'Desserts' ↓

India is know for its huge variety of sweets and desserts. Here we showcase popular recipes of Indian Sweets.

You will need:

• 2 cups besan flour
• 1 cup ghee
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• some chopped cashews
• some raisins

Take the besan flour in a heavy bottomed vessel,add ghee keep over low flame and stir continously until u get the typical aroma[good smell].

Take it off the stove and cool. add sugar and cashews and raisins.

Mix well and shape into ladoos.

This is prepared in Karnataka, in which instead of steaming they fry it. They call it by a special name called ‘Karjikaai’; It resembles Samosa but tastewise, it is sweet.

Karanji is a similar sweet known only by a different name in Maharashtra.

(Karanji Photo Credit: harshad sharma)

The Coconut and Cardamom stuffing give it a unique taste. It is prepared during Southern India festivals like Ugadi, Deepavali and Ganesha Chathurthi.

Update:

• 5 Kozhakattai recipes (Modakam, Kadubu) for Ganesha festival is here
• 5 more Ganesha Chathurthi recipes are here

You will need:

• 1 cup wheat Atta [or wheat flour]
• 4 table spoons Ghee
• Salt to taste [a pinch]
• A pinch of cardamom powder
• 1 cup grated coconut
• 3 cups sugar
• A little milk
• Raisins

Method:

• Mix the flour, salt and ghee well. add water and make a dough as for chapattis. Keep aside.
• Cook the coconut, sugar, milk, raisins and cardamom powder till dry. This is for the stuffing.
• Make balls out of the dough. Roll them into little Rotis, place some stuffing in the centre , fold into semi circles and bind the edges together. You can use the milk for this for extra bonding.
• Take care to see the edges are closed completely. Otherwise they’ll open in the oil and disintegrate.
• Fry till light brown. The end-result should be crispy Karjikai with the sweet coconut layer coated inside.
• Serve hot.

Browse more Indian sweet recipes at Indian Food Kitchen main website. Please leave your feedback using the comment form below. Thanks

You will need:

• 3 cups rice flour
• 6 cups water
• 6 tsp oil
• 4 cups grated coconut
• 2 cups sugar or powdered jaggery
• a little milk

For the outer covering,bring the water to a boil, add oil to it.take off heat. now add the rice flour, little by little to avoid lumps from forming,cover the mixture and let it cool.when cool,knead it well into a dough with a smooth finish. the dough should glisten,then you know it’s right.

For the stuffing,take the coconut and jaggery/sugar in a heavy bottomed pan.add milk.keep on low flame with stirring.stir and take off heat.the mixture should be fairly dry and turn a shade darker.

Now make balls with the [covering] dough. flatten them on the palm or on a surface into a circle.if using your palms,apply some oil or you could be in a sticky mess.place the stuffing in it and cover it completely with the dough,the edges folding and tapering to the centre.use milk to bind edges.steam cook the modaks in a cooker for 15 minutes until done.

A sweet Payasam ( Kheer ) recipe to keep the festive season alive.

Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Green gram dhal - 1/2 cup
bengal gram dhal - 1/2 cup
Milk - 2 cups
coconut - 1 medium sized
cashewnuts - 1 tblsp.
ghee - 1 1/2 tblsp.
jaggery ( grated) - 2 cups

Grate the coconut and grind to a fine paste with the required amount of water. Strain and take extract out of it. Add more water to the ground coconut again, grind and take another extract. dry roast rice, dhal seperately till a golden colour. Allow this to cool, wash and cook green gram dhal seperately in enough water. Mix Bengal gram dhal, rice and pressure cook with milk for 10-12 minutes.

Mix everything together, add jaggery and cook in reduced flame till it melts along with second extract . Allow to boil for few minutes and then add first extract of coconut. When it reaches boiling point remove from fire and serve hot with fried cashewnuts.

One of the most visited pages on ‘Indian Food Kitchen’ is the Sweets and Desserts page. So I thought of reposting one of my favourite sweets Mysore Pak, though my best sweets are laddoo, jalebi and rosogolla. So here’s a recipe for those with a sweet tooth.

Update, 4th January, 2007: A video for making Mysore Pak is published here.

Continue reading →