Festival season, religious ceremonies and Indian desserts are synonymous with each other. After all, life is a special occasion. There is lots to celebrate when your are in India. Each state has a language, a culture and a unique taste it has developed. Every city is known for its unique food culture and favorite sweets and snacks. Jodhpur's kale boondi ke laddoo, agra's petha, dharwad peda are known for sweet treats. So are lonavala chikki, mysuru's mysore pak & amritsar's jalebi kolkata's rajbhog. Each city has a landmark not just in their monuments, but in their food too. One such place is city of Mathura and its peda.
Mathura, the birthplace of lord krishna in the state of Uttar pradesh. This holy city comes alive the moment you say Radhe radhe! It is synonymous with Holi and Janamashtami and with delicious mawa peda recipe. milk-based desserts are offered to Shri krishna with utmost devotion and mathura ke pede has a special place in my heart.In traditional way, we make Mathura peda recipe with boora sugar or tagar or powdered sugar along with milk solids or mawa. However this recipe is to make mathura pede with instant khoya and jaggery. In this recipe we try to capture the essence of mathura and taste of mathura na penda with utmost devotion to our Banke bihari. Sugar is not good for health hence we make this popular indian sweet with jaggery or gur.Jaggery has its medicinal and nutritive properties, although it still contains calories like sugar.
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How to make mathura peda? (Video recipe)
The Krishna connection
This brown color peda is synonymous with Lord Krishna and occasion of his birth, Janamashtami. The moment you say Janamashtami, Krishnashtami or Gokulashtami, Gokul Vrindavan and Mathura come to your mind. Uttar pradesh is blessed to have witnessed his divine presence. Holi and Janamashtami of Barsana and Mathura, the birth place of Radha Rani and Shri Krishna is a feast of soul.
Most halwai create a plethora of sweets during Holi and Janamashtami. There is something magical about traditional sweets be it Mathura ka peda or Agra ka petha. You can also have this recipe during Navratri or Navratre fasting as it is made with milk only.
Mathura peda ingredients
- Homemade mawa or store-bought mawa - You can make it home,follow our recipe for mawa from milkpowder
- Ghee
- jaggery/gur - you can use jaggery or sugar. Jaggery gives it the earthy taste
- Milk - Use full cream milk
- nutmeg and cinnamon powder- This combination gives that earthy taste to the recipe
- cardamom powder
- chopped pista optional
Mathura Peda Ingredients
refer to recipe card for details.
Related recipes
How to make Mathura peda at home? (step-by-step)
To make mathura peda with milkpowder, you will first need to make the mawa. Follow our step-by-step instructions to make mawa here.
1. The first step is cook mawa along with ghee on a non stick pan. This will help soften the milk solids.
2. Once it starts to turn golden brown, add crumbled gud/jaggery.
3. Mix it well, add spices.
4. Add milk and cook.
5. Turn off the heat once it starts coming together.
6. Take a spoonful and shape them into pede one by one by taking small quantities. Store pedas in refrigerator.
Mathura ke pede recipe (with instant mawa & jaggery)
Equipment
- Non stick pan
- spatula
- parchment paper
Ingredients
- 2 cup mawa for quick recipe, refer notes
- ¾ cup powdered gur Kolhapur or the light brown colour is preferred
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon elaichi/ cardamom powder
- ¼ teaspoon jaiphal/ nutmeg powder
- ¼ teaspoon dalchini/ cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon powdered pistachios optional
- 3 tbsp. ghee
Instructions
- Crumble the mava into crumbs or grate it.
- Heat a non-stick pan on a medium flame and add mawa.
- Add ghee slowly and keep mixing with a spatula for 5-7 minutes.
- The colour of mawa will turn brownish as it is cooking.
- Now,add jaggery to this mawa followed by spices and milk.
- Fold and scrape this mixture along the sides of the pan continuously, until it forms a homogeneous consistency.
- Continue mixing with a spatula until the ghee is released from the mixture or the mix turns shiny.
- Keep it aside for 10 minutes on parchment paper.
- While the mixture is still warm, start shaping them into small balls.
- Garnish with some powdered pistachios (optional).
Video
Notes
Substitution and Variations
- There are many ways of making mawa peda. You can also make Mathura peda with milk powder. You can also make the milk powder peda without condensed milk. This helps you add sugar according to your taste. You may use store bought mawa to make Indian sweets. However, if that is not available, you can easily make at home. Click here to learn how to make mawa at home. Once you have unsweetened mawa ready, making sweets is not a big deal.
- You can also make peda recipes with fruits. Mango peda is one such favorite. Another variation is plain peda with sugar and elaichi powder.
FAQs
Mathura peda, dry fruit samosa, makhan mishri,jalebi, kachori
Latter is darker and less sweeter than Mathura peda.
Conclusion: May the taste of mathura peda bring you the abundance and blessings of Shri krishna as you celebrate his leelas with these tiny round balls of happiness.
Deepa Ramani says
Thanks for a sweet made with jaggery. Looking for more sweets using jaggery.
Seema says
Hi,
Do you either microwave it or steam it? Or first microwave and then steam it? The recipes says microwave for 2 minutes and steam for 15 minutes. It doesn’t say microwave or steam. I did both and the peda came out crumbly.
bhavana bhatia says
hi Seema, For the instant mawa, we have clearly mentioned the below
"2. Cook in microwave(high) for 2 minutes and mix well or cover it with a lid/foil & place it in steamer for 15 minutes"
So you need to only do 1 of these. Kindly let me know where did you find the instructions to do both.