Mathura peda recipe – Make quick & easy to make the most popular & delightful sweet Mathura peda recipe at home with caramelized Milk(not khoya or mawa), sugar, and cardamom powder. As this peda originated in North Indian oldest & sacred city Mathura, this sweet named after the place. Even mathura peda is the main offering & prasad of the deity of Mathura, “Madan Mohan, or Lord Sree Krishna” as prasad.
Mathura peda is just like other sweet peda recipes prepared with milk, ghee, and powdered sugar, however, its making process & texture is different from others. The only difference is, that other Indian Pedas are basically made of thickened evaporated milk. However, milk is caramelized during its evaporation, or khoya or mawa is directly caramelized in ghee and sugar for making this Mathura ki peda. That is the secret of its lal(red or dark brown in English) texture.
Though make it quite differently. Andthat is not the traditional way of making this sweet, how I make it at home. Believe me, tastewise my homemade Mathura peda can easily compete with Mathura’s famous and best sweet shops for sure. Even my version is surely a quick & easy version of this famous Mathura sweet.
Mathura peda has a specialty of its super soft delicious brown-colored aka lal pedha and it easily melts in the mouth. Basically in the traditional method, khoya is caramelized for a long time for making this dark brown texture. However, instead of direct caramelizing khoya, I prepared the khoya from my caramelized milk. That method was much more effective as well as an easy & quick procedure.
Are you planning to make this Mathura peda at home with store-bought mawa or milk powder by replacing the milk? Then either mix up the milk powder with water or mawa with a little milk, caramelize it by following my way, and the rest of the method will be the same as mine.
As Dharwad’s peda and Mathura ka pede look alike for their same texture so a huge comparison exists between these two. Though according to taste and flavor Dharwad ka peda and mathura ke pede are easily separable from each other. Otherwise, one would be considered as the copycat of another which never happened.
As Bengali, we are best known for our sweet tooth so I always try to prepare the specialty of other states too. Due to that curiosity, I experiment with different types of sweets including peda in my kitchen, and today’s Mathura-style peda is one of them.
As every Shree Krishna Janmashtami, I prepare a special sweet for offering to Lord Krishna. So this year, I decided to prepare this Mathura peda recipe to celebrate the festival. Thought, that would be a good idea to save money and also a great satisfaction for serving such a pure, healthy, and homemade peda to my deity. Though these days covid situation also one more reason to avoid buying sweets from the shops.
Try this delicious Mathura peda at home, I hope my step by step detail will help you to make this sweet perfectly. Do not forget to share your views & valuable feedback about this recipe in the comment section below.
Even to celebrate this festival best to try doodh peda, Malpua, Rabri, or rabdi and kalakand recipe from my website too.
Happy Sree Krishna Janmashtami to all of my readers. May Lord Krishna give us the strength to deal with this current situation and save us all. Best to stay safe and healthy. Jai Shree Krishna.
Mathura peda recipe
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 15 min
Total time: 1 hrs 20 mins
No. of Servings: 14 pieces
Course: Sweet/ Dessert
Cuisine: North Indan
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
- 1.5-liter Full-Fat Milk
- 6 tbsp Granulated Sugar
- 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar or Boora
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom Powder
- 2 tbsp Milk
- 1 1 /2 tsp Ghee
How to make mathura peda with step by step pictures
First step- Boil the milk & make it thick
- Take 1.5-liter full cream milk in a wide pan on a high flame in the gas oven. Let it boil.
- Stir it continuously and especially from the bottom. Milk generally sticks to the bottom of the pan if not stirred properly. And it easily gets the burning smells so do it carefully.
- Scrape the sides of the pan at the same time to collect the cream. As the cream accumulates on the side of the pan.
- When the milk gets reduced to its half then remove the pan from the heat, and keep it aside.
Take another pan, place it on the lowest heat, and add 6 tbsp of granulated sugar to it. Though I didn’t add water, you may add 2 tbsp of water to melt it quickly.
Second setp – caramelizing sugar
- Let the sugar melts down and starts to caramelize by changing its color.
- Start stirring it and do it continuously till gets dark color. Then add one and a half tsp ghee to the pan and mix it well with the caramelized sugar. Stir it continuously.
- Once the caramelized sugar completely mixes with the ghee. Then stir it until it gets the dark brown color.
Third step – Caramelizing milk
- Then add 1/2 cup of milk(from the reduced milk) to the pan and stir it continuously.
- When the caramelized sugar is completely mixed up with the milk. Then add it with the reduced milk. Mix it well.
- Now place the pan with reduced milk once again place on the high heat and continuous stirring.
Fourth step- Making caramelized khoya/Mawa
- Once the milk got thickened by evaporation. Starts forming khoya or mawa, then slows down the heat to avoid the burning from the bottom.
- After continuous stirring when mawa starts to remove the bottom of the pan it indicates it going to become ready.
- Cook it till the mawa or milk solid fully separates from the pan came into the center and easily gets a shape.
- Then turn off the heat and completely cool it down.
Fifth step- Mixing with powdered sugar/boora
Once it cools down, mix 4 tbsp of powdered sugar or boora to the caramelized khoya or mawa. Mix it well. Even you may use tagar too if it is available at your home.
- After mixing with powdered sugar, If you feel it is too dry or hard, then you may mix 1 and 1/2 tbsp to 2 tbsp milk into it. Mix it well.
Sixth step- Give Mathura peda shape
Now start shaping it as your choice. Here I gave it a rectangular shape. As I first make its round shape then make its four sides flat.
- Now all the peda is ready with a perfect shape. As shown in the below pic .
Seventh step-Coat with sugar
- Just coat the peda in powdered sugar as the famous sweet shops in Mathura do the same.
- Mathura special sweet lal peda is ready to serve.
Important tips for making Mathura peda recipe
- Always stir the milk from the beginning to the end, don’t leave it unattended.
- During caramelization also stir the khoya or mawa continuously and always maintain the heat I described in the instruction part below.
- Though all the sweet shops of Mathura only use the elaichi powder in their pedas. But you may use other flavors too like nutmeg or mace if you want.
