Malabar Paal Cake Recipe aka Kerala Milk Cake is a very popular and tasty deep fried dessert recipe from the Kerala Cuisine prepared with egg, wheat flour (or plain flour) & milk powder. Perfect for any special occasion as a dessert or as a tea time snack.
The traditional recipe is made with egg, flour and milk powder. The dough is then rolled out, cut into rectangular shape, deep fried in oil and then soaked in sugar syrup. Adding egg yolk helps to make the cake soft and spongy, but you can also make the eggless version. Replace egg with baking powder & which helps to give the same effect and texture as the original. Though Malabar Paal Cake Recipe is very similar to the Gulab Jamun Recipe, it does have some differences like:
- Egg is used.
- Shape is more like barfi.
- Has hard outer covering & entraps sugar syrup in its layers deep within. Gulab jamun is softer compared to this milk cake. This is due to the fact that paal cake is not dipped in sugar syrup until it is served.
If you are looking for a quick dessert recipe that satisfies your sweet tooth with a bit of crunch, then this Paal Cake Recipe is for you!
Easy Steps to follow for
Malabar Paal Cake Recipe
Dough for Paal Cake Recipe:
- To a bowl, add in an egg & ghee. Combine & beat well until creamy.
- Add in powdered sugar, baking soda & salt. You can also optionally add some vanilla sugar or essence. This will help reduce the egg flavour. Mix well & beat.
- Now, add the wheat flour and milk powder. Add few drops of milk at a time & mix well to form a smooth dough similar to Chapati dough.
- Knead well until smooth. Cover & set aside for 20 minutes.
Sugar Syrup:
- Add 1/2 cup sugar & 1 cup water to a sauce pan. Stir well & ring it to a boil.
- Once the sugar syrup thickens & gets one string consistency, turn off the heat.
- Add cardamom powder & a teaspoon lemon juice (prevents crystallisation). Mix well & keep it aside.
Rolling & Frying the Cake Pieces:
- After 20 minutes, do not knead the dough at this stage. Flatten & roll out the dough using a rolling pin into 1 cm thickness.
- Cut out the edges to form a square or rectangle shape. Cut the dough into rectangle shape pieces of 1 inch width & 2 inch length. Or cut into desired shape!
- Now take a deep frying pan & add enough oil for frying the cake pieces. Heat the oil over medium heat.
- Once oil is hot, start adding the cake pieces into the hot oil & fry both the sides over medium low heat till it turns golden brown. NOTE: Do not worry if you see some foaming while frying which is due to the egg present in the dough
- Drain & remove milk cake from oil. Transfer to a plate with an absorbent tissue paper.
- Immediately transfer the cakes into warm sugar syrup. Make sure sugar syrup is hot while transferring the cakes into syrup. Heat up the syrup for a minute if it has cooled down.
- Stir mix the cakes in the sugar syrup. Now cakes will start to absorb the sugar syrup. Soak in sugar syrup for at least 10-15 minutes or until the next batch is ready.
- Do not keep the cakes in syrup for more time. Soak it longer only if you are looking for smooth texture like Gulab Jamun.
- After 10 minutes, transfer it to the plate and allow it to cool down before serving for best results.
- Delicious tea stall milk cakes are ready to be served.
- You can store them in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Microwave for few seconds or bring it to room temperature before serving.
MALABAR PAAL CAKE RECIPE - WHEAT FLOUR MILK CAKE
Ingredients
Milk Cake:
- 1 Egg
- 2 tbsp Ghee
- 2 tbsp Powdered Sugar
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Sugar Or 1 tsp Vanilla Essence (Optional)
- 1 Cup Wheat Flour
- 2-3 tbsp Milk Powder
- Milk as needed to knead
Sugar Syrup:
- 1/2 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Water
- ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
- 1 tsp Lemon Juice
Instructions
Dough Preparation:
- To a bowl, add in an egg & some ghee. Combine & beat well until creamy.
- Add in powdered sugar, baking soda, vanilla essence & salt. Mix well & beat.
- Now, add the wheat flour and milk powder. Then add milk, little at a time and knead it well to prepare a soft dough & set aside for 20 minutes.
Sugar Syrup:
- Add 1/2 cup sugar & 1 cup water to a sauce pan. Stir well & bring it to a boil.
- Once the sugar syrup thickens & gets one string consistency, turn off the heat.
- Add cardamom powder & a teaspoon lemon juice (prevents crystallisation). Mix well & keep it aside.
Rolling & Frying Milk Cakes:
- After 20 minutes, flatten & roll out the dough using a rolling pin into 1 cm thickness. Further, cut it into rectangular pieces or into desired shape.
- Deep fry the pieces in hot oil over medium low heat until they turn golden brown in colour and then remove them from oil.
- Immediately transfer the cakes into warm sugar syrup & soak for at least 10 minutes.
- Remove from syrup onto a plate and serve. Soft and juicy malabar paal cake is ready!
- You can store them in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Recipe Video
Notes
- For eggless malabar paal cake simply skip eggs. You can double baking soda quantity & might need a little more quantity of milk while preparing the dough. Follow the rest of the ingredients and procedure as it is.
- You can also replace wheat flour with maida. But, I feel wheat flour adds extra taste, texture & is also healthier option.
- Try to use melted Ghee/butter at the most. Use oil, only if you do not have butter/ghee.
- You can prepare sugar syrup at any point of time before frying the milk cakes. Just make sure to add the fried milk cakes to warm syrup. You can slightly heat up the sugar syrup to ensure this.
- Make sure that the oil is not too hot while frying. This might cause the cake to be raw from inside & brown’s room outside. Do remember to fry in low heat to let the cake cook inside properly.
- When frying in oil some foaming is likely caused because of the egg in the dough.
Below are some popular Milk Sweets from Blog:
Do check out other DESSERT RECIPES and other collections from blog!!
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Cheers!!
Padma.
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