An easy Peda Recipe made with condensed milk and flavored with saffron and cardamom. Ready in less than 30 minutes and sure to be a highlight of your dessert platter.
Pedas are usually an integral part of Diwali mithai (sweet meats) platter but this peda recipe made with condensed milk and saffron (kesar) is the easiest one that you will ever make! This recipe of condensed milk peda uses easy to find or make ingredients blended together and cooked, is glutenfree, and is super delicious. That's it! Diwali desserts do not get easier than this peda recipe!
Think about this peda as a milky soft fudge that has a rich and luscious feel to it. The taste is intense due to addition of bold flavors like saffron and cardamom, just like in the kesar elaichi shreekhand recipe or my Indian bread pudding recipe. Therefore, it is best to make them in very small size, almost quarter of the size of regular ladoo so that you can enjoy the richness fully and it does not get overwhelming for your taste buds.
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Recipe Ingredients
One word - milk! As in in most Indian dessert recipes (these Rusgullas, for example), most of the ingredients used in this peda recipe are also milk based along with the characteristic saffron and cardamom.
- Chaina - To achieve the traditional texture, I used chaina which is what you end up with one-step short of making paneer. If you have some chaina already made, then this recipe comes together rather quickly just like the quick rabdi recipe. If not, plan and make a batch of chaina.
- Condensed Milk - Use full fat condensed milk for this recipe. Though there are few homemade condensed milk recipes floating around the internet, I would recommend using store bought condensed milk.
- Saffron - This thing sells at the price gold but you use about a pinch so buy the good kind.
- Cardamom - One of the most fragrant, earthy and characteristic spice used in Indian desserts. You can buy it in pods or in form of seeds or powder. You can read more about it in my Indian Spices 101 post.
- Pistachios - Unsalted chopped pistachios is what I use. You can buy them whole and the chop them into small pieces to garnish the pedas.
Don't forget to check out the recipe card below for a complete list of ingredients and detailed instructions.
How to make this recipe
Plan ahead: you need homemade chaina for this recipe. You will need about an hour to make the chaina and let it set and cool.
Step 1: Gather all the ingredients except the pistachios and ghee and put them in a blender (Image 1).
Step 2: Blend the mixture until smooth and pour into a non stick pan and start cooking on medium low heat (Image 2).
Step 3: Keep stirring while cooking the peda mix on medium low heat until it starts to thicken and coming together (Image 3).
Step 4: After about 12-15 minutes the mixture will come together almost like a loose dough. Turn the heat off and let it cool (Image 4).
Step 5: After the mixture is cool enough to touch, take half a tablespoon full and form into small, thick discs (Image 5).
Step 6: Garnish the formed pedas with chopped pistachios and serve (Image 6).
Enjoy these pedas at room temperature or cold – they are rich and delicious either way! And if you are looking for other easy Diwali desserts, don't forget to explore Coconut Ladoo and Besan Burfee Recipes!
Tips for this recipe
- Nonstick Pan: You will need a good nonstick pan to cook the peda mixture. Due to a variety of reasons like the sugar and milk solids in the ingredients, if a non stick pan is not used, the mixture will stick and you won't get the desired results.
- Don't overcook: You have to turn the heat off on the peda mixture as soon as it starts to come together and resembles a Pate a choux dough (just like in the homemade churros recipe). Overcooking will result in non-fudgy, dry pedas.
- Storage: As is with most milk based recipes, store these pedas in a airtight container in the refrigerator.
Substitutions and Variations
Nutfree: You can easily make this recipe nutfree by substituting chopped pistachios with raisins.
Paneer: If you do not want to make chaina at home, you can use paneer as well though the texture of your pedas might be different.
Recipe FAQs
Traditionally, peda is made with malai (cream skimmed off of boiled raw milk), milk, and sugar slow cooked over a long period of time.
You can store it in the refrigerator for up to a week.
This is due to the peda mixture not being cooked all the way. If the liquids in the mixture do not cook and congeal, your pedas will be sticky.
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If you make this recipe be sure to leave a comment and let me know how you liked it! Share it on Instagram with the hashtag #thekitchendocs or share on Facebook, too.
Love- Vaishali
Peda Recipe with Condensed Milk and Saffron
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 batch Chaina recipe
- ⅔ cup Sweetened condensed milk full fat
- ¼ cup Milk
- 3 Green Cardamoms or 1 teaspoon powdered cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon Saffron strands or a generous pinch
- 8-10 Pistachios coarsely chopped
- Ghee to grease
Instructions
- In a blender, add chaina, condensed milk, green cardamoms, saffron and milk. Blend until smooth.
- Set a non-stick pan on medium low heat and transfer the blended mixture to the pan. Start cooking the mixture slowly, stirring continuously until it thickens.
- You will see that as the mixture thickens, it starts to come together, almost like a wet dough. This whole exercise should not take more than 12-15 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and allow the peda mixture to cool down a little bit so that it is easy to form into little discs with your hands.
- Grease your hands with ghee (recipe here). Take a small portion of the mixture, I would say approximately a teaspoon, and roll into a small ball and flatten it a bit to form into a disc.
- Press some chopped pistachios on top of each peda as a garnish. Enjoy!
Fransic verso
This looks so yummy, never tried peda but after reading your post, I'm definitely trying it.
Ann
The KESAR PEDA recipe looks delicious! I am always looking for new foods to make and try. Thanks for the step by step on how to make.
Hari
This recipe looks super yummy. Most foods made of milk are mouth watering and this one is truly enticing. Will try it really soon.