From besan (chickpea flour) ki mithai to the moti choor laddu done right, and the succulent gulab jamun, to the flaky coconut mithai, peda and barfi. We all love our mithai!

The allure of mithai, however, has only come to me after having matured in age and mind, and having moved away from the shores of the Arabian Sea, how I now miss Sony Sweets, Sunshine, Gulshan Sweets and Abdul Khaliq of the 90s.

The Oxford dictionary defines the laddu as an Indian confection, typically made from flour, sugar and shortening, that is shaped into a ball.

From this extremely English description we can safely assume that the laddu is an ancient dessert, and may as well have travelled centuries from the time of Chandra Gupta Maurya, as is popularly claimed.

My research has led me to believe that some form of flour base, sweet and shortening has always been available to the people of the subcontinent, hence it may be that they combined the three to create the very round laddu.

In the book Sweet Inventions: A history of Desserts by Michael Krondl, it is stated,

The modaka is a steamed or fried rice flour dumpling with a mixture of unrefined sugar and coconut.

One of the many anecdotes told about baby Krishna is how the elephant god introduced the tubby toddler to this, his beloved snack. Evidently Krishna’s mother put an offering of modaka in front of a ganesha idol, and well aware of her young rascals thieving ways, she tied her son’s hands behind his back to keep the modaka safe. The good- hearted ganesha would have none of this.

The idol came to life and lifted the sweets with his trunk right into the happy infant’s mouth, or according to some versions, maybe what he gave him was actually a laddu. The confusion arises because in early Sanskirt the term modaka refers to what is now called a laddu. At opposite ends of India, in both Rajastan and Andhra Pradesh, laddus are offered regularly to the elephant god.

In Pakistan, laddus are essentially associated with festivity.

The country eats laddus at births, weddings, graduations; more or less any kind of celebration is incomplete without a tokra (basket) of them. Almost all joyous occasions are welcomed with a bite of the yellow laddu; so much so that happiness is often defined as: Dil mein laddu phoot rahay hain.

The besan laddu recipe I share with you this Diwali comes to me from my friend Anamika Tara who hails from Delhi. These laddus are deliciously crumbly, just the right amount of sweet, and perfect with a cup of chai.

I prefer to serve them a couple of days after making them, when all the ingredients have settle down bringing out a stronger flavour.

Besan Laddu

Ingredients (makes 18 to 20)

5 ¼ cups Besan (chickpea flour)
2 ½ cups ghee (clarified butter)
½ cups whole milk
2 cups castor sugar
15 to 20 green cardamoms crushed, or green cardamom powder
15 to 20 almonds to garnish

Method

Add ghee and besan in a pot and cook for 10 minutes, stirring constantly, at a medium to low heat.

Then, add milk and cook for another 10 minutes.

Turn off the heat, add sugar and green cardamom and mix well. Cool the mixture to room temperature and form round balls.

Garnish with crushed almonds before serving.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 20 days. If the weather is very hot store in the fridge and heat before serving.

Coconut Laddu

This delicious recipe comes to me from my sister’s kitchen, Amna Tirmizi Naqvi. I have made the same at two occasions and they have been a wipe out each time.

These are super easy, convenient and taste fabulous. Make them for your next party for a sure shot hit.

Ingredient (makes 16 to 18 laddus)

4 cups dessicated coconut
1 cup condensed milk
Food colouring

Method

Pour dessicated coconut in a bowl, add condensed milk and mix well.

Add food colouring for a beautifully vibrant platter of coconut laddus.

Create laddus the size of golf balls, store in fridge, keep at room temperature for ½ hour before serving.

Sooji Ka Halvah

The word halvah finds its roots in the Arabic language and refers to many dense or compact desserts.

Originally, halvah was either flour based or used various nuts with sugar, milk and butter to create a sweet gelatinous, or hardened nutty dessert. It is commonly believed that this kind of halvah was introduced to the settlers in India through trade with the Middle East and Asia Minor during the expansion of the Mughal Empire.

Food Stories: Gajar ka halwa

The book Sweet Inventions says,

The origin of Indian halvah is unmistakably Middle Eastern; the name itself is originally Arabic (halwa, meaning sweatmeat). In the Middle East there are two types of halvah, an older type made with flour, and a more recent variant that substitutes a nut or a sesame seed paste.

The former halvah in today’s subcontinent is called sooji (semolina) halvah. It has the consistency of a dense brownie or a slightly crumbly cake and is made by frying semolina in ghee and adding syrup. A Mughul era recipe calls for equal parts flour, ghee and refined sugar.

There are dozens of variations in halvah, but sooji halvah reigns supreme, it is quick, delicious and a subcontinental household favourite. The recipe I share with you today comes from my dear mother’s kitchen. Here it is from my kitchen to yours.

Ingredient

1 ½ cups sooji
½ cup ghee
½ cup mixture of chopped almonds and raisins
3 cups hot water
½ cup full cream milk
½ cup sugar
5 to 10 green cardamom

Method

Heat ghee, adding sooji. Keep stirring until it changes colour to a golden hue, adding almonds and raisins.

In a separate pan, bring to boil milk, water, sugar and cardamom.

Add the water mixture to the sooji mix, stirring at all times. Cook on low to medium heat until halwah leaves pan and thickens in consistency. Serve warm.

Happy Diwali!

—Photos by Fawad Ahmed

More Food Stories here.