While many would associate the ghats of Varanasi with its medley of chaat and famed hand woven silk, it is also home to the traditional Lal Peda. This local delicacy is essentially peda that is cooked continuously in high heat until the sucrose in it caramelizes fully, giving the peda a reddish hue and a nutty caramel flavour. While traditionally the peda is served as is with a patterned stamp on it, we realised the peda with it’s natural caramel flavour had a lot more potential and we wanted to nuance it with a few additional textures. Just like our Malai Peda, our Lal Peda is made into small cylinders using a mould. This is then filled with a rich and silky dulce de leche caramel. To elevate this further, we wanted to add some crunch to break through all the soft textures. For this we decided to add chunks of peanut honeycomb to resemble a ‘nougat’ that contributes to that sticky and crunchy toffee like mouth feel. All of this is then sealed with a delicate malai peda flower that has been sprayed. Bite into our Dulce De Leche Peda and be suprised by all the flavours that follow!