Doodh Peda Milk Peda Recipe

An easy way to make doodh (milk) peda at home! What is doodh peda? Pedas for short, are popular Indian sweets. They are made of sugar, milk and a flavor such as cardamom. There are different varieties of flavors that can be used. Milk pedas are often made during festivals and for gift giving. They are traditionally made using khoya or mawa made by boiling milk for an extended period of time. As a result, I generally don’t make khoya or mawa from scratch! It can be found at Indian stores if you prefer to use a pre-made version. The preferred way to make pedas in my family is using ricotta instead of khoya/mawa. This version of milk pedas comes together easily under thirty minutes.
Doodh pedas taste like a milk fudge once cooled down and it’s hard not to eat a couple at once! There are a variety of flavors you can make these in. Some of the more popular flavors are cardamom, saffron and mango. This recipe is for cardamom milk peda.
I made these to celebrate Janmashtami, Krishna’s birthday this year. Krishna was known to be a lover of butter. Dairy based sweets are often made to celebrate Janmasthami.
How to make doodh (milk) peda at home?
Ingredients for milk peda
There are a couple of different ways you can make it. I use the following ingredients:
- Ricotta
- Condensed milk
- Milk powder
- Cardamom
- Ghee
- Pistachios for topping (optional)
As mentioned above, I usually don’t use mawa or khoya but you can use store bought khoya/mawa and replace it with ricotta. I prefer to use condensed milk as I feel it cuts the time a little bit and reduces amount of water released by adding sugar.

Process for doodh peda
Outlined below are the process steps to make homemade doodh peda








How to make doodh (milk) peda shapes?
The traditional way to make peda shapes is shown below:




A new way to serve and decorate doodh pedas I came up with
An alternative way if you want to use cutters is to turn out the mix into a pan. Then once cooled, use cutters to form shapes. Decorate as you wish!
I made some of the pedas as peacock feathers to celebrate Janmashtami. Janmashtami celebrated the birth of Krishna, a Hindu God. It marks the eighth day (Ashtami) in the month of Shravana. Krishna is often depicted with a flute in hand and a peacock feather in his hair. He was known for his flute playing skills. There is a story that one day in the forest Krishna was playing his flute with peacocks all around. As a symbol of gratitude for the beautiful music the peacocks dropped feathers near Krishna. Ever since that day he kept one in his hair.
Peacocks are also a symbol of purity. As mentioned, milk and butter based sweets are often made to celebrate. So, I’ve made doodh pedas to celebrate. I used natural colors by Trucolor.



Doodh Peda (Milk Peda) Recipe
Equipment
- Pot
- baking sheet or pan
- cutters (optional)
Ingredients
- 15 oz ricotta
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1¼ cup milk powder
- 14 oz condensed milk
- 1 tsp cardamom
Instructions
- Heat ghee in pan. Add ricotta and mix. Let water burn out by cooking on medium for a few minutes.
- Add condensed milk and stir. Cook, stirring every other minute or so for about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add milk powder, thoroughly mixing. Cook until mixture begins to form into a paste like mix, pulling away from the pan. It should be a little moist but come together. Don’t overcook else peda will become too dry.
- Add cardamom and mix. Turn off gas.
- If using cutters or shapes, pour mixture into a pan. I used a 9X9 brownie pan and pressed into pan with bottom of a bowl. If making traditional shapes just turn out mixture onto a piece of parchment paper.
- Make shapes or cut outs as you wish and serve!