With Diwali coming soon, you have to make sure that you have enough sweets to celebrate. So this week, we bring you extremely simple recipes that you can prepare
Chocolate khoya kalakand
(By Nagalakshmi, Food blogger, cookingwithme.com)
Ingredients
- 1 cup of grated khoya / mawa (unsweetened)
- ½ cup of sugar (adjust to taste)
- 1 heaping tbsp of cocoa powder
- 2-3 tbsp of milk
- Chopped nuts for garnish
Method: Mix the chocolate powder and milk to form a thick paste. Set aside. Heat the grated khoya and sugar in a wide pan on a low flame. Keep stirring until the khoya thickens and starts rolling around your spatula. This should not take more than three to four minutes. Take half of this mixture and pat it firmly on the base of a greased plate. In the remaining mixture quickly add the chocolate powder and milk mixture and stir to combine. After a minute, remove. Pat the chocolate mixture firmly and evenly on the previous layer. Add chopped nuts and gently press so that it gets embedded into the kalakand. Cool to room temperature and refrigerate for an hour before cutting it.
Dates and nuts laddoo
Ingredients
- 12 medjool dates (or any soft dates)
- 1 cup of raw mixed nuts of your choice
- 1 tsp of butter or ghee
- ½ cup of desiccated coconut (optional)
Method: Remove seeds and grind the dates to a coarse paste. Set aside. Dry roast the nuts one kind at a time until they start to brown in patches. Grind this in a mixie or food processor until you have a coarse mixture. It’s best to leave a few chunky pieces for some texture in the ladoos. Heat the butter or ghee in a non-stick pan. Add the dates and cook on a low flame until it turns soft, for about three minutes. It will absorb the butter or ghee completely too. Add the chopped nuts and blend in. Turn off heat. The mixture will be sticky and a bit tough to blend but keep mixing with your spatula and soon you will have a mass of dates and nuts blended in perfectly. When it’s cool enough to handle, make ladoos of your desired size and roll in the desiccated coconut. You can also use roasted sesame seeds, poppy seeds, etc. in place of coconut. Or just leave the date ladoos plain.
Chena gujiya
(By YouTube Chef Sanjay Thumma)
Ingredients
- 500 ml milk
- 1 tsp lime juice or vinegar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
- A pinch of cardamom powder
- 1 tsp almonds (chopped)
- 1 tsp cashew nuts (chopped)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- ½ cup rice flour
- A pinch of salt,
- Oil to fry
- Water as required
Method: Boil milk in a pan, once it comes to a boil, add little lime juice or vinegar. When milk starts to bubble, strain it and set the mixture (chena) aside. Heat a pan, add the chena, sugar and mix well and let it cook. To that add desiccated coconut, cardamom powder, almonds, cashew nuts and mix well. Set this stuffing aside. In a bowl add all purpose flour, rice flour, pinch of salt, 1 tsp oil and water, mix well to make a dough. Divide the dough into smaller portions and roll into small thin puris. Stuff the chena mixture inside the puri and dab a little water on edge of the puris to seal it. Once sealed, cut the extra dough and deep fry it until it turns light golden in colour. Strain the excess oil on a paper towel.
— Compiled by Priyanka Praveen
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