Mysore Pak

I was not a great fan of Mysore Pak. VJ loves them and he used to prepare it for any special occasion. As I am not a big fan of it I did not show much interested in learning the recipe. But when I happened to taste the Sri Krishna Sweets mysore pak, the smooth and soft, ghee flavored sweet started attracting me. When my interest on food started growing I wanted to give a try on mysore pak too. When I saw the quantity of ghee used, as usual my brain started warning me and I reduced the quantity a bit. The result was a hard and rock shaped mysore pak, but still it tasted in its own way. That's the lesson learnt. A soft and melt-in-your mouth mysore pak needs lots (loads) of ghee!! This Diwali, when I was thinking of preparing any sweets, my mom and sis asked for a mysore pak. Hence my second attempt was a no-compromise version. And yeah, now I got it right and perfect :-)

Mysore pak is an easy, yet tricky sweet to prepare. Conflicting right? Yes, that is how this sweet is. You have to be very cautious while preparing this. This sweet would get its perfect shape and taste in a matter of 10-15 seconds. If you miss that, you will end up with a hard and dry mysore pak. It's all about learning the correct techniques for a perfect mysore pak. I will try to list out every bit of my learning. Hope this will make your effort much easier.

Ingredients

Besan flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1 cup + 2 tbsp

Method

1. Grease a plate or tray with ghee and keep aside.
2. Heat 2 tbsp ghee until smoky and mix this with the sifted flour. This helps to remove the raw taste of besan flour and gives a nice aroma. Mix the besan flour gently using a spoon so that the ghee spreads evenly across the flour. Now sift this and set aside. This helps avoiding any lumps while mixing the flour along with the sugar syrup.
3. Prepare the sugar syrup. In a wide bottomed pan, add sugar and 1/2 cup of water, boil on medium heat until one string consistency. That is, when you touch the syrup and stretch between your thumb and index finger, a string will be formed. Or place a drop of the syrup in a bowl containing cold water and the drop should be firm like a ball rather than getting dissolved. 
4. Now add the besan flour to the sugar syrup stirring continuously, mix until smooth, there should not be any lumps. Make sure the heat is medium at all times.
5. Start adding the ghee slowly using your left hand while you stir constantly with your right hand. Add one or two table spoon of ghee to the besan-sugar mixture, it sizzles, shows holes in the mixture and absorbs all of them. Now again add one or two tbsp of ghee and follow the same steps until you finish adding all the ghee. By this time, the besan will start leaving the sides, will start changing color, a nice aroma will be coming and will be a frothy mixture with lot of holes.
6. At this point immediately turn off the flame and transfer the mixture to the greased tray, wait until warm and cut into desired shape. Allow to cool down completely before transfering to its container. 

Tips

• Always keep the flame in medium for the right consistency.
• One string consistency is a must, if you add the besan mixture before one string is formed mysore pak will be like halwa.
• Stirring constantly is very important or the besan-sugar mixture will get a burnt smell.
• Turn off the flame only when the color changes and it starts leaving the sides. Even if you turn off the flame few seconds before it is done, mysore pak will be sticky and you will not be able to make pieces out of it.
• Make this sweet only when you find sufficient time. You cannot do any parallel works while preparing this sweet as you need both your hands for adding the ghee and stirring continuously.