Cuisine: Madhya Pradesh
Category: Dessert
Prep: 15 min
Cook: 20 min
Serves: 8
Difficulty: Easy
🌿 Vegetarian
Soft, slightly crispy sweet pancakes made from milk and flour, fried and soaked in saffron sugar syrup — the Bhopal Holi sweet with Nawabi fragrance.
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
- 1/2 cup semolina (sooji)
- 1/4 cup khoya — crumbled (or use condensed milk)
- 1 cup warm milk
- 1/4 tsp fennel seeds — coarsely crushed
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 2 tbsp sugar
- Oil or ghee for shallow frying
- For saffron syrup: 1 cup sugar + 1/2 cup water + a generous pinch of saffron soaked in 1 tbsp warm water — boiled to one-string consistency
Method
- Combine maida, semolina, crumbled khoya, warm milk, fennel seeds, cardamom powder and sugar.
- Whisk into a smooth, moderately thick batter — similar to thick pancake batter. Rest 10 minutes.
- Make the saffron syrup: boil sugar and water until one-string. Add saffron water. Keep warm.
- Heat a flat tawa or pan. Add 2 tbsp ghee.
- Pour a ladle of batter onto the hot tawa.
- Spread gently to a round about 10 cm wide — malpua is smaller and thicker than a crepe.
- Cook on medium for 3 minutes until the edges are golden and the surface is set. Flip.
- Cook 2 minutes on the second side.
- Slide directly from the pan into the warm saffron syrup. Soak 2 to 3 minutes.
- Remove and place on a serving plate. Repeat for all the batter.
- Serve warm, garnished with thinly sliced almonds and pistachios.