Bread Malpua Holi Special

 

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29 March

Happy Holi to All!

Its early morning and its Holi! Last night it rained somewhere hence the weather feels a little cold. Much respite from the hot and humid feel of last evening. Since we ourselves are not able to play Holi this time seems like nature is compensating it with a pleasant weather. This is the first year where no one of us even played with gulal (dry colors) let alone wet. But I still felt okay, because at least for once, we saved some water.

But when it is Holi one needs to make something special at home. We weren't expecting any guests this time, so thought of making something which was easy and could be made in a small batch. Since Gujiyas and other things were too much work, I decided on Malpuas.

When we think of malpua, the immediate thought is of those gorgeous fluffy thick pancakes with crispy golden edges and dripping with sugar syrup. Any Indian festival seems incomplete with these signature sweets. But to make any traditional sweet, a lot of effort needs to be put in. That has always been the reason why I didn't have a fascination in making any Indian sweets from scratch. To add to it is the fact that I am a savory loving person. Thus the effort to make sweets just doesn't make sense to me. but what if we could make our signature dishes with half the effort or even less? It is possible and it does taste amazing too. The recipe I am going to talk about today is one such recipe.

This recipe belongs to my mom. As a kid I used to love having sweets. Hence my mom had learnt making different kind of sweets and snacks which she used to serve mostly as evening snacks. Now she also didn't like to slog in the kitchen for hours hence she developed a lot of recipes which could be made in a jiffy and would still taste heavenly. The bread malpua is one such innovation of hers which I still remember till date.

Thus this diwali, when I really didn't want to eat some store bought sweets, I thought of giving it a try. After making it I can safely say its one of the most easiest sweets I have ever made in my life which tastes this good. It barely took me half an hour to put together this delicious sweets. And the first bite into one of the malpuas, sent me back though the time to those evenings in Kharagpur when mom would serve exactly the same kind of malpuas to me while I was slogging over my study books. It used to bring an immediate smile onto my face and momentarily I would be lost in the goodness of these sweets.

I really felt a lot of happiness preparing this dish, as it brought back a cartload of memories which are so dear to me. Give it a try, I am sure kids and adults both would love this. 

Cooking Time: 5  minutes + 10 minutes

Soaking time : 15 minutes

Serves - 6 medium sized pieces

Ingredients:

• Bread Slices - 3
• Ghee - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Water - 1 cup
• Fennel (Sauf) - 1/2 tsp
• Saffron - a pinch
• Malai (Fresh cream) - 2 tsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Rose water - 1 tbsp

Garnish:

• Chopped nuts - 1 tsp
• Dry Rose petals - 1 tsp
• Saffron strands

Equipment:

• Frying pan
• Deep Pot

Procedure: 

1.  Cut the bread into circles using a cookie cutter or a bowl. Keep aside.

2. Now prepare the sugar syrup. In a pot take equal amounts of sugar, water and rose water. Put it to boil on heat. Add the fennel and saffron to the pot. Let it boil and simmer to a thin syrup consistency. Keep this aside.

3.  Now take a shallow plate and add 2 tbsp of milk. Lightly dip the bread rounds in the milk. You do not need to submerge the bread, only wet it a bit with milk

Tip: This process will ensure the bread soaks less ghee when fried.

4. Heat ghee in a pan, add the bread rounds in single layer and shallow fry sides turn light brown. flip and fry the other side too. Note that we need to shallow fry the breads here. Take them out in a plate.

5. Now on each bread pour 1/2 tsp of milk with a spoon. This will make the malpuas moist.

6. Now slide these breads into the sugar syrup. Let it soak up the syrup for about 10-15 minutes.

7. Now bring them out in a serving plate. Add about 1/2 tsp of malai on top of these bread malpuas. Drizzle some of the sugar syrup. 

Garnish with chopped pista or any nuts of choice, dried rose petals and saffron strands.