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Sweets and Desserts in Indian Cooking

Indian cuisine has been cherished worldwide because of its diversity and uniqueness. Particularly, Indian sweets and desserts are becoming increasingly popular because of their delicious taste. Mithai are part of the life of the Indians and play an important role in their cuisine.

An Indian dinner is always incomplete without sweet dish like gulab jamun or kulfi or jalebi. These sweets, or Mithai in Indian, are made from assorted ingredients ranging from vegetables to fruits, from grains to milk. Below are some of the famous Indian mithai and desserts that you must try out.

Parwal Ki Mithai is an Indian dry mithai that is an all time favorite in the area of Bihar. Its outer covering is parwal (a popular vegetable in Indian) while its inside consists sweets mixed with milk products. Khaja is another mithai popular in Bihar. It dates back from 2000 years ago and is also a dry sweet stuffed with liquid sweets inside. This delicious mithai easily melts in the mouth.

Another Indian mithai, probably the most famous is the rasgulla, or cheeseball in sugar syrup. This dessert can be found in almost every part of India and is regarded as a national mithai. This syrupy dessert is most popular in Orissa situated in the east coast of India, the place where the recipe for this sweet originated. Rasgulla is made from paneer immersed in sugar syrup and set to dry.

Apart from the mithai just mentioned, there are a great variety more mithai that are famous in India and other parts of the world. The next set of Indian mithai that we will be mentioning have recipes that call for milk and milk products, something that is special in the Indian cuisine.

First in the list is the Rasa Malai, a delicacy that is usually served chilled and immersed in sweetened milk flavored with spices such as pistachio, almond, saffron strands and cardamom. This Bengali delicacy resembles a dumpling made from cottage cheese and is a highly popular sweet among all Diwali sweets and also one of the easiest to make. Another dumpling like mithai is the Gulab Jamun regarded as the king of all Indian mithai often served at festivals or major celebrations, such as marriages and Diwali and most often served after dinner. It is made of a dough consisting mainly of milk solids and soaked in a sugary syrup flavored with cardamom and, depending on the recipe, rosewater or saffron. This very sweet and rich dessert derived its name from the word Gulab meaning rose from the rose flavored sugar syrup and Jamun meaning blueberry from the dark color when it’s cooked. Unlike the Rasa Malai, this sweet is served at room temperature or warmand is sometimes eaten with ice cream. For best result, immerse the gulab jamuns in syrup overnight. Cham Cham, on the other hand, are mithai intended for loved ones and are commonly called Pleasure Boats.

Mentioned above are just some of the hundreds of mithai varieties that could be found in India. There are a lot more to discover and try. A list of other traditional sweet recipes are Milk Poli, Mitha Kajha, Jalebi, Badam Seera, Badusha, Karanjia, Dal Seera and Boondi. Other sweets served occasionally or during special days are laddus , burfis and halwas. Burfis include Mysore Pak, Beetroot Burfi, Besan Burfi and Milk and Coconut Burfi. Halwas and Laddus include Boondi Laddoo, Besan Laddoo, Coconut Ladoo, Banana Apple Halwa, and Malai Laddu.

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