Mohanthal is a traditional Gujarati mithai (fudge) with besan(split chickpea flour), sugar and ghee as main ingredients. It is a soft texture burfi. Let's see Mohanthal recipe with step by step pictures and quick video.
This sweet, similar to besan burfi, can be made for festivals like Diwali and celebrations like
Check out my bournvita burfi recipe if which is also gluten free and how to make ghee at home post, tastes best with in this sweet.
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About Mohanthal
Mohanthal is a beloved traditional Gujarati sweet (and from Rajasthan, India), often enjoyed during festive season like Diwali, Janmashtami and special celebrations. Made with simple yet rich ingredients like besan (gram flour/ split chickpea flour), ghee, sugar and khoya, this fudge-like mithai boasts a soft, melt in the mouth texture. Its cardamom aroma and crunchy nuts add a delightful layers of flavor and texture, making it a perfect festive treat.
This name became familiar with me when my friend Sangeeta used to share how yummy this would taste. Finally I could attempt successfully and taste it. Hope I can taste the original sweet from Indian sweets shop some day.
Mohanthal Ingredients
Mohanthal is a gram flour fudge to explain it easily with besan, ghee, sugar and khoya as main ingredients. Cardamom and nuts are used too.
- Besan - Split chickpea flour - Gram flour - You can use either regular besan fine ground or coarse as well.
- Sugar - Granulated white sugar.
- Ghee - Clarified butter
- Khoya - Milk solids, unsweetened.
- Milk - Added for soft texture
- Cardamom - For flavor
See recipe card for quantities.
Please read entire post if you intend to try as I have shared many important notes and tips throughout.
Step by step Images
Let's see how to make Mohanthal.
- Firstly heat a heavy bottom pan or preferably non-stick and place khoya in it.
2. Stir in medium or low flame furthermore to loosen it.
3. After that, add besan, ½ cup ghee and mix well.
4. Both ghee as well as khoya have to mix evenly.
5. Roast scraping the bottom well, as initially it will get stuck to bottom.
6. Continue roasting until nice aroma of besan + ghee wafts and the colour of the mixture will be reddish, texture resembling sand (grainy texture).
Note: Do roasting in medium or low flame only. Otherwise the smell of besan won't be pleasant. Towards the end the mixture tend to get burnt fast, so keep stirring scraping the bottom always.
7. Add milk now and mix well.
8. Let it get mixed without any lumps and become dry and ressemble a crumble and get a nice caramel flavor. Keep aside.
Make sugar syrup
1. Take a sauce pan and start heating 1 cup sugar with ½ cup water approx. Mix until sugar melts
2. Continue in medium heat to low heat, until you get a clear one string consistency.
How to check consistency for this recipe? You do not need a kitchen thermometer for accurate results.
Leave a drop in a plate. Wipe it and check between your forefinger and thumb. A string should form and should not break.
You can easily get tricked - Firstly, a string forms, breaks easily while you check. But you have to patiently wait and boil until the string forms stays, doesn't break at all.
If the consistency is not reached, mohanthal won't set.
Mixing
Grease a tray with ghee and keep it ready.
1. Once the syrup reaches consistency, immediately add the syrup to our prepared besan mixture, with khoya and ghee. Add ⅛ teaspoon cardamom powder now.
2. Mix well to cool it down.
3. The mixture will get thick as it cools.
4. To check the right consistency, take a pinch of the mixture and roll between your fingers. It should form a non-sticky ball..
Shaping
4. Then transfer to the greased tray and level it using a spatula.
5. Sprinkle nuts over it and press gently. Let it cool down.
6. Once warm and set, cut into squares with a sharp knife.
7. Store in a container with lid.
Substitutions
Here is what you can do if you don't have Khoya.
- Khoya - instead of khoya, you can use ½ cup heavy cream & 1 cup Milk powder. Just heat both together until you get a thick paste and proceed with the recipe.
Variations
Giving the visitor ideas on how they can change this recipe to better suit their dinner guests, or their cultural cuisine, is a great way to increase the chances they make the recipe
- Sugar - add ¼ cup extra sugar if you like it on sweeter side. Mine was perfect, yet the original recipe have 1 & ¼ cup of sugar.
- Ghee - add 2 tablespoons extra ghee for a more moist, juicy, soft results. Since I added khoya, I reduced the ghee and it was just right without any compromise in taste.
- Nuts - Use your favorite nuts, folks at home never like nuts in the sweet, so I just used as garnish.
- You can also use saffron in the syrup if you like or while garnishing.
My reference for the recipe (Adapted and changed method and measures to my taste)
Equipment
This is the second time I am making this recipe. First time, I used steel pan and it was getting stuck and burnt in the bottom.
So highly recommend using non stick or heavy bottomed pan ( I used bronze kadai)
Storage
Store sweet in room temperature for 3 Days or upto a week in fridge. Since this is a ghee based sweet, storing in fridge may harden the texture. In that case, try to keep outside for an hour before serving.
Top tip
- You must need to roast the besan very well to avoid raw taste in the sweet.
- Also take care to not burn the flour, do it in medium flame always with constant stirring.
- Towards end, if you do not stir well, the flour in the bottom will get burnt, so lower heat furthermore.
- If Besan have lumps, you can take the flour in a large bowl and sieve it or use a whisk to break large lumps.
Storage
Keeps good for 2 weeks in fridge. Since it has khoa, I prefer to refrigerate it. Store in an airtight container.
FAQ
Mohan is Lord Krishna's name and thal meaning food. Since it is favorite food of Krishna, it is named Mohanthal.
115 Calories according to the website Tarla Dalal.
Check out my Diwali recipes collection.
Recipe card
Mohanthal recipe | Janmashtami sweet recipes
Ingredients
- 2 cups Besan
- 1 cup Sugar
- ½ cup Ghee
- ½ cup Khoya
- 1 tablespoon Milk
- 2 Cardamom crushed
- 10 Almonds sliced
Instructions
Roasting
- Firstly heat a heavy bottomed vessel or preferably non-stick and place khoya in it.
- Stir in medium or low flame furthermore to loosen it.
- After that, add besan, ghee and mix well.
- Both ghee as well as khoya have to mix evenly.
- Roast scraping the bottom well, as initially it will get stuck to bottom.
- Continue roasting until nice aroma of besan + ghee wafts and the colour of the mixture will be reddish, texture resembling sand. Keep aside.
- Mix milk now and mix.
- Let it get mixed without any lumps and become dry and ressemble a crumble.
Make sugar syrup
- Take a sauce pan and start heating sugar with ½ cup water approx.
- Continue until you get a clear one string consistency.
- How to check consistency for this recipe? Leave a drop in a plate. Wipe it and check between your forefinger and thumb. A string should form and should not break.
- You can easily get tricked - Firstly, a string forms, breaks easily while you check. But you have to patiently wait and boil until the string forms stays, doesn't break at all.
- If the consistency is not reached, mohanthal won't set.
Mixing
- Grease a tray with ghee and keep it ready.
- Once the syrup reaches consistency, immediately add the syrup to our prepared besan, khoya and ghee mixture. Add cardamom powder now.
- Mix well to cool it down. The mixture will get thick as it cools. To check the right consistency, take a pinch of the mixture and roll between your fingers. It should form a non-sticky ball.
Shaping
- Then transfer to the greased tray and level it.
- Sprinkle nuts over it and press gently. Let it cool down.
- Once warm and set, cut into squares.
- Store in a container with lid.
Video
Notes
- Instead of khoya, you can use ½ cup heavy cream & 1 cup Milk powder. Just heat both together until you get a thick paste and proceed with the recipe.
Arti Soni says
Hi …I tried this recipe..as it is …but in the end my mixture was dry and not liqidy as yours after putting sugar syrup..then I got little scared and I put little 3 tbs of milk.But the burfi bcm to hard…plz let me know the solution
Raks Anand says
Hi Arti, at times, if the sugar syrup is past the consistency or the syrup is made in high heat (often happens if the vessel is thin bottom). For any recipe using sugar syrup, I suggest to prepare the syrup in low heat, use enough water (if you use less water, the stages gets passed too quick and results wont be favourable) and be patient to get the consistency right in low or medium flame.
Coming to fix, break these mohanthals roughly and place in a mixer jar (do it in batches if there's too much) and powder it well. Take this powder in a heavy bottomed pan, add 1-2 tablespoon of ghee, 2-3 tablespoons of milk and mix in low heat until the mixture gets gooey. Then pour it in a greased tray and set it tight. Hope this will help you. Let me know!
Nila says
I tried this receipe. Tastes really good. I left to set overnight but it has not set.I think the syrup wasn’t of right consistency. How can I rectify this mistake?
Raks Anand says
You can again heat and melt then try to set again. You can add a tsp of sugar while reheating, this will help in setting. Hope this helps.