Banana and saffron malpuas

I was recently in Udaipur, Rajastan at a friend's wedding and tasted malpuas for the very first time. They had a very delicate Swedish crepe like texture, glossy with the syrup on top and accompanied with the creaminess of kheer, simply delicious! I never really imagined that combination before but it really worked.

So, inspired by that, and also wanting to use some really ripe bananas :) , I created this version and served it with vanilla ice cream instead.















Ingredients:
2 tbsp. ghee for making the pancakes

for the batter:
1 large really ripe banana, mashed with a fork into a paste
1 tbsp sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

1 cup milk

saffron strands

for the syrup:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 tsp rose water or orange blossom water

Method:

Warm the milk and add saffron strands, let it steep.

Whisk the flours, 2 tbsp ghee, sugar and then add the banana to it. Now add milk in a thin stream, continue whisking to form an even batter. It should be slightly thinner, like crepe batter... add a little more water to achieve that consistency, if needed. Let it rest while you make the syrup.

Heat the sugar in a saucepan with the water until it reaches the right consistency (around 10 minutes). Turn off the heat, add the rosewater and keep in a warm place.

Heat a nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Pour 2 tbsp. of batter, help form a small round pancake with the back of the spoon. Dot with ghee around the sides and flip when golden.

Take a flat serving plate or dish, spoon some syrup in the bottom, place the warm malpua over it as soon as you remove from the pan. Immediately coat the pancake with a tsp. of syrup. It should look really glossy and absorb some of the syrup. Repeat with another/rest of the pancakes.

Serve warm with vanilla ice cream.