Palkova - Thickened Sweetened Milk Sweet (Fudge)

I bet a lot of you are thinking I am crazy to suggest making palkova in this heat. We are in the midst of a serious heat wave. The few bonus(that's what the weatherman in one of the channels here suggested) cool days last week provided a perfect opportunity to use up a gallon of full fat milk that found its way into the fridge. How? That's a story that repeats itself in every household I bet.

Yes, we could make yogurt but I prefer 1% or 2% milk for yogurt, full milk yogurt is too thick and creamy for my liking. yeah right? To tell you the truth, I had palkova on my mind and the minute I told the kids they could not resist. By the end of the process they had had enough of the stirring. A gallon of milk will yield about 3 cups of palkova after 3-4 hours of constant stirring.

A childhood favorite of mine, it is one of the steps in making gulab jamuns (recipe here). My ammayee never made palkova. Gulab jamun on the other hand was a constant throughout our childhood.

If you get raw milk that would be perfect, pasteurized and ultra-pasteurized takes longer to thicken.




My grandma usually added a couple of marbles to the pan to avoid sticking. I add a steel spoon. It seems to help though that does not completely eliminate the need to stir. I do it because grandma always did it.

Ingredients
1. 1 gallon whole milk
2. 1 1/2 cups of sugar (I added turbinado sugar which makes the sweet slightly darker shade)
3. 2-3 tsp of ghee

Method
1. In a wide mouthed thick bottomed pan add the milk and let it continue to boil in heat a little lower than medium
2. Keep stirring constantly as the milk thickens
3. After about 2 1/2 hours when the milk is thick that it coats the spoon without dropping down easily add sugar and continue to stir till the milk reaches a soft ball stage
4. Spread ghee on a plate and pour out the thickened milk. Let cool and make it into preferred shapes (We leave it as is and spoon it into cups to enjoy)
5. Garnish with nuts of choice