My Diwali Sweetmeat Favourites

A collection of some classic and some reinvented Diwali sweetmeats

Diwali is an incredibly special time in an Indian household, and a lot of the festivities revolve around gifting home-baked sweetmeats and treats to family and friends – and of course making sure they’re decorated to celebrate the auspicious occasion. These are a collection of some of my favourite sweetmeat recipes, as well as my delicious gulab jamun cheesecake.

Fresh Cream Burfee

Burfee is a firm favourite in any Indian household during Diwali, and this recipe relies on milk powder and cream to give a luxoriusly creamy and soft treat flavoured with cardamom. It can be moulded to almost any shape, and with a hint of gold paint and some dyed almonds you can create a jewel of a sweetmeat.

The recipe can be found here: Fresh Cream Burfee

Dubai Chocolate Pistachio Burfee Bundts

This twist on the classic burfee combines the creamy, rose-scented sweetmeat with the Dubai chocolate pistachio kataifi paste to deliver a delicacy that tastes as beautiful as it looks. A white chocolate shell adds a gorgeous shape and an extra note of sweetness.

The recipe can be found here: Viral Dubai Pistachio Burfee Bundts

Channa Magaj

Channa magaj is an Indian sweet made with chickpea flour and copious amounts of butter ghee that has a delicious toasty flavour and a delicate crunch. Once the basic recipe is finished you can indulge your artistic streak to shape and decorate the sweetmeats into little works of art.

The recipe can be found here: Channa Magaj

Channa Magaj and Chocolate Brownie Fingers

This is one of my most delicious Diwali mashups, where the dense, fudgey chocolate brownie is balanced by the toasty channa magaj, and both are topped off with some whipped chocolate ganache. The end result? Simply sublime.

The recipe can be found here: Channa Magaj and Chocolate Brownie Fingers

Rose and Cardamom Coconut / Kopra Paak

Coconut Paak, or Kopra Paak, as some people call it, is the Indian sister to the western version of coconut ice. It’s sweet with a floral flavour that beautifully complements the coconut, and can be as simple or as complex a bake as you want it to be.

The recipe can be found here: Rose and Cardamom Coconut / Kopra Paak

Coconut, Caramel and Chocolate Logs

Inspired by the combination of flavours found in a Bounty bar, my reinvention of the classic coconut paak recipe gives it a soft caramel center and enrobes the bar in velvety milk chocolate. The end result is a masterpiece that will win over everyone’s tastebuds.

The recipe can be found here: Coconut, Caramel and Chocolate Logs

Gulab Jamun Cheesecake

Gulab in Hindi means rose, and gulab jamun are these little morsels of sweet, sticky goodness drenched in a fragrant rose syrup and flavoured with a hint of cardamom. A little cheat goes a long way, and I never make them as you can get fairly consistently good shop-bought ones. This allows you to make quick work of this no-bake, eggless cheesecake where most of the time is spent waiting for it to set in the fridge.

FOR THE GULAB JAMUN CHEESECAKE BASE:

• 200g ginger biscuits, or any other digestive
• 60g butter, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar

METHOD

1. Crush the biscuits to a fine crumb, either with a rollingpin by hand or with a food processor.
2. Add the sugar and melted butter and combine until the mixture resembles damp sand. The mixture may feel like it needs more butter, but it is fine as is and will firm up in the fridge.
3. Tip the biscuit and butter into a 20cm springform tin and pat down to form the base.
4. Place in the fridge to set whilst you make the filling.

FOR THE GULAB JAMUN CHEESECAKE:

• 600g double cream yogurt
• 100ml whipping cream
• 6 cardamom pods, slightly bashed but still in the husks
• 1/4 teaspoon good quality rose water
• 450g full fat cream cheese
• 150g good-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled
• 45g icing sugar
• approximately 1kg of mini gulab jamun, ready-made to go inside the cheesecake and for decorating
• 250ml whipping cream, for decorating
• edible dried rose petals, for decordating

METHOD:

1. Place a clean dish cloth in a bowl. Tip the yogurt into the cloth and draw up the sides. Sqeeze the cloth to remove any liquid from the yogurt, but do not force the yogurt through. Then set aside for an hour to let any liquid drip through.
2. Heat the cream and cardamom to a gentle simmer, and then place in the fridge to cool completely. This allows for a wonderfully light cardamom flavour, without any of the nasty seeds.
3. Once cooled and chilled, whip to soft peaks and then fold in the rose water.
4. Beat the cream cheese until light and fluffy.
5. Then add in 350g of the strained yogurt, white chocolate and icing sugar and mix well together.
6. To this mixture, gently fold in the whipped cream.
7. Remove the cake tin with the base from the fridge and add half of the cheesecake mixture into the tin.
8. Place a layer of the mini gulab jamun in the cheesecake and then cover that with the remaining cheesecake mixture.
9. Set in the fridge for 8 hours, or ideally overnight until set.
10. Whip the 250ml whipping cream to stiff peaks, then spread a layer of cream on the top, and also pipe some of the rosettes on the whipped cream layer. Top the rosettes off with more gulab jamun and sprinkle a bit of dried rose petals for a final touch.

Recipes by adventureswithsugar.com