pal khoya

Khoya or mawa is basically dried milk used for making many sweet dishes. Khoya can be made at home by boiling and reducing the milk to a semi-solid stage. You can buy khoya directly from stores too but nothing compares to the taste of fresh home made khoya.  Khoya is used as one of the ingredients to make many desserts but the sweetened khoya is itself served as a dessert called as pal khova.
         There are different types of khoya depending on the use of ingredients and moisture content.
1. Hard or Firm Khoya (Batti Khoya)   This is a very tough khoya made with whole fat milk and used for making peda, burfi and ladoo.
2. Smooth Khoya (Chikna Khoya)    This is soft and sticky used to make rabdi, halwas etc.
3. Granulated Khoya (Danedar khoya)
    In this the milk is curdled before evaporating and hence it is granular used for making kalakand.

Ingredients
Whole milk (cow milk or buffalo milk) - 4 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup (or as needed)
Cardomon Powder - 1/4 tsp




Method
1. Take the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and heat it over medium flame.
2. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the flame to medium low and let it continue boiling for the next 2 hours until it reduces to 1 cup.
           Note :- For the first 1 hour, keep stirring occasionally. After that constant stirring is needed to prevent the khoya from getting burnt.
3. At this stage add the sugar and cardomon powder and mix everything together until you get a thick and gooey mass.
4. Serve this pal khova as a dessert as such. Alternatively, you can pour the mixture onto a plate and let it cool. Once it is cool enough, cut it into cubes and serve.
          Note :- You can make khoya without adding the sugar and store it in the refrigrator. This comes handy for making many sweets. 

Quicker Methods for making Khoya
Method 1 : Take 2 cups of milk powder(or mawa powder), 1 can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk and 1 stick of butter. Mix all the ingredients and boil it for few minutes on stovetop or in microwave stirring continuously.
          
Method 2 : Mix 3 cups of milk powder(or mawa powder) with 1 cup heavy cream and boil it on stove top or microwave.

Method 3 : Unsalted Ricotta cheese - Take 2 cups of ricotta cheese, mix half a stick of butter and 3 cups of milk powder(or mawa powder) with it. Mix everything together and boil it over stove top stirring continuously for about 5-7 minutes or in a microwave.

Method 4 : Mix 1 cup of milk powder(or mawa powder), 1/2 cup of butter and enough milk to make a thick batter. Boil this on stove top or microwave for 5-7 minutes stirring continuously.

Variations
       Use jaggery to sweeten the khoya and this dessert is called Theratti Paal