Sweets of India - Major families

For more variations check out Laddoos, Halwas, Brittles, Bengali Sweets, Shrikhand, Kheer and the simple no-cook Indian desserts

Fool Cheatsheet ( British Dessert)

No cook Indian Desserts

Click the image on the left to see the cookbook listing 10 easy no-cook Indian desserts. For detailed recipes and pictures, check out my fellow bloggers below…

1.: Anjeer Laddoo A huge variety of ball shaped laddoos are cooked across India. Most use sugar syrup / hot ghee as a binder. Anjeer laddoo uses the stickiness of dates / figs to bind the laddoo

2.: Panchamirtham (Tamilnadu)

This no cook jam was invented in the temple town of Palani, Tamilnadu. Tonnes of panchamirtham is distributed as Prasad to devotees everyday. Roasted and ground millet flour (Thinai) mixed with honey is another delicacy served here.

3.: Kesar Kulfi (Punjab)

When milk is frozen it sets into a hard crunchy ice. The western world discovered that when milk is constantly stirred and mixed with air while being frozen, it sets into creamy ice cream. Indians discovered that if most of the water in milk is removed by boiling it for hours, and the thickened milk is then frozen, it sets into a thick chewy ice cream – the Kulfi.

4.: Shrihkand (Maharashtra)

Varieties of thick creamy yogurt / yogurt cheese exist across the world. Mixing in powdered sugar and flavouring agents makes it the much loved shrikhand.

5.: Sweet Poha Long before corn flakes and cereals became popular in the west, rice flakes (poha) were common in India. You can in fact look at this recipe as a muesli variant. Mixed in with milk / yogurt, this recipe can double as a breakfast cereal.

6.: Elaneer Payasam (Tamilnadu)

A Kongunadu delicacy which relies on the delicate flavours of sweet coconut water and tender coconut flesh.

7, 8, 9.: Doodh Kela, Ambyache Shikran (Maharashtra) . Mavina hannu Rasayana (Konkan)

The flesh of fruits like banana / mango is mixed in with milk and sugar to create these simple desserts. Try using condensed milk / cream in place of milk and jaggery / honey in place of sugar. Using custard apple flesh gives Mumbai Haji Ali’s famous Sitaphal cream.

10.: Aam ras (Maharashtra) Though this can be eaten as a dessert, it is usually served as a dipping sauce along with pooris.

10 Easy Indian Chikkis ( Brittles)

Click the image on the left to see the cookbook. This cookbook lists 10 Indian Chikkis ( Brittles) . The following chikkis are listed in this cookbook:

1.:   Peanut Chikki   

2.:   Cashew nut Chikki  

3.:  Almond Chikki   

4.:   Pumpkin seed  Chikki     

5.:  Copra  Chikki    

6.:  Walnut  Chikki    

7.:  Poha  Chikki    

8.:. Til  Chikki  

9.:   Rajgira  Chikki 
10.: Dry fruit  Chikki  

Reposted for Susan's All that glitters,    Jennifer's Sugar High Fridays, Vaishali's Sweet Vegan event and to All thingz Yummy's Festival feast.

Traditional Bengali / Orissa Sweets

I’m not a big fan of cooking desserts as I thought they were time consuming and messy. How wrong! Once the basic principles are understood, it is very tough to go wrong. Starting from scratch, cooking up a batch of rasagullas took me exactly 12 minutes, and no mess. They were a bit hard, but perfectly edible. The second batch was a lot softer as by then I’d learnt to refine the technique.

The Principle :
Bengal and Orissa rule the world of milk sweets because they mastered the principle of curdling milk to extract milk solids. Legend has it that the rasagulla was traditionally made in the Puri temple, from where it moved with the Brahmin cooks to West Bengal, where it soon became very popular.
The basic principle is simple: curdle the milk and separate the milk solids. Knead, shape them and boil them in sugar syrup to puff them up. Steep them in a sweet liquid and serve. For all the sweets listed above, the milk solids are kneaded into a smooth dough, and cooked in hot sugar syrup. A variety of sweets can be cooked once you get this principle straight. I've listed two ways of cooking up rasagullas below :

The traditional way
Boil milk on a gentle flame, skimming off the skin as it forms on the surface. Add lemon juice to make milk curdle. Filter the solids. Cool and knead well to the consistency of chappati dough. Shape into small tight balls and boil in sugar syrup. This would easily take the better part of an hour.

The quick and dirty way.
Buy the softest readymade paneer you can find. Chop it up to have a cupful. Blend to a paste. (If the paneer is very dry, add half a cup of water and blend to a smooth paste. Add the paste to a strainer / cheesecloth and drain the excess water.) Add a spoon of maida and a couple of pinches of baking powder. Knead into a smooth dough. Shape into small, smooth tight balls. Pressure cook for one whistle in sugar syrup. This would be take less than 15 minutes.

Rasagollas can be plain or stuffed, small or huge, and are served chilled, at room temperature or piping hot.

Learn to make the rasagulla and several other sweets such as rajbhog, rasmalai, kheermohan, raskadamba are all just a step away.

• Let’s start with column 1 in the table. Cook the cheeseballs, and steep them in sugar syrup and you have the basic rosogolla.
• If you add semolina to the cheese dough, it lightens it and you have a Sponge Rosogulla.
• Add a bit of orange extract while kneading the dough and you have the pale yellow Komala Bhog.
• Flatten the cheese balls, cook and steep them in sweetened milk, garnish with nut slivers and it becomes Roshomalai.
• If you make the cheese balls double the normal size and stuff them, they are called Rajbhog.
• Instead of steeping them in a liquid, coat the cooked cheese balls with almond powder- condensed milk paste and you have the Raskadamba.
• Instead of lemon sized balls, make finger length cylinders, slit them in half, add cream and chopped nuts and you have the cham cham.
• Flatten the cheese balls, cook them and top them with sweet cream and you have Malaikari.
• Steep the cooked cheese balls in rabdi and you have Kheersagar.
• Steep the cooked cheese balls in thick, sweet milk and it becomes Kheermohan.
  

Tips for soft rasagullas
Knead well. A soft, smooth dough gives a soft rasagulla.
Let the dough rest for at least 15 minutes for the binder ( maida) to bind everything together.
Do not add too much maida while kneading the dough.
While shaping the balls, ensure they are really smooth without any edges or cracks.

Get comfortable cooking with cottage cheese (Paneer) and a whole world of Bengali / Oriya sweets is waiting to be discovered.

And this goes to Mythreyee's Cool Desserts