Mysore Pak

Where does Mysore pak come from?

The sweet is widely said to have been created in the palace kitchens of Mysuru in the time of the Wodeyar kings, and it remains a fixture of Karnataka weddings, festivals and gift boxes. It is also made across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, where sweet shops sell the softer styles. The name is simple enough: pak or paka refers to the sugar syrup. In Karnataka a piece often appears on the banana leaf at a feast meal.

Crumbly or melt-in-the-mouth

Two styles go by the name. The older one is firmer, darker and porous, with less ghee and a texture that crumbles when bitten. The newer soft version uses far more ghee and stays almost fudgy. This recipe sits close to the soft style but is cooked long enough to form the fine holes of the traditional sweet. To go more traditional, reduce the ghee to 1 cup and cook a minute or two longer.

The technique that decides the texture

Two things matter most: the syrup and the temperature of the ghee. A one-string syrup carries enough sugar for the sweet to set yet is still fluid enough for the besan to hydrate. Hot ghee is the second. When it hits the mixture, it fries the flour and the water left in the syrup boils off, and those tiny steam bubbles leave the honeycomb. Cold ghee cannot do this and the mixture turns greasy instead of frothy, so keep it warming on the next burner.

A heavy pan helps a great deal, since a thin kadhai scorches the besan on the bottom long before the rest is ready. Keep the spatula moving and stay by the stove for the full stretch, since this is not a sweet that lets you answer the door.

What goes wrong, and how do you rescue it?

If the mixture never sets, it was taken off too early. Scrape it back into the pan and stir over a medium-low flame for 2 to 4 minutes more until it froths and pulls away. If it sets hard as a brick, it stayed on too long or the syrup went past one-string. It will not soften again, but broken up, it makes a pleasant crumble over rice kheer or a topping for ice cream. If it tastes of raw flour, the besan was not cooked enough, and the next batch needs more time and a lower flame. Dark brown bits mean it has scorched, usually from a pause in the stirring. Lumps come from adding the paste too quickly or skipping the sieve, so do not rush that stage.

If you cannot get a reading on the syrup by hand, a sugar thermometer should read about 105 to 107 degrees Celsius for a thread.

Can it be made lighter?

Not honestly. You can reduce the sugar to 1 1/4 cups without harm, though the set becomes softer, and using 1 cup of ghee gives the firmer crumbly style. Oil does not work as a swap for ghee, because the aroma and the way it sets are the whole sweet. Replacing sugar with jaggery is sometimes tried, but jaggery behaves differently in syrup and darkens fast, so the texture will not match. It is better to cut smaller pieces. Anyone with diabetes will find practical advice in the guide to the festive season with diabetes. Sourced figures for similar gram-flour sweets are on the besan barfi page.

What goes with it, and how long does it keep?

Serve small pieces at room temperature with a strong filter coffee, or on a festive sweets plate alongside besan ladoo and kaju katli. It stores well because it holds so little moisture: keep it in an airtight tin at room temperature for about a week, or two weeks in the fridge. Refrigerated pieces harden, so bring them back to room temperature for 30 minutes before eating. Use a dry spoon or clean fingers to lift pieces out, since damp hands shorten its life.