Gokul Pithe Recipe! And this will be my first post of 2020. If you expected me to be posting a healthy recipe, you are mistaken. Just as we get over the bacchanalia of Christmas and New Year, we start preparing for Makar Sankranti which is the last day of the month of Poush in the Bengali calendar and falls on Jan 15 mostly every year. This festival is performed to honor the Sun God and marks the end of the winter solstice. Well, for foodies like us nothing else mattered except that this was the day when my grandma or mom would be cooking a ton of “pithas’ or “pithes”.
Pitha or Pithe is traditionally a sweet preparation and made using rice, coconut and most importantly jaggery. The date palm jaggery or Nolen Gur is a seasonal ingredient and is available only this time of the year. And so that becomes the star ingredient in most pithes. There are various types and techniques when it comes to pithes/pithas and most recipes come with truckloads of history and stories. Personally, my family cooked only a few varieties like patishapta, chitoi pithe, puli pithe and those were the ones that that mostly happened every year in my ancestral home.
Gokul Pithe Recipe – Make at Home
Gokul pithe was something that was not often made at home. But this pithe is supposedly Samrat’s grandma’s specialty which she made every year. After I got married, I would often have my father-in-law make this. Yes, my father-in-law is an avid foodie and cooks a lot unlike his son, my husband who is just the former 🙂 This gokul pithe recipe is an heirloom recipe from my husband’s side of the family and I like it because it is easy and requires no prep the day before like soaking rice, grinding it etc. I use store bought frozen grated coconut and store bought khoya and both the ingredients makes things easy and just as delicious.
Now Gokul Pithe is essentially made with khoya and coconut and more or less all recipes I have found for it is same but there is one little tweak in Samrat’s dida’s recipe which steps up the game completely. That little tweak involves using Nolen Gur to flavor the sugar syrup to dunk these pithes. Trust me this one little step makes the dish absolutely irresistible. But please make sure the gur you are using is a good one. I get my Nolen Gur from the Bangladeshi store here and it is pretty good.
If you want to get started with an easy and non complicated pithe, Gokul pithe is what you should go for. Try this extremely classic Bengali Gokul Pithe recipe and let me know what you think!
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Gokul Pithe
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 50 mins
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Pin RecipeDescription
This Gokul Pithe Recipe is a traditional heirloom treat which is traditionally made in winters with seasonal ingredients.
Ingredients
Grated Coconut – 250 grams
Khoya – 500 grams
Date Palm Jaggery – 1 ½ cup
Sugar – 1 ½ cups
All Purpose Flour – ¾ cup
Ghee – 1 cup
Instructions
For the sugar syrup, heat 2 1/2 cups of water with the 1 1/2 cup of sugar. Let it come to a rolling boil and keep boiling for a good 5 mins. You should get a one string consistency. Take a drop of the syrup between your finger tips and once you separate the fingers you should see a string of the syrup.
Remove from the stove and add ½ cup of grated Nolen Gur. Mix and keep aside. It will melt on its own.
In another plate, grate the khoya if it is in the form of solid chunks. Now mix the grated coconut. Mix together with 1 cup of remaining grated Nolen Gur. Mix everything really well.
Now in a non-stick cooking pan, add this mixture and cook over a medium flame. This will easily take 10 – 15 mins. Make sure to stir continuously. The khoya will first melt and then as you keep on cooking it will come together to form a non-sticky dough. Remove from stove and let it cool.
Make equal sized balls from the dough first. I could get about 15. Once the ball is formed, flatten the dough between the palm of your hands and keep aside on a greased plate. Do this for all the balls.
Now in a bowl, take the all-purpose flour and 1 cup of water. Mix well to form a slurry.
Heat the ghee in a pan for a good 3-4 mins.
Dip one cake at a time in the slurry and deep fry it in the ghee. Make sure to fry until both sides is a golden brown.
Now immerse the fried Gokul pithes in the sugar syrup for 10 mins.
Put them on a plate, top with a little grated coconut, or grated khoya or slivered almonds to garnish. This step is optional.
Serve them hot.
Keywords: Gokul pithe, pithepuli, makarsankranti, nolengurpithe, Gokul Pithe Recipe
Gokul Pithe Recipe FAQs
Yes, it can be definitely made but the essence of the recipe is in the usage of the seasonal ingredient here which is the Nolen Gur.
I have not used a binder and the key to the success of this recipe is making sure the khoya and coconut mixture is right consistency. But if at all it is needed, I would suggest using a tbsp of corn flour.
Traditionally, the recipe requires deep frying and I have always done that but shallow frying on a non-stick pan might work too.
I am goi to make it This tim
Thanks dear!