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Ricotta Cheese Peda is rich, creamy, beautifully flavored, and absolutely delicious. Made with just ricotta cheese, sugar, and ghee, infused with saffron, this is the simplest peda or modak you can make.

Ricotta Cheese Peda has a beautiful taste and texture that leaves a rich creamy taste on your palate. These pedas are a recreation of my childhood memories.

Childhood memories are always so special and nostalgic that you wishfully want to relive them. One such memory is the food that we have during our childhood that somehow attaches itself to the memories in such a way that we think of them as a set that goes together.

As a kid, I used to go to the temple with my parents or grandma and we used to buy a tray full of offerings for the god from the shops just outside the temple. One of the things in the tray used to be a small packet of pedas and I always used to look forward to devouring them after returning from the temple.

The pedas shaped like modak from these offerings used to be different from the ones you get from the regular sweet shop. They were a little dense, somewhat crumbly but rich in the milk and saffron flavor and perfectly sweetened. One might say they were slightly more sweet than the ones available in the sweet shops but then that was their magic.

I tried finding a similar peda or modak when I moved to the US but how much ever I tried I couldn't.

In an attempt to recreate the same flavored and textured pedas I ventured on a crazy journey of cooking pedas. I tried creating these Pedas from various ingredients. Sometimes I changed the ingredients while the other time I changed the ratios but I still couldn't get the flavors and texture that I was looking for.

In an attempt the recreate my childhood food memories I ended up creating some other excellent peda, barfi, and modak recipes. A few of them like Mathura peda, mawa modak, mawa barfi, and butterscotch barfi are among my favorite ones. You can check out those recipes too.

What is a Peda?

Peda is an Indian sweet dish that hails from the northern part of India. It originated from the Mathura region of Uttar Pradesh and over a period of time, it became part of festive celebrations of the entire country.

It is made with simple ingredients like milk and sugar with occasional flavor enhancers like cardamom and saffron. Over the years many regions came up with their own version of peda.

Depending upon the amount of time one cooks the milk the flavor, color, and texture of peda changes. A very well-cooked and reduced milk solid leads to Mathura peda, Dharwad peda, and Kandi peda. The peda made from paneer or cottage cheese is grainy and soft and almost white in color and is also sometimes referred to as malai peda. My favorite ones are the ones that have the taste and texture of mawa as they are rich, milky, and have a lovely texture.

Traditionally peda is made from milk. The milk is cooked for long hours and gradually reduced and thickened. Sugar is added it thickened milk solids and then rolled into small balls and garnished with slivered dry fruits.

However, most of the time I am in a hurry and do not have enough time to cook the ricotta cheese peda from the scratch. These are the times when I use either store-bought mawa or ricotta cheese or even sometimes paneer or cottage cheese to make peda. The preference of these base ingredients depends upon the peda I intend to cook.

Ricotta cheese peda is rich, tender, and just melts in your mouth. And the best part about using ricotta cheese to make pedas is that it gives you a perfect peda in a very short time. Trust me if you are short of time and what to make peda or modak then using ricotta cheese is one of the best options.

Ricotta cheese peda is purely made out of ricotta cheese and does not have any other added ingredients for binding or texture.

When I said earlier that I have tried making these pedas multiple times I was not joking. I have had some failed attempts and some absolute disasters too. But with every failed attempt I learned something new.

With every failed or successful attempt, I understood the ingredients better. Why use them, when to use them, how much of each ingredient is needed, and much more.

Cooking a peda is all about getting the right ingredients in the right proportion and cooking for the right amount of time.

For example, adding milk powder or milk mawa changes the texture of peda and the taste too. Similarly, if you add too much milk while infusing saffron then you will have to cook the peda mixture for longer than what is required leading to overcooked sugar in some cases. All these small details are what give you a perfect Ricotta cheese peda.

Ingredients for Ricotta Cheese Peda:

Ricotta Cheese - A full-fat ricotta cheese is what you need for this ricotta cheese peda - ricotta cheese modak recipe. Ricotta cheese is already low fat even though it's made from whole milk and hence one should not worry about the fat content while making this peda.

Sugar - Use granulated sugar or powdered sugar without any additives. Remember not to use confectioners sugar as it contains cornstarch.

Ghee - Ghee gives the peda an exquisite flavor and prevents the cheese from sticking to the pan.

Saffron - Use high-quality saffron for flavor and fragrance.

Cardamom powder - This is an optional ingredient and is only used as a flavor enhancer.

Milk - You will need milk to soak saffron

Yellow food color - This is completely optional and can be skipped.

How to make Peda / Modak using Ricotta Cheese

Take some warm milk in a small bowl and add some saffron to it and let it soak for some time.

Heat a nonstick pan on low heat.

Add ghee to the heated pan.

To that add the ricotta cheese and cook it for about 15 to 20 minutes.

As you cook the ricotta cheese while stirring continuously the moisture from the cheese will evaporate and the cheese will change its texture. When the ricotta cheese heats up it will melt and spread thin. Using a spatula keep stirring it until it thickens.

Be careful not to leave it unattended or it will burn or stick to the bottom.

Once the ricotta cheese cooks to soft dough-like consistency add the saffron-infused milk to it.

Along with saffron-infused milk also add the sugar to the evaporated ricotta cheese and keep stirring, cooking it further.

Once you add sugar to the ricotta cheese the mixture will melt again. You can also add a few drops of yellow food color to enhance the look of the peda / modak. Cook it further for about 5 minutes or until the mixture thickens a little.

Now add cardamom powder to it and cook it for about 3 to 4 minutes or until the mixture thickens and forms the shape.

Now turn off the heat and transfer the peda mixture to a greased plate and let it cool for 15 to 20 minutes. When the mixture has cooled down enough you can roll them into pedas.

Once the mixture has cooled down, apply little ghee to your palm. Take a tablespoon of mixture onto your palm and roll it into a round ball. Then gently press down in the center with your thumb to make a slight depression.

Keep the ricotta cheese pedas aside to air dry and later garnish them with slivered pistachios.

Place the air-dried ricotta cheese pedas in an airtight container. They will stay good at room temperature for up to 3 days and later on in the fridge up to a week.

You can even use molds to shape them as you wish.

Some other Indian sweets you can try:

Mathura Peda

Mawa Barfi

Butterscotch Barfi

Frequently asked questions - FAQs

What is Ricotta Cheese?

Ricotta is a light, fluffy, creamy, slightly sweet, and fresh cheese. Ricotta cheese is predominantly made from cow milk but it can most definitely be made from buffalo, goat, or sheep milk.

In Italian Ricotta means recooked, ricotta cheese is made by reheating the whey left over from making cheese like mozzarella or provolone. So in reality it is made from the tiny bits of curd left behind in the whey during cheese making.

The texture of ricotta resembles a grainy and thick sour cream or a very soft cottage cheese and is naturally low fat as compared to other cheese.

This texture makes it a perfect base to make the ricotta cheese peda. It yields smooth, creamy, and melt-in-your-mouth peda or modak.

This is also a perfect alternative to Khoya or mawa. So you get mawa like peda without those many efforts.

Can you add Milk powder to the Ricotta Cheese Peda?

Though milk powder is mostly added in the peda recipes It is not advisable to do so in this ricotta cheese peda recipe.

When you add milk powder to the mixture and mix it along with sugar it melts and cooks. In this process, the texture of the pedas and modak changes and makes the ricotta cheese modak sticky. That is not the texture you want in this peda or modak.

Can low-fat ricotta cheese be used to make these pedas?

While making pedas it is always best to use full-fat ingredients. Using low-fat or fat-free ricotta cheese won't yield the same result and might change texture, flavor, and quantity of output.

For perfect peda, it is advisable to use full-fat ricotta cheese.

How to store the pedas?

After air drying the pedas store the ricotta cheese peda in an airtight container. The pedas will stay good for up to 3 days at room temperature. You can store the peda or modak in the refrigerator for one week.

HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?

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