Mawa Coconut Delight Recipe

mawa barfi

Today was just great. The good news of me completing my post-graduation with 1st class called for a little celebration. Sweets and desserts are an important part of celebration at my place when something really good and significant happens.

Since it’s been raining incessantly for a couple of days, I was a bit reluctant to step outside to buy some sweets or may be a cake. So I decided to whip up an easy dessert recipe at home itself. I had very little to work with today; limited ingredients. I had some home-made paneer that I made yesterday. It was the soft crumbled paneer and not those firm cubes. So I decided I would make mawa using the paneer.

Mawa is the milk product that you get after reducing milk for several hours while adding vinegar to it little by little as you go. It is creamy, juicy, crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth thing. Making mawa from milk takes patience and time. So I decided to make it from paneer. It turned out equally delicious and juicy.

dessert recipes

So this is like a halwa recipe consisting of mawa, coconut and cashews. I tried making this dessert yummier by replacing sugar with jaggery. It just makes the flavor so much better. Since the mawa has a lot of texture, I didn’t need to add any raisins. I added a little condensed milk to make this dessert taste rich. Since the condensed milk is already sweet, go easy on the jaggery. We want a perfectly balanced, sweet and creamy mawa dessert and not a sweet mess.

For the purpose of measurement, 1 cup = 250 ml. Let us see how to make it!

Ingredients

  • Home-made paneer – 1 cup, crumbled
  • Coconut – 1/3 cup, freshly grated
  • Ghee / Clarified butter – 3 tbsp
  • Jaggery – 1/3 cup or to taste, grated
  • Condensed milk – 4 tbsp
  • Cashews – 10, halved
  • Freshly ground cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp

How to Make Mawa Coconut Delight

  • Heat ghee / clarified butter in a skillet. Fry the halved cashews for a few seconds till they turn golden. Remove the cashews onto a plate and set them aside.
  • Add paneer to the remaining ghee and sauté it for 2 to 3 minutes till it releases the juices and its color changes to golden. Maintain the heat between medium to low flame. Keep stirring the paneer constantly to prevent it from burning. We want the paneer to stay moist and not dry up and get chewy.
  • When the paneer no more looks white and has a nice mawa-like aroma, it is ready! Its time to add in the grated coconut and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes till coconut becomes aromatic. Keep stirring constantly. Try using just the white part of the coconut.
  • Add in the grated jaggery and mix well. Allow the jaggery to melt and get incorporated with the mawa and coconut.
  • Now add in the condensed milk and stir it around well.
  • Add in the cardamom powder and cashews and mix well again. Easy-peasy Mawa Coconut Delight is ready in minutes! Serve hot or chilled as you may prefer. Enjoy!