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Mysorepak (Kannada: ಮೈಸೂರು ಪಾಕ್, lit. "Mysore's confection") is a traditional Indian confectionary made primarily from Gram flour, sugar, and ghee and often flavoured withcardamom. It originated in the royal kitchens of the Kingdom of Mysore, located in present-day the state of Karnataka, India. The texture of this sweet is similar to both a fudge and a buttery dense cookie. Known for its rich, melt-in-the-mouth texture, Mysorepak is a signature sweet of Karnataka and is widely consumed across southern India during weddings, festivals, and celebrations. The sweet is also popular in Bangladesh (locally referred to as Monsur) and Pakistan.
According to tradition, a palace chef named Kakasura Madappa experimented with a simple mixture of gram flour, sugar, and ghee to create a new variant of mithai. This resulted a confectionary which had a distinctive golden color with a soft, fudgy but slightly crunchy texture, and a rich taste. When asked by the Maharaja for the name of the dish, Madappa reportedly called it Mysorepak, simply referring to the city Mysore with the suffix pak resembling the cooking process.
Impressed by the dessert, the Maharaja encouraged the chef, Madappa to open a sweet shop outside the premises of the palace, leading to the establishment of the now-famous Guru Sweets in Devaraja Market, Mysore. Today, the shop is run by Kumar and Shivanand, great-grandsons of Madappa and is still operated by Madappa’s descendants. While the recipe had evovled over time, the shop continues to prepare Mysorepak using the original recipe. After the partition of India in 1947, Mysorepak was introduced to Bengali commons of Saidpur by Bihari Muslim immigrants in East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh) who settled in nothern Bengal. It became referred to as Monsuri Mithai (Bengali language: মনসুরী মিঠাই), or more commonly just as Monsur (Bengali language: মনসুর) and became a popular dessert in weddings and milad gatherings in Bangladesh.
This tradition was passed down through generations of an immigrant bussinessman Md Bholar Dabi with his shop originally named Dilkhusha Sweetmeat (later as Dilkhusha Mishtanna Bhandar) in Saidpur. However, unlike as a south Indian sweet, locals had traced its origins to an Afghan confectioner Monsur Pathan whom its name had derived, florished by the patronage of Mughal Empire in imperial Delhi. So called Monsur and Mysorepak had no major distinction and is considered as the same delicacy.
A key feature of Mysorepak is the mastery required to control the sugar-syrup stage, ranging from thread consistency to softball stage which influences the final fudgy and crunchy texture of the sweet. Some modern adaptations use refined oil along with or instead of ghee, and may include cardamom for flavor or baking soda for texture. It is The classic version, however, is known for using generous amounts of ghee to achieve a rich flavor and melt-in-the-mouth consistency.
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