Marzipan

Marzipan is a confectionery which is popular in the West. The primary contents are icing sugar, almonds/ cashews. Very simple and very cute.

Preparation time: 15 mins

 Ingredients:

• Cashew nut powder
• Almond essence or Roasted and ground almond powder
• Icing Sugar - 1 cup
• Condensed milk - 1 cup
• Food color (I have used 3 colors)

Preparation:

• In a bowl, mix cashew nut powder, icing sugar and almond essence/ almond powder.

• Slowly add condensed milk and make a thick dough.

• Depending on the number of colors you are having, make equal portions of the dough. I have used 3 colors and hence made 3 portions. Add food color to each portion.

• Make shapes of your wish now. Marzipan is ready now. 

You can make fruits, vegetables, animals, lady bug etc. Kids will just love it!

Shahi Tukra / Bread pudding

Shahi Tukra or Shahi Tukda as it is called is a bread pudding. "Shahi" means "royal" and "tukra" or "tukda" means "morsel" or "piece". So it means "Royal morsel". It seems to have originated in Pakistan. Basically it is part of the royal Moghal cuisine or rather Nawabi cuisine. It is very similar to "Double ka meeta" of Hyderabad. It is pretty simple to make and is really delicious. I have read that this sweet is mostly prepared for Eid. I have seen pictures of this sweet since childhood but it took quite a long time to actually prepare it. Must say, I loved it!

Total time taken: 1 hr

Ingredients:

• Bread - 3 slices
• Condensed milk - 1/2 cup (like Milkmaid, Amul Mitai)
• Milk - 1 cup 
• Cornflour - 1 spoon (optional)
• Crushed cardamom pods / Cardamom powder - 1 spoon
• Almonds - 6-7
• Ghee/ Butter
• Sugar - 1 cup 
• Water - 1 cup

Preparation:

• Cut bread slices into long pieces and keep aside.

• Mix cornflour and little bit of milk to make a thick paste and keep aside. If you do not have cornflour you can skip this step. Not a big deal.

• Mix condensed milk and rest of milk and keep aside.

• In a cooking pan, boil this milk-condensed milk mixture to make a thick paste. Also add the cardamom powder. If you have made the cornflour paste, add it now and stir well. Keep this paste aside.

• We need to make sugar syrup now. For this, take a pan and boil 1 cup of water. Once water starts to boil, add sugar and keep stirring. I have used raw brown sugar. Once sugar has completely dissolved, switch off the flame. Sugar syrup is ready.

• Take another pan and heat ghee/ butter. Deep fry the bread pieces in ghee/butter.

• Drop the deep fried bread pieces into the sugar syrup, keep it for 1 min, take out and transfer to a plate. Repeat this for all the bread slices. Do not soak the bread pieces in sugar syrup for too long.

• Top the sugar syrup dipped bread slices with the thick milk-condensed milk mixture prepared earlier. 
• Chop the almonds and decorate. You can also use raisins, pistas to make a beautiful and tasty topping along with chopped almonds.

• Chill the sweet in refrigerator for 10 mins.
• Serve it cold.

The best thing about this sweet is that it is not extremely sweet. The taste is just appropriate. Do not wait for a special occasion, just try it out today.

Unniyappam/ Unni appam

Kerala's all time favorite sweet is Unniyappam or Unni appam. Let us see how to prepare this sweet which is loved by people of all ages. I grew up eating this yummy sweet.

Ingredients:

• Rice (pure white) / Pachari - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 1 lump
• Bananas - 2
• Cardamoms - 3
• Dry ginger/ chukku - 1 small piece
• Unniappam maker
• Coconut oil - 1 cup

Preparation:

• Wash and soak 1 cup rice in 2 cups of water for 1 hr.
• Drain out extra water.
• In a mixer grinder, grind soaked rice, jaggery, bananas to make a coarse mixture. It should NOT be finely ground.
• Add crushed cardamoms and dry ginger to the batter and mix well.

• Transfer it to a vessel and keep it closed for 2 hrs.
• Optional step - Add a pinch of soda powder to the batter and mix well. 
• Take unniyappam maker and heat it in high flame.
• Pour coconut oil and let it boil.
• Now carefully pour the batter into the sockets.

•  Once it is becomes medium brown, flip it using a pair of tongs.

• Repeat the flipping till it turns dark brown. 
• Remove the appams once they turn dark brown.

Unniyappams are ready now. Have fun munching this cute little sweet!

Paal Kova/ Milk Sweet

Paal Kova is the South Indian Dhoodh Peda (Milk Sweet) which will melt in your mouth and super fast to prepare. Let's quickly see how to make this yummilicious sweet. The hero of this sweet is condensed milk. Paal means milk and kova is sweet.

Preparation and cooking time: 10 mins

This sweet is traditionally made out of pure milk and is condensed manually. But it can be time consuming. So I have gone for a shortcut by using condensed milk directly.

Ingredients:

• Condensed milk - 1 can 
• Curd/ Yoghurt - 3 spoons
• Butter - 1 spoon
• Finely Crushed Cardamom - 3-4

Preparation:

• Take a microwave safe bowl and transfer the condensed milk (like Milkmaid, Amul Mithai) and yoghurt and mix well.

• Cook it in microwave for 2 mins and take out. Mix well. It would be in a fluid state at this time.

• After mixing very well, keep it in microwave for 1 min and take out. 
• Add ghee and crushed cardamom and mix well.

• We need to get the mix solid. Depending upon the microwave, we need to repeat it twice or thrice.
• Take out the solid parts from the sides and mix well and keep it in microwave for 1 more min.
• By now my mix had become sold and I did not keep it in microwave again.

• Transfer it to a vessel and wait for it to cool down for 5-10 mins. The sweet is ready to eat.

The preparation and ingredients are so simple that you can make this sweet anytime. Kids and adults will enjoy this at anytime. Try it out today!

Paan ki Rasmalai

Rasmalai is a Bengali dessert which is very popular throughout India. The name translates to "Juicy cream". Paan ki Rasmalai has an additional taste of Betel leaf.

Rasmalai is Rasgulla soaked in creamy milk. Rasgulla is the disc shaped sweet which is taken without soaking in creamy milk.

Ingredients:

• Paneer (Cottage cheese)
• Saffron induced milk - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 + 1/2 cup
• Gulkand (Sweet preserve of rose petals)
• Almonds - randomly chopped
• Betel leaf - 1
• Clove - 1
• Cardamom - 1
• Maida/ All purpose flour - 1 spoon
• Rawa/ Semolina - 1 spoon

Preparation of Rasgulla:

• Knead paneer thoroughly till it becomes very soft. Add 1 spoon of rawa/ semlina while kneading.

• Make it into a tube and cut into equal pieces. Then make small balls out of it.

• Using hand, flatten then to small discs and keep it in a plate dusted with maida/ all-purpose-flour.

• Grate or finely chop the betel leaf/ paan and keep aside.

• Take a cooking pan and boil 2 and a half cups of water. Once it boils, add 1 cardamom, 1 clove and 1 cup of sugar and stir well. Sugar syrup is ready.

• Now bring the flame to low and slowly drop the rasgulla discs to the sugar syrup. Be careful to not get the rasgullas sticking to each other.

• Close it with a lid and let it cook in low flame for 15-20 mins and switch off.
• Let the rasgullas be in sugar syrup for an hour.

Preparation of creamy milk (malai):

• Take a cooking pan and boil the saffron induced milk.
• Add half cup of sugar and mix well.

• Keep stirring till the milk reduces to half and switch off the flame.

• Milk would have become creamy by now. Let it cool down for 15 mins.

Preparation of Paan ki Rasmalai:

• Take the rasgullas and squeeze out excess sugar syrup from them.
• Once the creamy milk has cooled down, add the rasgullas to the malai (creamy milk).
• Top it with a very small spoon of gulkand.
• Garnish with chopped almonds (pistachios as well if you have) and the grated Paan (betel leaf).
• Refrigerate for 5 mins. 

This dessert will taste it's best when served cold. Enjoy!

Kesari

Kesari is a South Indian sweet made out of semolina or sooji. It is very simple to prepare and very tasty too. You don't have to wait for any festival for making this :)

This recipe is straight out of my mom's kitchen. I must say that I grew up munching this sweet.

Ingredients:

• Rawa/ Sooji/ Semolina - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Water - 1.5 cups
• Cashews, raisins/ kismis fried in ghee/butter
• Crushed cardamoms - 3-4
• Food color - yellow (or even turmeric powder will do)
• Ghee/ Butter

Preparation:

• Take a deep frying pan and start frying semolina/ sooji/ rawa in 2 spoons of ghee/butter. Fry for 4 mins.
• Meanwhile, keep water for boiling. Once boiled, add a pinch of food color.

• Slowly add the boiled water to the fried sooji/ semolina. Let the stove be in low flame throughout.
• Keep stirring well to avoid formation of any lumps.
• Add sugar and stir well. 
• Add a spoon of ghee and stir well.
• Slowly add water and stir well. Do this till you pour all the water into the sooji.

• Add the crsuhed cardamoms, frieds raisins and cashews and stir well.
• After 5 mins of stirring, the sooji-water mix will be thick and now the flame can be turned off. Kesari is ready now.

• Take a plate and spread a spoon of ghee/ butter all over it.

• Transfer kesari to the plate and spread thoroughly.

• Wait for 3-4 mins and then cut the kesari into small pieces. Shape of your choice. Decorate with cashews and raisins and serve.

If you add more ghee at each stage, it will definitely increase the taste. Those who are health conscious can just add less ghee/butter. Enjoy this simple sweet anytime!