Malpua Recipe - How to make Malpua (2024)

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No Holi in my home was complete without malpua -fried pancakes with crisp edges and soft center dunked in sugar syrup! It’s an indulgent dessert for special occasions!

There’s almost always a food ritual associated with big festivals/holidays, isn’t it? Like a sweet which your mom definitely made for Diwali or family favorite mashed potatoes which were always on the table for Thanksgiving dinner.

We kind of grow up with these rituals and they are do deeply ingrained in our mind that we unknowingly carry forward these rituals after we becomes adults and have our own family.

It’s so amazing how food bonds us all. One of my best memories of Holi is waking up to hot malpua for breakfast. Actually in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (the state that I am from), it was called simply pua as it was not soaked in any sugar syrup.

Pua for Holi breakfast was a tradition and I don’t remember a single Holi when we had anything else for breakfast.

The pua that is made in Eastern UP and Bihar for Holi is usually not soaked in sugar syrup. In my house, we always ate pua with homemade lalmirchi ka achar (red chili pickle).

Yeah such a weird combination of sweet pua and spicy achar but that’s you are supposed to eat pua in eastern UP.

Malpua is an upgraded version of the humble pua, where the pua is soaked in a sugar syrup and garnished with nuts. It’s often served with rabdi (thickened sweet milk) and makes an indulgent dessert.

So what actually is a malpua? It’s like a fried pancake, the batter is made with flour, sugar and often flavored with fennel and cardamom.

Khoya (milk solids) is also often added to malpua, other addition can include coconut, milk powder.

The Bihari version of malpua also has added banana to it. Banana makes the pua very soft and it almost melts in your mouth. However in my home, mom never added bananas to her pua and so I haven’t added it to my malpua either.

How to Make The Perfect Malpua

✓ once you have prepared the batter let it sit for 15 to 30 minutes before frying the malpua

✓ fry the malpua at medium-low heat

✓ add flavors like coconut, cardamom, fennel to make it more delicious

✓ a good malpua should have crispy edges and soft center (that’s how my mom made hers)

✓ you may add mashed banana or yogurt to the batter to make the malpua softer

I won’t be celebrating Holi this year but I know that on the day of Holi, I will be missing mom’s pua, I always looked forward to them.

In fact Holi was the only day in the year when mom made malpua, so it was a special treat.

Last year, I was in India on Holi with my mom. Even though she wasn’t well still she was back from the hospital and we were thrilled having her back just in time for the festival. This year there’s only the emptiness that’s hard to fill.

I hope you guys have a fabulous Holi. Enjoy the festival of color with lots of sweets and of course with a plate full of malpuas! xx

Other Favorite Holi Recipes

Mawa Gujiya

Thandai

Thandai Cheesecake Mousse with Gulkand Whipped Cream

Chocolate Cinnamon Gujiya

Method

Make the sugar syrup by mixing 1 cup sugar with 3/4 cup water in a pan. Switch on the heat on medium, add crushed cardamom pods and saffron strands.

Let the sugar dissolve, this take around 2-3 minutes. Once the sugar dissolves, add lemon juice and let the syrup simmer for around 3 minutes more until it becomes sticky.

Don’t look for any string consistency here, simply make the syrup sticky and you will be fine. Remove pan from heat and set aside.

To make the batter for the malpua, add flour, milk powder and desiccated coconut to a large bowl.

Add crushed fennel seeds, sugar, pinch of salt and pinch of baking powder and mix well.

Start adding warm milk, little by little and whisk to form a smooth batter.

The batter should have no lumps.

It should be a thick batter of pouring consistency. If your looks very thick, add more milk to have a pouring consistency. Let the batter rest for 15 to 30 minutes.

Heat oil or ghee in a wide pan on medium heat. You don’t need to submerge the entire malpua in oil. Pour a small ladle full of batter into the hot oil. The batter will form a round shape on its own, you don’t need to shape it.

Lower the heat to low-medium and fry the malpua until golden brown from both sides. When you are frying one side, splash oil over the other side (which isn’t dipped in oil) with a spatula so that it gets little cooked too at the same time. Flip and then completely fry the other side.

Remove the malpua from oil carefully, drain the oil.

Dip the malpua in prepared sugar syrup (make sure sugar syrup is warm, if its cold just place on low heat to warm it up before soaking the malpua). Soak each side for 30 seconds.

Remove malpua from the sugar syrup and place on serving plate. Garnish with nuts, edible silver leaves (optional) and serve warm.

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Malpua