A deliciously, healthy offering to Lord Ganesha – these modaks are made of khoya (mawa) made from milk powder and sweetened with jaggery and flavoured with cardamom and saffron
Yay, it is again that time of the year when we are welcoming our dearest Ganapati Bappa into our homes. So, we are going to serve Him His most favourite sweet – modaks, adorn Him with flowers, make His favourite foods and rejoice! And this year I am treating him to some healthy modaks, made with jaggery, and not sugar. Not just healthy, my jaggery and instant khoya modaks are quick and easy to make, as well. As the name suggests, the khoya or reduced milk, in this recipe is an instant one. By that I mean, I have used milk powder here to make it. And that too, I’ve made it in the process of making the modaks, and not separately. Therefore, these delicious jaggery modaks are a one pot recipe, that you can make in under 30 minutes. Doesn’t this sound like an absolute winner of a recipe?
When celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi, there are going to be so many other things that will need your attention. Don’t let modak making be one of them. You don’t need to be an expert in making Indian sweets in any way to try my recipe. As most of you may already know that, this beautiful, conical shape is very typical of modaks. No matter what recipe you use, unless you shape your sweets this way, they won’t be called modaks. You could either shape them using your fingers or use a modak mould to do so. I have used the one that I got from India to shape mine. However, these days they are very easily available online for you to buy, if you’d like to own one. But with some practice you should be able to shape them with your hands, as well.
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Jaggery modaks
Generally, for Indian festivities there are a lot of sweetmeats that are made. Whether as an offering to the Gods or for guests, no celebration or festival is complete without sweets. And no we don’t usually stop at just one variety! That’s the reason I decided to make at least one of mine refined sugar free, hence, these jaggery and instant khoya modaks. And the recipe for making instant khoya is my mother’s. She uses milk powder to make it to make some quick and easy Indian sweets whenever the occasion so demands. And it comes in very handy on a busy day! Moreover, it tastes, delicious. If you wish, you could also use the same recipe to make pedas – another very popular sweet. But because I have made these for Ganesh Chaturthi, I have shaped them as modaks.
Coming to the cooking part. Like I said earlier, this is an easy recipe, but the cooking will need some arm work out. What I mean is, the milk and milk powder mixture, to form the khoya needs to be stirred continuously, until it comes together. This is to prevent it from sticking to the cooking pan and burning. And the stirring is really important, otherwise it is very easy to burn the instant khoya. I have flavoured these refined sugar free modaks with cardamom and saffron. The combination of jaggery and cardamom is truly incredible. I have also added some saffron strands to my sweet’s for it’s subtle, rich fragrance. However, in this case, the modaks are not going to have the lovely orange yellow colour of saffron. That’s because the dark brown colour of the jaggery takes over.
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I hope you have liked the idea of making these mouthwatering jaggery modaks for your Bappa. I am sure He will love them and so will you. In case you happen to try any of my modak recipes, I’d love to see how they turn out for you. You could share your modak pictures with me over in Instagram. Alternatively, you could drop me a line or two with your feedback in the comments section, below. Happy festivities! 🙂
Eat hearty!
Jaggery and instant khoya modaks
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot
- Modak mould
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cups milk powder
- ¾ cup jaggery roughly chopped
- 1 tsp saffron strands optional
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tbsp ghee
Instructions
- In your cooking pot, whisk together the milk and the milk powder until well combined and lump free. Keep the pot to cook over low flame, stirring continuously
- In another 5-7 minutes, add the ghee, saffron (if using) and the cardamom powder. Mix well and keep stirring
- When the mixture starts to thicken, add the jaggery and keep cooking until it completely melts into the mixture and it all comes together. When it separates from the cooking pot, remove in a mixing bowl. Mix it in well with your spatula, so as to form a smooth mixture
- Grease your modak mould with a little bit of ghee. When the mixture is cool enough to touch, pinch a small portion of it and fill in the halves of the mould. Then press both sides together, remove the excess and open the mould and place the shaped modak on a greased plate
- Garnish your beautiful, jaggery and instant khoya modaks with some saffron strands and serve to the Lord. Happy festivities!
Notes
- You could use sugar too, instead of the jaggery. Also, you could adjust the quantity of sweetener in the recipe as per taste
- It is imperative to keep string the modak mixture while always cooking on a low flame, until it comes together in one lump
- If you don not have a mould, you can also shape the modaks with your hands
- 1 cup = 250 millilitres
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
