3 Lesser known special sweets you need to make right now

We are sure you have heard at least one of these Indian sweets, if the names Pootharekulu, Mawa Bati, or Shorbhaja faintly ring a bell or sound completely unfamiliar, then, let us jog your memory. Pootharekulu has been making the rounds on the internet for its paper-thin shell made by brushing the butter on the surface of a heated pot, then this leaf-like wrapper is filled with sugar and nuts and wrapped like a parcel. As for Mawa Bati and Shorbhaja, they are made with different milk products and sugar and are equally sweet. Try all of the new sweet recipe, for each, when you feel like having something other than your regular burfi or Sandesh platters. 

Pootharekulu

Ingredients

• 440 gm raw rice
• 200 gm mixed dry nuts (pistachio, cashew, almonds)
• 50 gm powdered sugar or grated jaggery
• 55 gm ghee
• 1 tsp cardamom powder

Instructions

1. Wash the rice thoroughly and soak it in water for four to six hours. Once the rice soaks in the water, drain the rice and grind it, adding water, bit by bit, to get a paste. You need a runny batter.
2. In a nonstick pan, dry roast the nuts until fragrant and light brown, then transfer to a blender and grind to a coarse powder. Add the cardamom powder, mix, and keep aside.
3. Heat a flat pan and heat it with a few drops of oil, coating the pan.
4. Take a ladle full of the thin batter, and pour it into a plate. Let it settle and take a clean and damp, not dripping wet, cloth big enough to fit the pan.
5. Dip the wet cloth in the batter and quickly straighten over the hot pan to coat the pan in a thin and translucent layer. If it comes off, thick your batter needs more water.
6. Let it cook and once done, the thin sheet will automatically lift off the pan. Put it on a plate and repeat with the batter to have more such rich rice paper sheets.
7. Once the batter is used up, make the nut filling. Take 2-3 sheets coat one side with ghee and stick the sheets to each other. Sprinkle jaggery or sugar on the ghee-covered surface, then follow with the nut mixture. Fold over, and roll the sheets. Repeat with the rest of the rice papers, jaggery, or sugar and nut filling.
8. Arrange on a plate, serve, or gift to loved ones.

Mawa Bati

Ingredients

• 450 gm mawa
• 120 gm all-purpose flour
• 100 gm sugar
• Oil for deep frying
• 400 gm sugar
• 450 ml water
• 10 cardamom pods, crushed
• A pinch of saffron strands

Instructions

1. Take a big bowl, mix fresh mawa, flour, and sugar, and knead to form a dough. Divide it into small portions, as you would for ladoo, and shape them into round balls.
2. Heat a kadhai, on medium heat, full of oil for frying, and fry the balls until golden, drain and set aside.
3. Take a big saucepan or pot, pour water, add the sugar, and bring to a boil to make the sugar syrup, as it starts simmering, add the cardamom and saffron.
4. Turn off the heat and soak the fried balls in this syrup for a couple of minutes.
5. Serve them at room temperature garnished with sesame seeds and dry nuts.

Shorbhaja

Ingredients

• 1 liter milk
• 250 gm sugar
• 150 ml water
• Ghee for deep frying

Instructions

1. Boil water and sugar in a saucepan, until reduced to a one-string consistency. Remove from heat and set aside the sugar syrup.
2. Take another saucepan and pour milk, bringing it to a boil. Keep it on low heat and wait for the milk skin to form, extract into a bowl. Keep collecting the milk skins until the milk runs out.
3. Fashion the collected milk skin into a compact and slice it into smaller squares.
4. Heat ghee in a pan, on medium heat, and fry the cubes until they turn golden. Drop them into the sugar syrup prepared earlier.
5. Let the Shorbhaja soak for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the pan and serve.
6. You can garnish with chopped pista while serving.