounds topped with pistachio

10m

Prep

15m

Cook

12–14

Serves

Medium

Level

Ingredients

1½ cups milk powder (or 250g crumbled khoya)
1 cup condensed milk
3 tbsp ghee
A pinch of Baby Saffron powder (or 12 threads, bloomed)
½ tsp cardamom powder
Pistachio slivers, to decorate

Method

1
Bloom the saffron in 1 tbsp warm milk for 10 minutes (skip if using powder).
2
Warm the ghee, condensed milk and milk powder in a non-stick pan on low, stirring constantly.
3
Stir in the saffron and cardamom; cook until the mixture thickens and pulls from the sides (6–8 minutes).
4
Cool slightly, roll into balls and flatten into pedas, press a pistachio on each, and chill to set.

The saffron tip

Stir the bloomed saffron into the warm milk mixture before it thickens — it colours the whole batch evenly instead of streaking.