Indian Sweet Recipes

Indian desert recipes are interesting either in sugar or other sugar alternatives. Sweets are considered auspicious and offerings to propitiate the deities. Kheer or payasam is the traditional milk condensation cooked with sugar and washed rice. Basundi and Phirni are also delights from Maharashtra. Garnishing is usually done with saffron, cardamom and dry fruits. Rosagallas originally hail from Calcutta, which is much famous for its variety in sweets. Sandesh, rasgullas, kala kand, chaler payash and sweetend curd called mishti doi as Bengali treats.

Rajasthani food is rich with dry fruits and the same is employed in the Rajasthani sweet dishes. There are no miserly tendencies while using ghee in all the sweets. A chakki is usually made with gram flour. Gevar is made with mewa or flour and condensed milk. Rabdi is made of sugar, cream, almonds and nuts and cooked with sugar. Churma is a mash of wheat flour bread (chapatti) with a lavish spoonfuls of ghee and sugar.

Laddoos or sweet balls are found in chick pea – besan laddoos or rava /semolina laddoos. Wheat flour laddoos are nutritious. Moti chur laddoos and Bundi laddoos are famous in marriages and rituals. The blending of ghee is mouth watering and wholesalers amaze us with the gigantic size of laddoos during Ganpati festivals. Rasmalai laddoos in creamy condensed milk is garnished with slightly grated pistachios for gastronomical delights.

Puran Poli includes stuffing of split chick pea and jaggery stuffed and flattened into a chapatti. Teamed with a generous spoon of ghee, this is a famous delight during Holi. The South Indian make of Puran poli is equally delightful though the process is slightly different. Halwas are Indian cakes coming in a variety like mung dal halwa, chikku halwa, dudhi halwa and carrot halwa. Winters are when gajrela or the carrot halwa becomes a household dessert.

A sweet chapatti is topped with sugar or jaggery and fried in the form of parantha which makes a hearty breakfast. Thandai is a regular drink during the festival of holi which is rich in dry fruits. Other drinks include rose syrups and lemonade crushes. Ready powdered dry fruit powders stocked in the kitchen, make instant milkshakes like badam milk, cardamom milk or a kaju milkshake.

Shrikhand is the thicker form of hung curd and available as cardamom, kesar and pineapple variety. Confectionaries in Indian remakes comes as shankarpali (maida in diamond shapes) and chiikis (dryfruit specials). Custards and fudges are also Indianised to suit the Indian taste buds.