Soan papdi calories
One sweet-shop piece of soan papdi, about 21 g, has about 105 calories; 2 pieces about 210. A home piece of about 51 g is about 255. Ghee and sugar make up nearly all of it, so the recipe barely changes the number; piece size does. Packed soan papdi, by its labels, runs about 105 to 115 a piece.
Soan papdi, or patisa, is besan and maida roasted in ghee, beaten into a hot sugar syrup until it pulls into thousands of fine threads, then pressed flat and cut into cubes. It is the most boxed Diwali sweet in India, and the one most often passed on.
By weight it is about half sugar and a quarter ghee. The flours are a fifth. That makes it one of the richer sweets per gram, close to kaju katli, though a packed piece is small.
Typical values for a home kitchen, for the portion named next to each number. Other sites often show bigger numbers because they count a bigger serving or a restaurant recipe. Your own katori, roti and oil change the number; Slate adjusts for them.
How many calories are in soan papdi?
| Portion | Cals | Protein | Carbs | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 piece (about 21 g) about 21 g | 105 | 1 g | 14 g | 5 g |
| 2 pieces (42 g) about 42 g | 210 | 2 g | 27 g | 11 g |
| 1 large home piece (a twentieth, about 51 g) about 51 g | 255 | 2 g | 33 g | 13 g |
| 100 g about 100 g | 495 | 4 g | 65 g | 25 g |
| 250 g (a small box) about 250 g | 1,245 | 10 g | 163 g | 63 g |
How does home soan papdi compare with outside?
Packed soan papdi is made to much the same recipe, with refined palmolein in place of some or all of the ghee, which changes nothing: fat is fat. Haldiram's label lists 490 calories per 100 g and Bikaji's 542, either side of this page's 495.
The range below applies those labels to one 21 g piece.
| Version | Cals | Fat |
|---|---|---|
| Home | 105 | 5 g |
| Packed or sweet shop | 105 to 115 | 5 to 6 g |
What changes the calories in soan papdi?
- Piece size is the main thing: a packed cube is about 21 g, a piece cut from a home slab can be twice that or more.
- Ghee is about 45% of the calories here. Recipes vary from equal weights of ghee and flour to twice as much; the sweet shop's is not on the label.
- Sugar is about half the weight. A 21 g piece holds about 10 g of it.
- Pista, orange, chocolate and rose soan papdi are close per gram: Haldiram's chocolate label lists 517 per 100 g against 490 for plain.
- Kaju katli is close per gram, about 505 per 100 g, but a sweet-shop piece is half the weight.
How were these numbers worked out?
No standard textbook in the Indian Nutrient Databank has soan papdi, so Slate uses a published Punjabi patisa recipe: 1¼ cups each of besan and maida roasted in 250 g of ghee, beaten into a syrup of 2½ cups of sugar with 2 tablespoons of milk, making 20 home pieces, all the ghee counted as eaten. Cups are converted at USDA's weights (besan 92 g, flour 120 g, sugar 200 g), at IFCT 2017 values with besan as Bengal gram dal and sugar from USDA. The syrup's water is cooked off to a 2½-thread syrup and taken as gone, so the batch is about 1,020 g, 495 calories per 100 g and 25% fat; a 21 g shop piece is 105 calories. Two packed labels check it: Haldiram's at 490 calories per 100 g is 1% below and Bikaji's at 542 is 9% above, and they set the packed range. Every dish on Slate is worked out the same way: how Slate counts calories.
| Ingredient | Raw | Values from |
|---|---|---|
| Besan (ground Bengal gram dal) 1¼ cups | 115 g | IFCT 2017 B001 |
| Wheat flour, refined (maida) 1¼ cups | 150 g | IFCT 2017 A018 |
| Ghee | 250 g | IFCT 2017 T013 |
| Sugar, white 2½ cups, for the syrup | 500 g | USDA FDC 169655 |
| Milk, whole, cow 2 tablespoons, in the syrup | 30 g | IFCT 2017 L002 |
| Water 1½ cups for the syrup, cooked off to a 2½-thread syrup: taken as none left (an assumption) | 360 g | no calories |
Sources
- ICMR-NIN, Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. Besan as Bengal gram dal (B001), maida (A018), ghee (T013), cow milk (L002); values read from github.com/nodef/ifct2017
- Vijayakumar et al., Indian Nutrient Databank (INDB), Current Developments in Nutrition, 2024. Checked for a soan papdi or patisa recipe: none in The Art & Science of Cooking or Basic Food Preparation
- Indian Nutrient Databank, recipes.xlsx, recipes_servingsize.xlsx and INDB.xlsx (GitHub). Units file: cup weights for besan, flour and sugar
- Patisa (soan papdi), Punjabi recipe, allaboutsikhs.com. 1¼ cups besan, 1¼ cups maida, 250 g ghee, 2½ cups sugar, 1½ cups water, 2 tbsp milk; about 20 pieces
- Haldiram's soan papdi label (Open Food Facts, 8904004405415). 490 kcal, 23.06 g fat, 46.06 g sugar per 100 g; ingredients sugar, maida, palmolein, besan, hydrogenated vegetable oil
- Bikaji soan papdi label (Open Food Facts, 8906005504111). 542 kcal, 28 g fat, 46 g sugar per 100 g
- Haldiram's soan papdi (chocolate) label (Open Food Facts, 8904004405064). 21 g serving; 517 kcal per 100 g
- USDA FoodData Central, Sugars, granulated (169655). Sugar; a teaspoon is 4.2 g and a cup 200 g
Questions people ask
How many calories are in 1 piece of soan papdi?
About 105 for a 21 g sweet-shop piece, the serving size on Haldiram's packs. A bigger home piece of about 51 g is about 255.
How many calories are in 100 g of soan papdi?
About 495 for this recipe. Packed labels list 490 (Haldiram's) to 542 (Bikaji).
How many calories are in a 250 g box of soan papdi?
About 1,245 for the whole box, roughly 12 pieces of 21 g.
How much sugar is in soan papdi?
About 10 g in a 21 g piece: sugar is close to half its weight. Haldiram's label lists 46 g of sugar per 100 g.
Does soan papdi made with oil have fewer calories than with ghee?
No. Palmolein and ghee have the same calories per gram, so a packed soan papdi made with oil is about the same as one made with desi ghee. The difference is taste and texture.