Desserts
Mawa Ghari
A crisp pastry casing around a semolina, coconut and almond filling, pressed with a mooncake mould and fried in ghee.
Last year I shared my packing of Diwali parcels, and the mawa ghari immediately caught everyone's eye. After so many recipe requests, here it is!
It is not something I had made before, but when my mum visited me earlier this year, she taught me how to make it – and highlighted all my mistakes – so that I could create a perfect recipe for you!
Before you come for me in the comments, I know that traditional mawa ghari requires you to cook the mawa, but I did not have time for that, so this is an alternate version.
Start with the pastry casing by simply kneading flour, a bit of ghee and milk, and set it aside to rest for 30 minutes.
The dry filling is a mixture of semolina, a bit of ghee, coconut, cardamom, sesame and almonds... you can tailor this mix to your taste, within reason. For example, some people add raisins or a bit of gram flour. I have added my own little touch with chopped pistachios and crushed rose petals, which make it so beautiful.
Mix the dry ingredients with a combination of condensed milk and dessert cream, and roll into balls. I do this a little at a time – as my mum pointed out, mixing the entire filling at once dries it out too much by the time you have rolled out all the casings, so you end up with a very dry ghari.
Roll out your casings quite thinly, then place a ball in the middle and flatten it slightly (listen to my mother – not too thin, ok?). Gather the pastry to encase the ball, then seal and flatten.
That's it – you're all done, and can pop these in the freezer until you're ready to fry. Of course, I had to add my own touch, and used a mooncake mould to imprint a beautiful design.
Fry in hot ghee (mum is quite averse to frying these in oil) and let them cool before decorating as desired, then serve to all your visitors on Diwali morning!
I hope this recipe was worth the wait – happy rolling, filling and frying 🙂
The recipe
Mawa Ghari
Makes about 24 ghariPrep 45 minCook 30 minTotal 1 hr 45 min
adventureswithsugar.com/mawa-ghari/
Method
Method: pastry
- Rub in the ghee: Add the ghee to the flour and rub it in with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine, damp sand.
- Bring the dough together: Then add the milk a little at a time, mixing as you go, until you have a stiff dough.
- Knead: Knead the dough for 2 – 3 minutes until smooth.
- Rest: Cover and leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes whilst you make the filling.
Method: filling
- Toast the sesame seeds: Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan for 5 minutes until nutty, then remove them from the pan and set aside.
- Toast the semolina: Then add the semolina to the same dry pan and toast for about 3 minutes. Add the ghee and stir it through – the mixture will begin to clump, but that's fine.
- Toast the coconut: Add the coconut and turn the heat down to low. Toast gently, just until some of the coconut flakes take on some colour (you want it to broadly remain white).
- Combine the dry ingredients: Then remove the pan from the stove and add the milk powder, icing sugar, elachie, rose petals, almonds, pistachios and toasted sesame seeds, mixing until evenly combined. Let the mixture cool completely.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Mix the condensed milk and dessert cream together in a separate bowl.
- Bind a little at a time: Mix 2 cups of the dry mixture with ½ cup of the condensed milk mixture, then roll it into 50g balls (you should get about 7 balls from each batch). Work a batch at a time as you fill the casings (mixing the whole batch at once dries it out by the time you get to the last few, leaving you with dry ghari).
Method: ghari
- Roll out the casings: Pinch off about 20g of the rested dough and roll it out quite thinly into a round.
- Fill: Place a ball of filling in the middle of the casing and flatten it slightly (not too thin!).
- Seal: Gather the pastry up around the filling, then seal it, trimming away any excess, and flatten into a disc about 6cm in diameter and 2cm high.
- Shape: If you have a mooncake mould, press each ghari into it to imprint a design.
- Freeze (optional): At this point, you can freeze the ghari until you are ready to fry them.
- Fry: Fry the ghari in hot ghee, then let them cool completely.
- Decorate: Once cool, decorate as desired and serve.
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