How to make besan pedas, besan modaks

Gram Flour Pedas, Gram Flour Modaks

Let’s make a very quick and easy peda and modak recipe with besan. The besan pedas and modaks have the delicious taste of besan and also the taste of mawa because of the high content of milk powder. We’ll make these in 3 easy steps: 1. Roasting the besan; 2. Mixing in the milk powder; and 3. Preparing the sugar syrup and mixing this in too. Just remember the mixture has to be slightly warm while shaping the pedas or modaks.

Do check out some of my other festival special recipes like Besan barfi, Besan barfi with jaggery, Easy barfi roll, Shortcut motichoor ladoos, and Festival rava besan ladoos.

Ingredients

Besan Pedas

5 tbsp ghee (70g)

1 cup (110g) besan

½ cup (60g) milk powder or ¾ cup or 90g

½ cup + 2 tbsp sugar (130g)  ¾ cup (160g) sugar coarsely ground

¼ cup of water                                            (6tbsp water)

1 tbsp chopped almonds

1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

1 tbsp chopped pistachios

Orange food colour

Besan Modaks

Same as for pedas.

Only, to make the sugar syrup, add 6 tbsp of water.

Procedure

1. Melt the ghee on medium low heat or low heat.
2. Stir in the besan. Mix it well with the ghee. The mixture will be drier at first but become wetter as the ghee separates. Roast the besan till it becomes brownish and you get the aroma of roasted besan. This took just around 10 – 12 minutes on my stove.
3. Turn off the heat and mix in the milk powder. Mix it well.
4. Make a sugar syrup using the coarsely ground sugar and the water. Boil it on medium low heat for just 1 minute.
5. Stir this sugar syrup into the earlier besan mixture. Mix well till it forms a damp mix that can be moulded if you’re making besan pedas or till it has a dough-like consistency if you’re making modaks.
6. To a mix of 1tbsp chopped almonds, 1 tbsp chopped cashew nuts, and 1 tbsp of chopped pistachios (I had lightly roasted the almonds and cashew nuts in a little ghee before chopping them). add around 2 – 2 tbsp of the besan mixture and a few drops of orange colour. Mix this well. This will be our stuffing for the modaks and pedas. Let’s make small balls out of this. The stuffing is optional.
7. You could shape pedas using either a lightly greased peda press or by hand. To make stuffed pedas with the peda press, first shape a cup with the besan mixture, place a ball of stuffing inside, and close the cup to make a ball. Press the ball down using the peda press and you’ll have a peda with a nice design on the top. If you make pedas by hand, you could stamp a design on them using a cookie stamp or something you have at home like a pastry cutter or a sewing machine bobbin.
8. Shape the modaks using a greased modak mould. First stuff a little of the main mixture inside, pressing it to the the sides and creating a hollow in the middle. Now place a ball of the stuffing inside. Then cover it with some more of the besan mixture, and press this down well. Unmould the modaks.
9. Just remember the mixture has to be slightly warm while shaping the pedas or modaks. If it has cooled down completely just heat it a little on a low flame, and very carefully. If the mixture is till very crumbly, rinse the empty syrup vessel with around 3 tbsp of water and boil this on low heat. Then add just 1 tsp or so of this to the besan mixture at a time to get a damp mouldable mixture if you’re making pedas and a dough-like consistency if you’re making modaks. But if your mixture is too wet, heat it for a few minutes with constant stirring on low heat.

Enjoy!