Mysore Pak

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There is no Diwali in South India without this delicious sweet. This is quite easy to prepare with just 3 ingredients and at the same time it can be a bit challenging too for the beginners.
Once mastered, this is just a breeze and can be prepared within 30 minutes.

Ingredients
Besan flour : 1 cup
Sugar: 2 cups
Ghee: 2 cups
Water: 1/2 cup


Procedure:
Step1:
Sift the besan.
Also have a greased pan ready


Step2:
Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a wide pan and add sifted besan to it.
Roast it in a medium flame until the raw smell goes off
Keep this aside

Step3:
In a wide pan/sauce pan, mix 1/2 water and 2 cups of sugar.
Heat this mixture to one string consistency
Test for one string
Once the mixture starts boiling have a cup of water by the side. Pour a drop of syrup in the water.If the syrup does not mix with water and forms at the bottom, it is the correct consistency
Alternatively, if the syrup hangs like a single thread in a spatula, it is one string consistency

Step4:
Immediately add the sifted besan to the sugar syrup little by little and mix well.

Step5:
Heat ghee by the side


Step6:

Pour a laddle of hot ghee in the besan mixture.Once the ghee is added, the mixture will froth for a while.(It will be similar to the reaction when  we add vinegar to baking soda).This is quite normal and this is the indication that besan is getting cooked in hot ghee.


Step7:
Once the froth subsides, add another laddle of ghee. Add ghee for every 30 seconds


Step8:
By the time the whole ghee is added, the besan mixture would have cooked.In a couple of minutes, the mixture would form like a ball and will start becoming porous.In Tamil it is called as 'Poothu varuvathu'.

Step9:
Quickly transfer it to a greased pan.
The mysore pak is still getting cooked after pouring into the pan

Step10:
Cut into desired shapes after 10 minutes


Notes:

• Two important things to be noted in making Mysorepak is the right sugar syrup consistency and correct consistency at which the stove is switched off
• The sugar syrup consistency will change very quickly and we need to add besan before that.
• If proper consistency is not attained, then the mysore pak will not set and may resemble halwa
• If the besan is added at the next stage of one string consistency, then the mysore pak will be little crumbly
• This sweet should always prepared in low-medium flame
• This requires constant stirring. No multi tasking
• A perfectly done mysore pak will typically have three different layers, the middle layer being brown and the sides being yellowish brown