Modak is a famous Indian sweet prepared in Maharashtrian houses, especially for Ganesh Chaturthi. Flour dumplings, filled with jaggery and coconut mixture, it is a traditional favorite for Lord Ganesha, and for all Indians! Here is a simple recipe to make your own Modaks during the festival time! Traditionally, Modaks are fried in oil, however, you can even steam the dumpling rather than frying them as a healthier alternative. Feel free to customize the filling by replacing jaggery with sugar; adding some dry fruits like cashews & raisins to the filling would be a great idea too! [img courtesy of TarlaDalal]
I’m sending this to Mythreyee who’s collecting Deep Fried Sweets this month.
Ingredients
makes about 15 Modaks
For Stuffing:
250 gm Coconut (grated)
250 gm Jaggery
1 1/2 tbps Sesame seeds
1 tbps Ghee
For Modak Covering
400 gms Maida or All purpose Flour
3 tbps Oil
Salt to taste
oil for frying
** you can also use rice flour or regular wheat flour, but maida is easier
Method:
Make a soft dough of the flour by adding oil and salt, just like you make for Parathas or Chapatis.
Heat ghee in a vessel, add jaggery, coconut and sesame seeds. Keep stirring continuously on medium flame. The jaggery dissolves and a sticky solution is formed. Leave it to cool for 30 minutes.
Make small balls of dough and roll it, let the diameter be 3-4 inches approximately.
Put 1 tbsp of the above stuffing in the dough and pack it by taking all the corners up giving it a shape like a cone on top. This is called a modak. Make sure you cover all the filling so it doesn’t spill out while frying.
Take oil in a kadai and deep fry the Modaks till light brown.
Enjoy the Modaks, hot or cold, but only after serving a plate to Lord Ganesha first!
Related Recipes:
Homemade Kaju Katli (Kaju Burfi)
Kesar-Badam(Almond) Burfi
Coconut Laddoos(Koprapaak)
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folks, the original image I had has been replaced by this one from Tarlaji’s site, so any credit goes to her team
this looks great! I had a recipe that was hard to follow, but yours looks real simple, so I’m gonna try this for dassehra soon:)
btw, I have a new recipe to send your way mansi, jhopefully tomorrow!:)
~janani
We make the rice flour variety too, and it is steam cooked. We also make a savoury variety.
thanks Geetali! wish you the same too!:)
nandita – yes, one of my friends used to make this with rice-flour every year; I’ve seen her do that, until recently her mom’s friend shared this easier recipe which works, and is so much simpler to execute!:)
glad you liked it!:D
we generally make it with rice flour, where it is mixed in boiling water then made into a sticky dough; its very time-consuming, but your recipe with maida sounds easy enough; thanks for sharing!
-nandita
your modaks look great! thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe!
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi to you too!
~geetali