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    Home » indian sweet

    Kesar Peda – Saffron Infused Mithai Sweet for Sankranti. Vegan Glutenfree Recipe

    Published: Jan 13, 2014 · Modified: Mar 17, 2022 by Richa 51 Comments

    Jump to Recipe   Print Recipe
    Kesar Peda is fudge type cookie made with milk solids. This recipe is dairy-free and uses almonds for this Saffron infused Almond cookie. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe. Easily doubled.
    Jump to Recipe   
    Vegan Kesar Peda - Saffron Infused Mithai Sweet Almond cookie

     

     You would think that holidays, festivals and events would probably hit the Snooze button for a few months. But that ain’t the case. There are quite a few Indian festivals and they are quite nicely spread over the year. Some are celebrated more fervently that the others, but they all have a set of sweets, savories and dishes associated with them. The food also depends on the region or state and I have not touched so many cuisines from so many regions in India, at all on the blog! 

    Every few weeks I try to vegan-ize Indian sweets and desserts and other dairy intense recipes which do not have a straight forward substitute or a close alternative. This past week, I had an idea about a certain texture and taste and decided to make Pedas.

    Indian kesar peda cookies on a black plate
    Pedas / Mathura Phedas are flat discs that are soft, have a good lot of sugar and some flavorings like cardamom, saffron, rose, pistachio etc and the other(or the only) main ingredient is Khoa (milk solids). I don’t know why so many Indian sweets use milk solids. Imagine the amount of cow’s milk needed to make the solids by cooking the milk till most of the moisture evaporates ( 5 cups or 1.2 liter or 33 oz or 2.2 lbs of whole milk, gives just 200 gms or 0.4 lbs of Khoa, which is almost 6:1 ratio). And now imagine all the milk being taken away from the babies 
    somewhere, who are very hungry and eventually are killed, just so we can eat a few of these sweets. Now, we don’t need to anymore. These pedas might not be exactly like how you remember but they are close, very close and very delicious!

    Pedas are a very sugary milk fudge kind of dessert. so the vegan version is also sweet and fudgy. Adjust sweet in the recipe to preference.

    Believe you me. you want to make these pedas to celebrate Lohri and Sankranti.

    Next in line maybe Kalakand!




    You can also find a load of vegan Indian Sweets in my Indian Sweets Ebook, which you can buy here. I am trying to change it up to display better on kindle and offer it on Amazon, and having a lot of trouble with the formats. If anyone knows the easiest format to make an ebook in, which works out the best for all Kindles and their different aspect ratios, please do let me know.

    Also to celebrate 20,000 fans on Facebook, I am giving away 5 copies of the Ebook today! The first 5 comments on this post get the Ebook! Please leave me a way to contact you in the comments 🙂

    Steps:
    Soak the saffron in warm almond milk.



    Grind the almonds. Add to bowl. Add coconut flour, sugar, cardamom, salt and mix well. 




    Add almond milk, maple syrup and mix into a soft dough. Shape into discs and bake for 10 minutes. 




    Serve when cool. 


    Print Recipe
    5 from 7 votes

    Kesar Peda - Saffron Infused Almond Cookie

    Kesar Peda is fudge type cookie made with milk solids. This recipe is dairy-free and uses almonds for this Saffron infused Almond cookie. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe. Easily doubled.
    Prep Time10 mins
    Cook Time20 mins
    Total Time30 mins
    Course: Cookie, Dessert
    Servings: 6
    Calories: 98kcal
    Author: Vegan Richa

    Ingredients

    • 1/2 cup (56 g) almond flour Both blanched as well as natural flour work.
    • 1.5 Tbsp coconut flour
    • 3 Tbsp finely ground raw sugar or other fine vegan sugar
    • a generous pinch of salt
    • 1/4 tsp cardamon powder
    • 8 saffron strands
    • 1 tsp almond milk or other non dairy milk
    • 1.5 Tbsp maple syrup or any other sweet syrup with similar consistency like agave, jaggery syrup. sugar syrup

    Instructions

    • Heat the almond milk. Mix the saffron strands in it and let sit for 5 minutes.
    • In a bowl, mix the almond flour, coconut flour, sugar, salt and cardamom powder.
    • Add the saffron almond milk and maple syrup (or jaggery/sugar/date syrup) and mix well to make a soft dough. If the mixture is not a soft sticky mix, add in 1 teaspoons or more maple syrup. Make flat discs of the dough and serve as is, or bake at 300 degrees F / 150ºc for 9 minutes. (the pedas will expand a bit while baking). Top with some chopped pistachios or almond slivers and press in
    • Cool completely before serving or storing. Store in the refrigerator in airtight container for upto a week. the baked pedas are are soft Fudgy cookies. They taste best chilled.

    Notes

    You can make your own coconut flour with coconut flakes like here.
    To grind the almonds into as fine as possible, add a Tablespoon of oats and a Tablespoon of starch(corn or arrowroot) in the blender and blend. Blanched almond flour works best 
    Nutritional values based on one serving

    Nutrition

    Nutrition Facts
    Kesar Peda - Saffron Infused Almond Cookie
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 98 Calories from Fat 45
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 5g8%
    Saturated Fat 1g6%
    Sodium 6mg0%
    Potassium 15mg0%
    Carbohydrates 12g4%
    Fiber 2g8%
    Sugar 9g10%
    Protein 2g4%
    Vitamin A 1IU0%
    Vitamin C 1mg1%
    Calcium 27mg3%
    Iron 1mg6%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.




    Other Sankranti/Lohri recipes


    Coconut Rava Laddoo  – Sweet balls of coconut flakes and semolina.



    This Eggplant and potato stir fry with chickpea flour, spices and nuts. Ringad Batak nu shaak



    This puffed grain and jaggery snack. A laddoo ball or bars with puffed grains, sesame seeds, nuts kept together with Jaggery(unrefined sugar) syrup is a favorite sweet and snack in several parts of India. One of the versions has only sesame seeds and jaggery syrup like a chewy sesame brittle. This Tilgud (sesame jaggery) is distributed among friends and family with the saying “Tilgul ghya, god god bola” that means “Take a tilgul and talk sweet as it”. The under-lying thought in the exchange of tilguds is to forget the past ill-feelings and hostilities and resolve to speak sweetly and remain friends.


    Kanda Bhaji – Onion Fritters. or make these Baked broocoli fritters.




    Date fig Burfi – Date fig nut bars




    Upma- Savory Cream of wheat or rice cooked with peas, nuts and veggies




    Besan Quinoa Laddoo – Sweet Chickpea flour balls with cashews and raisins.


    Happy Sankranti / Lohri / Pongal to all who are celebrating!

    This Peda is being shared at Allergy Free Wednesdays and Ricki’s wellness weekend.

    Sharing is caring!

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    ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you Love the Recipe, Please consider rating it using stars in comments! It helps readers and helps more people find the recipe online! I love hearing from you all! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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    1. Bis

      April 25, 2022 at 1:47 am

      Is the amount of milk enough? Did you mean tbsp or tsp? Thanks!

      Reply
      • Richa

        April 25, 2022 at 5:39 am

        The moisture is from maple syrup. (1.5 tablespoons maple syrup) You don’t need more than a teaspoon of milk

        Reply
    2. Sage

      March 18, 2022 at 3:02 pm

      5 stars
      Okay these were perfectly soft, chewy! I already made them today for Holi because I was searching vegan desserts and your recipes never disappoint. Glad this popped up when I was looking for a delish, EASY, quick recipe. I ended up making double for my family (because I ate 6) and they enjoyed with their chai!

      Reply
      • Vegan Richa Support

        March 18, 2022 at 3:13 pm

        thank you for the 🌟 rating!

        Reply
    3. Sreedevi

      November 06, 2021 at 5:04 pm

      I cannot believe how much these taste like a regular dudh peda with khoya!! Just made these for Diwali and they were a hit. Half the family is vegan and there are some diabetics among us as well. I used a loose homemade date paste instead of the maple syrup and some pure monkfruit powder instead of sugar. Everything else was the same and they came out so well. Quadrupled the recipe. Thank you so much!

      Reply
      • Vegan Richa Support

        November 08, 2021 at 11:14 am

        perfect! wow quadrupled!

        Reply
    4. Jen

      October 08, 2021 at 7:34 pm

      5 stars
      These are delicious, and the fastest, easiest treat-recipe I’ve ever followed. Literally in and out of the kitchen in <5 minutes! I've never had these in any form before, but think I may need to cut back on saffron a wee bit OR add a kick more of cardamom. The consistency is definitely fudgy–probably more-so because I can't read directions and made laddoos instead of discs. But no problem–I'll just eat all of these tonight and start a fresh batch in the morning to share! 😉Any tips on getting the crushed pistachios to stick?

      Reply
      • Richa

        October 08, 2021 at 7:57 pm

        Yay!! Press them in really well.

        Reply
    5. Jen

      October 05, 2021 at 12:10 pm

      Thank you, Richa! Are those pistachios dusted on top?? I need these to look pretty and impress! 😉

      Reply
      • Vegan Richa Support

        October 06, 2021 at 10:14 am

        indeed! i hope that you impress

        Reply
    6. Brenda

      October 21, 2020 at 12:12 am

      5 stars
      Mmmmm i can almost smell these cookies filling the house with celebration and spice.Wonderful!

      Reply
    7. Shweta

      August 12, 2020 at 8:22 pm

      5 stars
      Made this with ready made almond flour and left out the coconut. I used regular milk since I didn’t have anything non dairy and it Tastes amazing! I would bake for about half the time so they don’t melt down into more of a cookie form. Thank you for this!! So good!!

      Reply
      • Vegan Richa Support

        August 12, 2020 at 8:33 pm

        Awesome, thank you!

        Reply
    8. Sonu

      March 17, 2019 at 11:08 am

      5 stars
      Will be great to incorporate this idea of making Almond Kesar Peda for our vegan customers.

      Reply
    9. Emily

      February 27, 2018 at 9:09 pm

      5 stars
      I make these every Diwali. Always a hit!

      Reply
    10. Vegan Gym Beast

      February 27, 2018 at 5:58 pm

      5 stars
      Lets try to lift this out from 1 star rating. Voting it 5 stars, at least bloody appreciate if someone takes the time to post a VEGAN peda, and not downvote this thing.

      Great work, thanks for the recipe

      Reply
    11. m

      November 02, 2015 at 4:36 pm

      Richa – i can’t wait to try this. But, your recipe calls for non-dairy milk. but, would it turn out bad if I did use regular milk? please help.. will be making batches to gift away for Diwali this year!

      Reply
      • Richa

        November 02, 2015 at 7:40 pm

        Use water. I havent used dairy milk in 6 years so I dont know how it will work. These pedas are dairy-free (cruelty-free)

        Reply
    12. Unknown

      April 24, 2014 at 9:39 pm

      Hi Richa,
      Recently I served these pedhas for Hanuman Jayanti. They were delicious without any time consuming work of boiling milk. I was craving for vegan pedhas since I started following vegan diet. I was skeptical if this would have lot of almond taste, however it completely mimicked khoya taste.
      Both me and my husband loved it. We definitely prefer baked version. For unbaked, my mom suggested me to dry roast flour before kneading the dough. I may try that. I skipped coconut flour.
      Thank you for wonderful, cruelty free recipe 🙂
      Regards,
      Mukta.

      Reply
      • Richa

        April 25, 2014 at 1:43 am

        exactly right. it works perfectly after baking. the heat helps infuse the flavors and sugar.. I like the idea of pre-roasting the flour. let me know how it turns out.
        i am so glad you liked it. i need to make these again:)

        Reply
    13. Unknown

      April 24, 2014 at 9:33 pm

      Hello Richa,
      I recently tried this wonderful recipe and served as a prasad for Hanuman Jayanti. I was missing eating pedhas since I started following vegan diet.
      Both, my husband and I loved it. Initially I was skeptical if it will have too much almod taste, but I was wrong. It totally mimicked khoya taste. I skipped coconut flour. I tried both baked and unbaked. I could feel the taste of raw flour in unbaked version and thus prefer baked version. My mom suggested to dry roast flours for unbaked version, may try it next time.
      Thank you very much,
      Mukta

      Reply
    14. Anonymous

      April 03, 2014 at 9:20 pm

      Is there any substitute for coconut flour? Buying whole bag for 1 tbsp for peda is bit expensive 🙁

      Reply
      • Richa

        April 04, 2014 at 8:11 pm

        oat or almond flour

        Reply
      • Monisha Reddy

        November 04, 2021 at 10:54 am

        Can you freeze these after baking ?

        Reply
        • Vegan Richa Support

          November 04, 2021 at 11:36 am

          haven’t tried – but should work fine

          Reply
    15. Anonymous

      April 01, 2014 at 5:53 pm

      Should sugar syrup be of 1 thread consistency?

      Reply
      • Richa

        April 01, 2014 at 6:03 pm

        yes anywhere from 0.5 to 1 thread consistency will work.

        Reply
    16. Corrin Radd

      January 20, 2014 at 9:02 pm

      I cut the sugar in half and served these for breakfast this morning. Delicious!

      Reply
      • Richa

        January 20, 2014 at 9:07 pm

        Awesome! The Indian sweet Peda is very sweet, so it needs the sugar, but as a cookie, the sweet can definitely be cut down. I am so glad you made them! andthnk you so much for trying so many of my recipes! xx <3

        Reply
    17. Dina

      January 20, 2014 at 4:50 pm

      i’ve been looking for cookies made with almond flour. this sounds great!

      Reply
    18. Caitlin

      January 14, 2014 at 2:47 pm

      hooray for another gf indian treat! these sound superb and look delicious.

      Reply
    19. Hannah

      January 14, 2014 at 2:32 am

      Oh darn, I missed out on the giveaway! At least I have these delicious cookies as a consolation prize… The flavors sound incredible, exotic and delicate, and like nothing else I’ve ever tasted. You are such a kitchen genius!

      Reply
    20. Gabby @ the veggie nook

      January 14, 2014 at 1:26 am

      These are gorgeous Richa! Love the addition of saffron- beautiful colour 🙂

      Reply
    21. Obiwan's Mom

      January 14, 2014 at 12:36 am

      OMG~ I’ve found cooking Nirvana!!! I LOVE Indian cooking~ Richa is a gourmet, smart, eco and health conscious AND has delicious recipes what more incentive can a person want to take the leap to appreciating a new cuisine and all it has to offer—THANk YOU. THIS is amazing. NAMASTE!

      Reply
      • Obiwan's Mom

        January 14, 2014 at 7:50 am

        Very weird my ID didn’t come out accurately…Obiwan is the name of my little dog, and of course, I’m “his Mom” ~so-o-o that’s why I choose the name: Obiwan’s Mom :o) My email address is sharon.conser@gmail.com

        Reply
      • Obiwan's Mom

        January 14, 2014 at 7:55 am

        Loving Greetings~ I loved your blog so much, I looked up major South Asia Holiday to find out more. I can’t wait to make your Pedas and learn more about India and it’s culture and cuisine. May your life be blessed with love. May your life be blessed with lakshmi. May your life be blessed with happiness. HAPPY MAKAR SANKRANTI!

        Reply
    22. mbenit

      January 14, 2014 at 12:33 am

      Everything looks so delicious.

      Reply
    23. Maitreyi

      January 14, 2014 at 12:00 am

      Hi Richa, amazing recipes. Would love to have your ebook. My mail id is sundarlakshmi@hotmail.com

      Reply
    24. Unknown

      January 13, 2014 at 11:44 pm

      I would love an ebook! My email is pnnarula@gmail.com xo Priya

      Reply
    25. Anonymous

      January 13, 2014 at 8:40 pm

      thanks Richa for all the effort you make to share your recipes!
      If not too late, I would like to win the ebook 🙂 my name is Coloma, I will send details if I win!

      Reply
    26. Anonymous

      January 13, 2014 at 8:19 pm

      I would love to have your e-book. Your recipes are fantastic! sjfrost983@gmail.com

      Reply
    27. Christine McKenna

      January 13, 2014 at 8:07 pm

      Very much enjoy your blogs, and enjoyed creating some of the sweets in the Diwali Sweets e-book. Thanks so much for sharing your creative efforts so beautifully! I am christine.mckenna at gmail dot com.

      Reply
    28. Lisa Abney

      January 13, 2014 at 8:00 pm

      abneylisa@gmail.com; I would love to have your recipe book! I use this site quit often for healthy vegan recipes. Keep up the good work!

      Reply
    29. Anonymous

      January 13, 2014 at 8:00 pm

      forgot my email address…ljstwo@sbcglobal.net

      Reply
    30. Anonymous

      January 13, 2014 at 7:59 pm

      can’t wait to try these

      Reply
    31. Unknown

      January 13, 2014 at 7:52 pm

      These look amazing! As a vegan marrying into an Indian family, your recipes are invaluable. I’m so glad I found them. My name is Emily and my email is emily.hufstetler@gmail.com
      Thank you!

      Reply

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