Show the Working

Bal mithai

Roasted khoya cut into fudge and rolled in sugar-coated poppy seeds.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (khoa).

Ingredients

Method

  1. THE KHOYA IS ROASTED DARK BEFORE IT SETS, AND THE COATING IS SUGARED POPPY SEEDS. Its article is one sentence of identity and it holds both: bal mithai is A BROWN CHOCOLATE-LIKE FUDGE, MADE WITH ROASTED KHOYA AND COATED WITH WHITE BALLS MADE OF SUGAR COATED ROASTED POPPY SEEDS. Roasted, not simmered. Brown like chocolate, not pale like a barfi. And the white balls are the whole look of the thing.
  2. SO THE KHOA GOES FURTHER THAN ANY OTHER SWEET HERE. Dry pan, medium heat, stirred without stopping for fifteen to twenty minutes until it smells nutty and has gone the colour of milk chocolate. This is the step to be brave about: stopping at beige gives a sweet that looks like all the others.
  3. JAGGERY RATHER THAN SUGAR ALONE, FOR THE COLOUR AND THE TASTE. The article's word is chocolate-like, and jaggery is what gets a milk fudge there. It goes in after the roasting, with the fifty grams of granulated, and melts in two or three minutes.
  4. SPREAD IT ONE CENTIMETRE DEEP AND LET IT GO COLD HARD. A greased tin, pressed flat, two hours. It must be firm enough to cut into cubes that will not slump while they are rolled.
  5. ROAST THE POPPY SEEDS DRY, AND WATCH THEM. The article says ROASTED poppy seeds. Two minutes in a dry pan over a low heat, moving constantly; they go from white to cream and then, in about ten seconds, to ruined.
  6. MAKE A THICK SUGAR SYRUP AND STIR THE SEEDS THROUGH IT UNTIL EACH ONE CLUMPS WHITE. The hundred and twenty grams with four tablespoons of water, boiled two minutes, off the heat, seeds in, stirred as it cools. The sugar crystallises back out around them and that is what makes the white balls.
  7. CUT THE FUDGE INTO CUBES AND ROLL EACH ONE IN THE SEEDS, PRESSING. Two-centimetre cubes. Press hard enough that the coating stays on when it is picked up.
  8. THEY KEEP FOR DAYS AND TRAVELLED FURTHER THAN THAT. Its article records the legend that Kumaoni soldiers carried bal mithai to Burma in the Second World War, and that local advertisements then boasted of having branches there.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes