Khoya is a milk product made by cooking and thickening the milk over low heat for hours. Milk is reduced to one-fifth of its original quantity by simmering it on low flame and evaporating all its moisture. It is the main ingredient of a variety of Indian sweets.

The demand for khoya rises during festive seasons like Diwali and during winter season when many sweet delicacies are prepared using khoya as the key ingredient. When the demand for khoya is on rise, producers and vendors adulterate this dairy product with harmful chemical contaminated ingredients in order to meet the high demand and earn more profit. Khoya is the most adulterated milk product sold in markets when it’s demand is at peak.

Be it festive or winter season, both are incomplete without the quintessential khoya sweets and savouries. If you prepare sweets using store-bought khoya, there is a high probability that the khoya you are using is adulterated. Khoya is generally contaminated with starch, blotting paper, fine flour, urea, detergent and other synthetic chemicals. The milk used to make this khoya is also adulterated and low in quality. Who wants to eat such a khoya and sweets made out of it? This khoya is not safe for consumption. So make khoya at home and enjoy its purity and rich taste having full knowledge of the quality of the ingredients used.

Here is the simple recipe of making khoya at home. It requires only one ingredient that is full cream milk.

Yield: 400-500 grams

Cooking time: 3 hours

Ingredients

Full cream milk:  2.5-3 litres

Method

Take a deep and thick bottomed wok. Rinse it with water. Pour milk into it and turn on the flame. Give a boil on high flame stirring occasionally. Then simmer on low flame stirring it with a spatula after regular intervals and scraping the sides and the bottom to remove the stuck creamy milk. Keep mixing it with bubbling milk on the flame. The milk will continue to get thickened slowly. After few hours, the thickened milk will turn into rabri. Keep stirring it frequently.

After some time, the moisture in the rabri will evaporate and it will convert into khoya. It will be light brown in colour and very thick in consistency. Turn off the flame. Transfer it immediately in some clean flat utensil and let it cool at room temperature. When it cools down, store it in an airtight box and refrigerate.

When you want to use it, take it out from the refrigerator few hours before use.

Tips to make perfect khoya

Use fresh and good-quality full cream milk only for best result. I litre of milk yields around 200 grams of khoya.

Use a deep and thick bottomed wok to make khoya so that the milk does not come out while boiling and it does not get burnt sticking at the bottom. You can also use a big and deep non-stick pan. It also works well to make khoya.

Keep stirring and scraping the sides and the bottom of the wok at regular intervals while the milk is simmering. Keep mixing it simultaneously with the boiling milk so as to thicken it fast.

After the milk gets thickened and converts into khoya, turn off the flame and transfer the khoya in a flat plate to stop further cooking and let it cool fast. If the khoya is overcooked, it will become chewy.

Homemade khoya is far better than the store-bought one. There is an assured purity and richness and you are aware of the ingredients used when you make it at home. It does not contain any additives and preservatives. You can store it in an airtight container and refrigerate it for a week. If stored in the freezer, it stays good for 15 days.

Stop buying khoya from the market. Make it at home and make sweets from scratch out of it. This will help you eat high-quality delicacies having pure ingredients. Eat pure and healthy with homemade food!