Makkan Peda – Arcot Sweet
Makkan Peda is a popular dish in North Arcot District, South India. That is why it is also called Arcot Sweet. It is more like Gulab Jamun with dry fruits and nuts in it. You can either use “Gulab Jamun Instant mix” or make “Khoa” from milk. Khoa is nothing but thickening milk by heating it at a constant temperature.
I have had this sweet a very long time back. This happened to be my mom’s favorite sweet dish. Recently, Shriya has been talking about Makkan Peda which she ate in India. From then I have been tempted to try it. I tried it and it came out so well. Shriya, Arthi and I enjoyed it during our meet. I am so happy to share it with you. Here you go…
Preparation time: 45 minutes
No. of Pedas: 22 to 25
Ingredients:
- Milk Khoa – 1 cup
- All purpose flour or maida – 2 tbsp
- Milk powder – 1/4 cup
- Cooking soda – 1/4 tsp
- Milk – 1/2 cup
- Sugar – 3 cups
- Cardamom and sugar powder – 1/2 tsp
- Slivered almonds – 2 tbsp
- Raisins – 1/4 cup
- Broken cashew nuts – 2 tbsp
- Broken pistachios – 2 tbsp
- Oil – 2 and 1/2 cups
Note: Substitute for first five ingredients:
- Gulab Jamun instant mix – 1 packet
- Milk powder – 1/2 cup
- Milk – 3/4 cup
- Cooking soda – 1/4 tsp
Method of Preparation:
You can also prepare makkan peda without making khoa by using the instant Jamun mix and milk powder. There will be no big difference in taste. It also saves time. Here, I am going to explain both the ways of preparing this sweet.
- If you are using khoa: Take khoa, maida or all purpose flour, milk powder, cooking soda in a bowl and mix well. Add a little milk and knead it to a soft, smooth, non sticky dough.
- If you are using Gulab Jamun Instant Mix: Take the instant mix, milk powder, cooking soda in a bowl and mix well. Add a little milk and knead it to a soft, smooth, non sticky dough.
- Let the dough sit for 15 minutes.
- Take all the broken nuts in a plate.
- Make small balls of desired size out of the dough, preferably 3/4th size of a golf ball.
- Make a hole in the ball and fill it with nuts. Close it, roll into a smooth ball again and flatten it a bit (elliptical shape).
- Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the dough. Keep the pedas ready and covered to avoid from becoming dry.
- Heat oil for frying. I used canola oil. Oil should neither be too hot nor warm.
- In another deep, wide pan add sugar and 3 cups of water.
- Boil it at medium heat and let the sugar melt completely.
- When it becomes sticky and starts thickening, turn off the stove and remove from heat.
- Sugar syrup has to be hot when you drop in the pedas.
- When oil is hot enough, drop a peda to check. Peda should go down and come up in a few seconds with bubbles.
- Let it cook for 6 to 8 minutes or untill brown.
- Sometimes if the oil is too hot it becomes brown quickly but the inside part will not be cooked. So try to heat oil to the right temperature and maintain it.
- As soon as you remove the pedas from oil, drop it in the sugar syrup. Make sure pedas are dry without oil before dropping in.
- Also make sure the syrup container is big enough to hold all the pedas. Remember the pedas will expand after absorbing the syrup.
- Now drop a batch of pedas (4 to 5) in hot oil and remove when done and drop it in syrup.
- Repeat the same procedure with the rest of the pedas.
- Let it sit over night or atleast 4 hours.
- Makkan Peda is ready.
🙂 Serve warm with sugar syrup.
23 Comments
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Looks absolutely delicious
Hi Nithu,
This sweet is totally new to me. It looks fantastic. Will definitely try this sometime 🙂
Hello Nithu,
Yummy! I love this sweet very much- I am from North Arcot, which is now Vellore Dt. Thanks for the recipe. I will try this out once. Kudos! for your blogging effort.
I am from North Arcot Dist’ and I am a maniac for this dessert’…posted the recipe couple of years ago’…pictures are very tempting here.
HI,
Im from vaniyambadi,North arcot dist.
its our fly’s fav sweet.Here in US v r craving for this sweet.
tomorrow im going to try it.
Im very happy to c the recipe.
OMG, that is the best thing I have ever seen in peda. I have to make it and eat it soon.
THIS looks so delectable-slurp !
Soooooo tempting and irresistible peda..
lovely recipe, excellent
Thans for all your yummy comments.
Very appetizing and interesting sweet. Thank you!
This was served at a wedding i went to recently…I and a couple of other guests mistook it for gulab jamun..this is better than gulab jamun
Hi Vignesh, yeah. It is definitely better than gulab jamuns for people whole like dry fruits and nuts. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi, This is Suamsvaidhi I like this sweet very much
but I didn’t get it in chennai can u give the details
where will get this please.
Hi Suams, sorry but I am not aware of where you get it in Chennai but you get it in Arcot district or Vellore where it is quiet famous. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Nithu,
Super Makkan peda. I m from Vellore District only. Used to eat lots of these peda. A must sweet for every Deepavali in our home. My uncle’s from Chennai will buy more than a kilo to Chennai when they visit us. Wonderful clicks. Filled with nostalgia !!!
Hi Nithu! Just wondering if milk powder can be substituted or eliminated. Will it work just as fine? Please, let me know, anybody!
You can eliminate milk powder if you don’t have or don’t want to use. It will still be fine. Milk powder gives khoa flavor to the peda.
Awesome and the pic is soo tempting….
khoa can i replace t with paneer….i have it in my fridge now wondering if i can make it right away
Hi resmi, thanks for ur comments. I have never tried this dish using paneer. I always prefer khoa. But I have seen others using paneer for making gulab jamuns which is similar to this Dish. If you are using paneer knead the mixture well and make sure the dough is smooth. Otherwise there are chances for it to crumble while frying. Hope this helps.
Hi, We need this dish for our local business. can you please let me know where can i purchase this or can you do that. Please e-mail me to this id – baskarece99@gmail.com. Thanks!!
Exellent and tasty peda ever i seen
WE ARE TRIED OUR NATIVE SWEET DISH THIS DIWALI. IT COMES OUT VERY WELL. THANK YOU FOR THE RECIPE. MY FAMILY & FRIENDS ENJOYED A LOT…