Mysore Pak

One of the most loved sweets in South India, mysore pak is a dessert from Karnataka made with ghee or clarified butter, sugar and gram flour or bengal. In this simple recipe, mysore pak is flavored with cardamom powder. Mysore pak can be crumbly, powdery and slightly hard with a texture like honeycomb or soft like fudge that melts in the mouth. The former contains more bengal, while the latter contains more ghee. The best kind of mysore pak is somewhere between the crumbly and the fudgy.

The first mysore pak was said to have been made in the kitchen of the Mysore Palace. Kakasura Madappa, the palace cook at that time, made a mixture of ghee, besan, and sugar and served it to the royal family who adored it so much that it was designated a “Royal Sweet.” The delicacy was named after the Mysore Palace and the king let Madappa set up shop outside the palace grounds to make the delicious sweet available to the common people.

When making mysore pak it is important to cook the mixture over a low flame to prevent burning or scorching the butter and the sugar. Use a heavy-bottomed and thick pan for slow cooking and even heat distribution. Mysore pak takes quite some time to make and you need to patiently stir the ingredients the whole time. You can check the conistsency of the syrup with your thumb and index finger. If you stretch the syrup between your fingers, it should form a thin string. You can also drop the syrup in a cup of water, and if it does not dissolve, goes to the bottom of the cup and forms into a ball then the syrup is the right consistency. Use fresh ingredients for superior results. The gram flour should ideally be freshly ground and the butter should be fresh too for a great aroma.