Saffron Penda (Indian dessert using milk powder)

The Indian month of Shravan has lots of Indian celebrations- a couple of them are Raksha bandhan and Janmastami.  And with these celebrations, there are always certain dishes I like to make around this time. It reminds me of my childhood when everyone was celebrating together and sharing the food they had cooked.  Here these celebrations are always a bit low key and this year because of the pandemic, we won’t be able to go to the Hare Krishna temple like we used to.   I made these pendas for both Raksha bandhan and Janmastami as it’s such an easy dish to make in a short time.  In the past I have made pendas in the microwave but today,I decided to make them the traditional way by cooking them slowly on the gas hob.  Sometimes, it’s nice to cook at a slow face and remember the times in Kenya when you cooked on charcoal jikos or the Primus Stove . 

Ingredients for about 20 small pendas

• 300 gms milk powder
• 70gms butter ( can use ghee too)
• large pinch of saffron
• pinch of nutmeg
• 1 tsp of cardamom powder
• 397 can of condensed milk
• Almond – slices

Method:

1. In a non stick wok or karahi, heat the butter.  Once melted add the condensed milk and saffron, nutmeg and ground cardamom. Allow this to heat until simmering.

2. Next add the milk powder and mix it all in.  

3. Once the milk powder is blended in keep stirring and cooking,  on a low to medium heat,and until you notice that some of the melted butter (ghee) is leaving the cooked penda mixture.

3. Allow the mixture to cool until it’s easy to manage.  You can either made round balls and flatten then slightly or use a mould.  I like to use the mould as it ensures that all the pendas look the same size.  Just top the penda with the sliced almonds.  Again you can use some food colour to the almond slices to make them look pretty.

If you need a sweet dish in a very short time then these pendas are delicious amd  really easy to make.  Any left over pendas should be kept in an airtight biscuit tin in a cool place

Happy Janmastami to all who are celebrating this week.

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