Ice Cream Peda

Updated Feb. 13, 2025

Ice Cream Peda
Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
1 hour 10 minutes, plus 2 hours’ chilling
Prep Time
5 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour 5 minutes, plus 2 hours' chilling
Rating
4(23)
Comments
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Peda, a fudgy, milky South Asian sweet, is a staple of mithai shop cases. In this recipe, the founder of Malai Ice Cream, Pooja Bavishi, smartly uses melted ice cream as a base, incorporating milk powder, cardamom and salt for a snackable treat that’s toasty and nutty in flavor and aromatic with spices. The melted ice cream gives the peda its rich texture and subtle, sweet undertow and makes the dough easy to handle and shape. If the dough starts to dry out as you are shaping the balls, just knead it again until smooth. —Priya Krishna

Featured in: Mithai Sheds Its Too-Sweet Reputation

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Ingredients

Yield:24 pieces
  • 1packed teaspoon saffron threads
  • ¼cup boiling water
  • 1quart sweet-milk ice cream or vanilla ice cream
  • ¼teaspoon ground cardamom
  • Salt
  • 4cups/420 grams whole-milk powder
  • Ghee, for greasing your hands
  • About ½ cup chopped pistachios or 24 blanched whole almonds, for garnishing
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (24 servings)

76 calories; 5 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 7 grams carbohydrates; 0 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 105 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    To bloom the saffron, crush the saffron threads with your fingers and drop them into a small heatproof bowl. Add the boiling water and let sit to develop the flavor, at least 5 minutes or up to 20 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Scoop the ice cream into a large nonstick frying pan. Place the pan over medium heat and let the ice cream melt. As the ice cream melts, add the bloomed saffron mixture, cardamom and ¼ teaspoon salt. When the ice cream has melted, add the milk powder and, using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, stir until well incorporated (a few small lumps are fine). Adjust heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan and comes together in a ball, about 15 minutes. Let the mixture cool until it can be handled.

  3. Step 3

    Meanwhile, line a sheet pan with parchment paper. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes, turn it out onto a work surface, coat your hands with ghee and knead until smooth, about 5 minutes (a bench scraper can be helpful to keep the mixture from sticking to the surface). To shape each sweet, coat your hands with additional ghee, then pinch off a golf-ball-size piece of the mixture and roll between your palms into a smooth ball. Flatten the ball slightly, pressing down on the center with your thumb to create an indentation, and then place on the prepared pan. Repeat until all the mixture has been shaped, adding more ghee to your hands as needed. (If the mixture starts to dry and crack as you’re forming the pieces, knead it again until it’s smooth and glossy). You should have 24 shaped pieces.

  4. Step 4

    Set about 1 teaspoon chopped pistachios or 1 whole almond in each indentation and press down lightly to ensure the nuts stick.

  5. Step 5

    Refrigerate until cold, about 2 hours and up to a day ahead. Serve chilled. Leftovers will last up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator or up to a month in the freezer, stored in an air-tight container.

Ratings

4 out of 5
23 user ratings
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Comments

I just made a version of this ! Something in the melted ice cream made incorporating the powdered milk easy. I had a saffron, pistachio ice cream flavour. I added mango pulp and cooked it. It is fabulous!

The word peda should be removed from this recipe. Making peda is completely different, and uses ingredients that are not even listed here. This looks like a good recipe, but should be called Melted Icecream with Milk Powder. Please don't Americanize Indian recipes to the point where they are unrecognizable.

If you can, I recommend using mawa, the Indian dry milk at the Indian market. You can also find Indian flavored ice creams there as well, which is nice to use instead of vanilla.

Why in the world would one use boiling water to bloom the saffron? That's the surest way to destroy the saffron. The water needs to be lukewarm.

The word peda should be removed from this recipe. Making peda is completely different, and uses ingredients that are not even listed here. This looks like a good recipe, but should be called Melted Icecream with Milk Powder. Please don't Americanize Indian recipes to the point where they are unrecognizable.

So no need to worry about the "overrun," the amount of air in the ice cream? 4 cups of ice cream would yield between about 2 and 2-2/3 cup melted ice cream depending on how fluffy vs dense it is, which seems big enough to matter.

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Credits

Adapted from Pooja Bavishi

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