Recipe for Maava Na Penda that melt in your mouth
Vegan Maava Na Penda
Getting together to share pre-made Mitthai
With Divali and New Year coming up, I had an excuse to explore making vegan Mitthai!
'Indian' sweets are made and shared during this festivity, but they often contain non-vegan ingredients, such as, ghee, butter or condensed milk.
The thing is...I'm not used to being vegan and missing out!
With that in mind; I arranged for some like-minded folk to get together and share the results of their experimentation with making vegan Mitthai.
For this event, I made Maava Na Penda. (I'll tell you more about the event in another post.)
Reminiscing...
I've never really been a fan of 'Indian Sweets' but there were a couple that I loved! One of them was Maava Na Penda. I didn't like all of them though. I was fussy!
There was one place in Ilford, that made the most amazing Maava Na Penda! So, When I was at Uni, my Dad used to get them to send me a box by post every now and again. Spoilt huh?
Well....since going vegan, I've not thought about them much or missed them, BUT I made some Penda on Friday and had a flash back to the ones I used to get in the post! They were delicious!
The texture wasn't the same, but the taste was lush!
This recipe makes 16 Pendas
Ingredients for vegan Maava Na Penda
- 1 cup of ground almonds
- 4 tablespoons of coconut flour
- 8 tablespoons of soft brown sugar
- 3 generous pinches of fine sea salt
- 1/2 a teaspoon of finely ground cardamom powder
- 1/4 of a teaspoon of saffron strands
- 4 teaspoons of soya milk or other non dairy milk
- 4 tablespoon of sweet syrup - I used Bali Nutra Coconut Syrup
- 1/4 cup of soya milk or other non dairy milk
- 1/4 cup of sliced almonds - to decorate them
How to make vegan Maava Na Penda
- Heat the 4 teaspoons of soya milk
- Mix the saffron strands in it and let sit for 5 minutes
- In a bowl, mix the ground almonds, coconut flour, sugar, salt and cardamom powder
- Add the sugar syrup and soya milk which has saffron in it and mix well
- Add the 1/4 cup of soya milk and mix to make a soft dough
- Make flat discs with the dough - I did this straight on the greaseproof paper using a biscuit cutter that was 48mm in diameter
- Add some chopped almonds on top of each Penda
- Bake at 150 Celsius for 9-10 minutes - they will expand a little
- Let them cool completely before serving or storing
- Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a week
Serve when chilled.
Adapted from Vegan Richa
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