Sweet

Malpuwa

Name: Malpuwa
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 240 g plain flour (maida); 480 ml full-fat milk; 60 g khoya (dried whole milk); 3 tbsp ghee (for batter); 2 tsp fennel seeds; 0.5 tsp cardamom powder; 9 cashews, roughly chopped; 4 tsp raisins; ghee or sunflower oil, for deep frying; 600 g sugar (for syrup); 480 ml water (for syrup); 1 tsp rose water (gulab jal)

Malpuwa are India's festive pancakes — thick, pillowy rounds deep-fried in ghee until the edges go lacy and the centres stay soft, then soaked in a cardamom-and-rose-water syrup until they are fragrant and sweet all the way through. They are made for Navratri, Holi and any occasion worth celebrating.

1 hrServes 6 mild

Method

Make the sugar syrup first: combine the sugar and water in a pan and bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Cook until the syrup reaches one-thread consistency. Remove from heat, stir in the cardamom powder and rose water, and set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, milk, khoya, ghee, fennel seeds, cardamom powder, cashews and raisins. Mix well into a smooth, thick batter. Add more milk a little at a time if the batter feels too stiff — it should fall slowly from the spoon. Rest the batter 20 minutes to let the flour hydrate and the fennel infuse.
Heat ghee or sunflower oil (about 2 cm deep) in a flat-bottomed pan over medium to 170–180 °C / 340–355 °F. No thermometer? Drop in a little batter — it should sizzle and rise steadily within a couple of seconds without browning instantly. Too hot and the outside burns before the centre sets.
Drop one large spoonful of batter per malpuwa into the oil. Fry about 2 minutes until the underside is golden with lacy edges, then flip and fry the other side until golden, about 1–2 minutes more .
Lift out, let the excess oil drain, and slide straight into the warm sugar syrup. Leave to soak for 2–3 minutes .
Serve warm, optionally topped with rabri or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Cook's note. The batter consistency is everything — too thin and the malpuwa spreads out flat; too thick and the inside stays raw. Aim for something between pancake batter and a thick porridge.

The story

Malpuwa is an ancient sweet — recipes appear in medieval Sanskrit texts and it remains one of the 56 offerings presented to Lord Jagannath at the Puri temple in Odisha. Every state has its own version: some are thin and crispy, some thick and doughy; some are soaked in syrup, some served with rabri. This North Indian version is the syrup-soaked kind made for festival days.