How to make Khoya / Mawa

Mawa / khoya is a key ingredient in most Indian sweets and some savories and curries as well. It lends a wonderful rich taste which is hard to find in its substitutes. I live outside of India where mawa is impossible to find but that didn’t deter me…remember “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. So when the urge to make some gulab jamuns with khoya got the better of me, I sent an “emergency” message to my friend Shireen who said it could be made at home but is a bit time consuming. 

The procedure might sound daunting what with the amount of time taken ( It took me about 1.5 hrs ) but for some like me who loves to make things from scratch, the task is quite therapeutic and satisfying.  Sweets with fresh homemade mawa will taste far better than the store bought ones. Also, when compliments flow in , you know you deserve it totally :) Because, you did it from scratch  !!!

Go ahead…make some today !!

Recipe idea : Shireen 

Ingredients :
Full fat milk - 1 litre

Gave me 170 gms mawa

Method :
Boil milk in a heavy bottom wide pan. Once it starts boiling, lower the flame and let simmer on low flame. The milk will start reducing. Keep stirring with a spatula every 1- 2 minutes. The milk solids might get stuck to the sides and the bottom of the pan. For this, keep scraping the sides and the bottom with the spatula. Once the milk gets significantly reduced ( about 1/4th of original volume ), keep scraping and stirring continuously till you get a yellowish mass of solid ( might take about 1 - 1.5 hrs ) which is the mawa/ khoya. Remove from flame wherein it will further solidify. Use immediately or refrigerate for future use.


Points to remember :
 Do use a heavy bottom pan and remember to keep scraping the sides and the bottom of the pan every 1- 2  minutes at first and continuously towards the end when the milk is turning into solids. This is to prevent milk from scorching.