Five ingredient soft and fruity peda made with fresh pineapple, mawa, sugar, milk and ghee. You can flavor it with cardamom or saffron even vanilla,becasue why not! This soft & melt in the mouth peda is super easy to make and is perfect for fasting days or for festive occasions.
Peda is a very popular indian mithai which is traditionally made by simmering milk for hours so that the milk solids remain which are then sweetened with sugar or condensed milk, flavored and rolled into flat discs. Texturewise, peas are quite soft and little crumbly.
Making traditional milk peda takes a long time and effort.However, in our homes, we can make peda much easily using mawa or milk powder. I have shared quite a few peda recipes in the past (scroll to the bottom of the post to check them out). The flavors of this peda were playing in my mind for quite a bit and I am so glad that after a couple trials, this recipe came out perfect.
I shared a reel on making mawa at home last week on my Instagram page. You can check it out here. I used the same mawa to make these peda and viola so easy it was! You can easily use store bought mawa as well, just make sure to use a good quality one because the fat content of mawa plays an important role in how soft and fudgy the pedas will turn out. This recipe is perfect for Navratri fasting. It is grain free and uses milk and fresh fruit both of which are allowed during fasting.
How to make pineapple peda?
First begin by selecting a ripe pineapple. Over ripe pineapple will work great as well since it will automatically bring down the sugar in your recipe. Blend the pineapple to a fine(but not super fine) sort of fine crushed fruit, it should not be a puree. There should be not big chunks but it should not be like baby food either. Cook down the pineapple till it resembles a paste and then mix the paste with cooked mawa, sugar, ghee and milk. Let cool down and roll into peda and decorate as you wish.
Few tips to keep in mind :-
- Bring mawa to room temperature before using it. Sometimes when we add cold mawa to the hot pan, it melts unevenly and tiny pieces remain.
- Don't use very firm or unripe pineapple. I usually buy a pineapple and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 2-3 days and depending on the temperature of where you live, it will ripen and its skin will turn yellow. When you smell the pineapple you will be able to tell that its ripe.
- Work on the peda mix on low heat. This is super important else the peda mix will turn brown in no time. It takes about 15-20 minutes to cook down the peda mix.
Pineapple Peda
Ingredients
- ¾ cup very ripe pineapple, crushed (not too coarse or too smooth)
- 1-2 tablespoon ghee, divided, as needed
- 340 g mawa, grated
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoon whole milk, room temperature
- 10 strands saffrons, ground with pinch of sugar
Instructions
- Set a non stick wide pan on the stove on low medium heat. Add the crushed pineapple and start cooking it with regular stirring. Initially you will see a lot of bubbles(those are pineapple juices) but keep cooking and after about 5-8 minutes you will that its turning into a thickish paste and the bubbles are much less. Don't dry the paste too much, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- In the same pan, on low heat add 1 tablespoon ghee to begin with. Once it melts add the grated mawa. Cook the mawa, it becomes soft pretty quickly in about 2-3 minutes, so keep a close eye.
- Once the mawa melts, add the sugar and milk to the pan and mix everything. Immediately you will see that the mawa mixture becomes a slurry. Keep cooking it with regular stirring.Keep the stove on low to medium. In about 10 minutes you will see that the mixture will start thickening up.
- Once it will start thickening up, it will start clumping around the spoon and you will see it glistening. At this point add the pineapple paste and mix up well with the mawa. Also add the saffron.
- Keep cooking for another2-4 minutes until you will be able to fold the mixture over itself. It will not be runny, rather like loose cement/concrete. Don't dry too much, it will be much thicker once it cool down.
- Transfer to a bowl and cool down completely. Once cooled, if needed, oil your palms with ghee and pinch small portions of the mawa mix and roll into a ball. Flatten the ball to give it the peda shape. Decorate as you wish. If you feel that the mixture is too soft, refrigerate it for 1-2 hours and the roll it.
- Store pedas refrigerated for 3-4 days. Enjoy!
Notes
- Bring mawa to room temperature before using it. Sometimes when we add cold mawa to the hot pan, it melts unevenly and tiny pieces remain.
- Don't use very firm or unripe pineapple. I usually buy a pineapple and let it sit on the kitchen counter for 2-3 days and depending on the temperature of where you live, it will ripen and its skin will turn yellow. When you smell the pineapple you will be able to tell that its ripe.
- Work on the peda mix on low heat. This is super important else the peda mix will turn brown in no time. It takes about 15-20 minutes to cook down the peda mix.
Dorothy's New Vintage Kitchen
How delicious and beautiful too!