Diwali Sweets Recipes: Master the Art of Making Soan Papdi, Jalebi, and Motichoor Laddoo

Come Diwali and elaborate sweetmeats are made at home and distributed among family and friends. From Soan Papdi to Jalebi to Motichoor Laddoo, Diwali traditional sweets are mostly drier than traditional Dussehra and can be stored for weeks in airtight containers. This is because Diwali sweets are meant to be shared and distributed as “shagun” or gifts, which means they need to stay fresh for much longer than other sweetmeats.

If you are a dessert enthusiast, then these Diwali sweets recipes will not only help you create some of the most popular festival treats, but also allow you to “taste only a few” in the process.

Soan Papdi

Ingredients:

• 500 ml milk
• 200 gm sugar
• 55 gm ghee
• 110 gm maida
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 50 gm roasted and flaked pistachios
• Dried rose petals

Method:

1. For this flaky and melt-in-the-mouth dessert, you need to start by pouring milk into a large saucepan, and bringing it to a boil over high flame.
2. Once the milk has started to boil, reduce the flame and let it keep simmering until the milk thickens in consistency.
3. The consistency will soon turn creamy, after which you need to add ghee, sugar and cardamom powder, and mix everything well.
4. After that, you need to take a separate bowl and in it, combine baking soda with maida.
5. Then, gently transfer this dry mixture into the milk while stirring the milk continuously.
6. Continue whisking the milk so that all the ingredients are properly combined.
7. After that, you can take the milk off the heat and transfer it into a tray that has been greased with ghee.
8. Once the dish has cooled down to room temperature, you have to let it refrigerate for at least 3 hours.
9. Before serving, slice it into the shape of small diamonds, garnish it with roasted pistachios and dried rose petals, and dig in.

The Soan Papdi can also be flavored with Kewra or rose water for a more authentic experience. Dilute 4-5 ml of edible rose or kewra into 60 ml of cold water and transfer it to a spray bottle. Then spray the Soan Papdi with the concoction and let it sit for a few minutes, before serving.

Motichoor Laddoo

Ingredients:

• 201 gm gram flour
• 102 gm ghee
• 203 gm sugar
• 54 ml milk
• 2 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 201 gm sugar
• 202 ml water
• 2 tsp cardamom

Method:

1. This quick and easy recipe will require you to combine ghee, gram, flour, and baking soda in a bowl.
2. Then, add milk and sugar to the flour mixture, and combine everything into a soft dough.
3. After kneading the dough, divide it into small round dumplings of around 2 inches in diameter.
4. Next, deep fry the dough balls in oil or ghee for about 10 minutes until they are golden brown in color.
5. Then, prepare the sugar syrup by mixing equal parts of water and sugar, and bringing them to a boil. The mixture will thicken further once it cools.
6. Soak the laddoos in the syrup for about 10 minutes.
7. Before serving, let them cool a little bit and top with some cardamom powder.

Jalebi

Ingredients:

• 200 gm maida
• 85 gm gram flour
• 200 ml yogurt
• 55 ml ghee
• 220 gm sugar
• 2 teaspoon cardamom
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Food coloring
• 200 ml water

Method:

1. For this recipe, you have to mix gram flour, maida, yogurt and ghee, and let the mixture ferment for 5 to 6 hours or overnight.
2. The next morning, heat oil in a frying pan.
3. Transfer the fermented mixture into a piping bag, and pipe it in circular shapes into the hot oil.
4. Each of these individual rings need to fry in the oil for about 10 minutes before you strain them out, and soak them in sugar syrup for another 10 minutes. The recipe for the sugar syrup remains the same as for Motichoor Laddoo.
5. These delicious and sticky sweet treats can be eaten warm, or you can also cool them before serving them with hot tea.

To make the jalebis look more vibrant, you may want to add a few drops of yellow or orange food coloring to the batter. In fact, you can take inspiration from these Diwali desserts

and experiment with ingredients of your own. For a healthier version of these desserts, you can replace sugar with jaggery powder, and plant-based milk for regular milk.