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.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: barfi, gujaratifood, mithai, penda
Author: Mina Joshi
Ingredients
Ingredients for 20 Pendas
300 gms milk powder
397 can of condensed milk
70gms butter
large pinch of saffron
pinch of nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cardamom powder
some almond – slices for garnishing
Instructions
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.
Next add the milk powder and mix it all in.
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.
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 airtightbiscuit tin in a cool place