PAENIA - TRADITIONAL SWEET MADE USING MAIDA

Paenia is a traditional sweet made using maida dough that is layered as a paratha, deep fried in oil and then soaked in sugar syrup. It tastes delicious and is best served hot as an evening snack. This is my mother in law’s recipe who is an expert in making this sweet.

This recipe makes 8 small paenias.

Ingredients

2 cups maida/ all purpose flour

3 tsp sugar

3 tbsp dalda/ghee

3 tsp milk

For the sugar syrup (sheera)

4 cups sugar

2 cups water

Paste to be applied in between the layers

¼ cup maida

2 tsp dalda/ ghee

4 tsp oil

1 tsp sugar

Method

• Take maida, sugar, dalda and milk in a bowl and add water little by little to form a smooth dough.
• Cover with a lid and set aside.
• Heat a pan, add sugar and water and bring to a boil. Cook for about 10 minutes till it is sticky but has not reached single thread consistency. (Paenia will not be able to soak in thick sheera, hence make sure that the sheera has just the consistency of a jamun sheera). Once done, switch off the gas and keep ready.
• Make a paste using maida, sugar, dalda and oil and keep ready.
• Divide the dough into 8 equal balls. Take one ball, dust with flour and roll to form a large circle. Apply 1 or 2 tsp of the paste and spread such that it covers the entire circle.
• Gently fold and form layers just like you do while making padar parathas.
• Once all the 8 small parathas (paenia) are ready, heat oil in a pan and deep fry one paenia in oil. Turn it to the other side using a kafgeer (spotted spoon) and cook on both sides till it turns golden brown in colour.
• Once done, gently transfer it to the pan containing the sugar syrup (sheera). Use another kafgeer and turn over the paenia once or twice so that both sides are able to soak the syrup. Meanwhile deep fry the next Paenia in oil. Allow the first paenia to soak in the sheera till you are ready to put the next paenia into the sheera. Once it has soaked transfer it to a plate. (Do not stack the Paenia one on top of the other as they will stick with each other.}
• In the same way prepare the remaining paenia. Serve this hot as an evening snack.
• Paenia tastes best when served hot. Or you can also store it in air tight containers. For this, allow the paenia to cool down completely (it might take 3 to 4 hours) and only then transfer it to an air tight container. This sweet has a shelf life of 2 to 3 days.