Modak
Preparation Time
55 minutes
Cooking Time
25 minutes
Difficulty Level
moderate
Meal Type
Dessert
Serves 5
Key Ingredients
- Sona masoori rice (to grind into flour)
About This Recipe
Ukadiche modak is the cooked-dough modak of Maharashtra, the sweet offered during Ganesh Chaturthi. Rice flour is scalded with boiling water into a dough, pressed into a thin shell and steamed. The shell holds fresh coconut cooked with jaggery until it thickens, scented with cardamom.
This recipe grinds its flour from COWBERRY sona masoori rice instead of using ready rice flour, so the rice already in your kitchen is all the flour you need. The rice soaks for four hours first, so start the soak in the morning and shape the modaks in the afternoon. For more on the grain behind the dish, our guide to rice (chawal) covers cooking and nutrition.
The shell should come out thin and even, so the first bite is mostly filling. If you have ready rice flour, use 150 g of it and skip the soak and grind. Cardamom is the classic scent; a pinch of nutmeg or a spoon of roasted poppy seeds inside the filling are the common family additions.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Flour
- Sona masoori rice (to grind into flour) — 3/4 cup
Dough
- Hot water — 3/4 cup
- Ghee (1 tsp in the dough, the rest for the plate and to serve) — 2 tsp
- Salt — 1 pinch
Filling
- Fresh coconut, grated — 1 1/2 cups
- Jaggery powder — 150 g
- Cardamom Powder — 1/4 tsp
Steaming
- Water for the steamer base — 4 cups
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Serving Suggestions
Serve the modaks warm, a minute or two after they leave the steamer, with the remaining ghee dabbed on top. They are made as an offering before a meal and also work as a tea-time sweet with warm milk. Leftovers keep up to two days in the fridge; steam them for two minutes to soften. For a milk-and-rice sweet instead, try the rice payasam.
Tips for Cooking Modak
Knead the dough while it is warm, because cold dough cracks when you shape it, and keep it under a damp cloth between modaks. Add the hot water in stages and stop when the dough just comes together; fresh-ground flour takes up slightly less water than aged flour. The filling must be thick and almost dry before it goes in, and the steamer must be on high with the lid shut throughout.
Chef’s Note
Grind the rice in short bursts and sift it, so no coarse bits remain to turn into hard spots in the shell. The modak is done when the shell turns glossy and slightly translucent at the top. A serving of two modaks comes to about 231 kcal and 2.9 g of protein, with 0.8 g of fibre; the fresh coconut is not in these numbers.
Per serving (approx.): 231 kcal, protein 2.9 g, carbs 49 g, fat 2.2 g, fibre 0.8 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Aug 31, 2026
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