Let’s celebrate this Diwali with delicious Homemade Sweets

Diwali or Deepawali is the Festival of Lights, festivity and celebration. No celebrations or festival is complete without homemade sweets. During this auspicious occasion make sweets at home rather buying from outside and share it with your family, friends and loved ones.

This year Diwali falls on 7th of November 2018.

In many parts of India, during Diwali night sweets are shared to the neighbors and friends and ladies use to prepare everything at home.
On Diwali, as it is an auspicious day it’s a good time to start anything new ur positive in life, donate your old clothes to poor people or many any kind of donation. On this note, let’s start the with some sweets.

Kaju Katli

These Kaju Katli’s are the way they are actually meant to be- thin, smooth melts in the mouth slices of cashew goodness.
Total time- 20 minutes 
Prep time - 5 minutes 
Cook time- 15 minutes 
Servings - 14 slices 
Calories- 86 k. Cal 

Ingredients ( 1 cup 250 ml ) 
1 cup / 160 GMs cashew 
1/2 cup sugar / 100 GMs 
5 tbsp water 
1 tbsp ghee/ coconut oil ( optional) 
1 tbsp chopped rose petals / rose water/ saffron strands 

How to make Kaju Katli Recipe 

1)    powder the cashew in a coffee grinder/ a dry grinder 
2)    The cashews should be in a powder form and not become pasty/oily 
3)    On a low flame heat sugar and water in a thick bottomed/ non stick pan 
4)    Mean while grease a plate and keep it aside or keep butter papers ready.
5)    When all the sugars dissolve in the water add the cashew powder. There is no consistency in the sugar syrup required like one string or 2 string. Just let the sugar dissolve in the water and then proceed with the next step.
6)    Stir and keep on stirring the cashew mixture on a low flame.
7)    The mixture would start thickening 
8)    Cook the kaju mixture for approximately 7-9 minutes till the whole mixture starts to come together.

Making of kaju katli

Remove the whole lump of the Kaju mixture from the pan and place it on the work surface, bowl or plate.
Add the rose petals and ghee or oil to the cashew mixture 
When the heat in the mixture is hot enough to handle, then knead the cashew mixture.
Flatten the kaju katli dough and place it on a butter paper or on a greased plate / thali or tray.
Place a butter paper on top and then using a rolling pin, roll gently the dough from all sides till you reach a thickness of 3-5mm in the dough.

Remove the butter paper and let the rolled kaju dough cool

When completely cooled, using a sharp knife cut the cashew dough giving square it diamond shapes.
Gently remove the kaju katli with a Butter knife.

Serve the kaju katli straight away or keep in an air tight container.

BESAN LADOO RECIPE

One of the popular Ladoos often made during festive occasions. Besan Ladoo is easy and healthy sweet which  is made all over India. 

Few Tips of making Besan Ladoo

1) While making Besan Ladoos, it’s important to roast the Besan( Gram Flour) well, till it starts releasing the ghee and also will start giving nutty fragrance. If your add sugar into the gram flour before it is roasted well, then the uncooked gram flour will have a raw taste in the ladoo and you won’t get the perfect sweet taste in the ladoos.
2)Also roast the gram flour on low flame and keep on stirring continuously 
3) Once you add sugar then stir continuously so that no lumps are formed.
4) to make the besan ladoo more healthy you can add dry fruits like almonds, cashews or pistachios they are also good for health during winters as they keep your body warm.

5) if you are unable to form besan ladoos even when the mixture has cooled completely, then keep the mixture in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. The ghee will solidify a bit and you will be easily able to form the Besan Ladoo.

Recipe 

Prep time -5 minutes 
Cook time - 18 minutes 
Total time - 23 minutes 
Servings - 15 medium sized Besan Ladoo 
Rough calories calculated per serving- 142 k cal 

INGREDIENTS 1 cup = 250 ML 

2 cups besan / gram flour 
1/2 cup to 2/3 cup ghee add more if required 
1 cup powdered sugar 
4 green cardamoms 
1 or 2 tbsp raisins 

HOW TO MAKE BESAN LADOO

1)    Dry roast the besan in a khadai on slow flame for about 10-11 minutes 
2)    Keep on stirring continuously right from the beginning. So that besan is not burned and so that there is even browning 
3)    While roasting the besan, melt the ghee and keep aside

Making of Besan Ladoo

1)    after 11- 12 minutes of total roasting time, add the melted ghee and continue roasting the besan got some more minutes like about 5 more minutes continuously 
2)    The besan would start to give a nice nutty fragrance and will start releasing ghee.
3)    One you get a strong nutty fragrance then switch off the fire.
4)    Remove the pan from the stove and keep down.
5)    Add powdered sugar it boora got best taste use boora
6)    Stir well so that no lumps are formed 
7)    Add the powdered cardamom and raisins. You can also add chopped dry fruit at this stage. Stir well.
8)    Once you have mixed the Besan Ladoo mixture well then let it cool down to the room temperature.
9)    Make small or medium sized Besan Ladooe and store them in air tight container.

KADA PRASHAD RECIPE

Kada PRASHAD is a super delicious halwa that is served in gurudwaras as Prasad.

This is a velvety, smooth and a very rich halwa with whole wheat flour. One of the delicacies that is served in Gurudwara as a Prasad is this super delicious halwa known as kada Prasad. This is supposed to be everybody’s favourite sweet.

The word gurudwara means the door to guru. So when you visit the guru you cannot come back empty handed. The guru offers his sweet blessings to you. This kada PRASHAD signifies these blessings and one should never say no to Kada PRASHAD when you visit any gurudwara.

Kada prashad is made with 4 ingredients - whole wheat ,ghee, sugar and water 1:1:1:3
Ratio of wheat flour, ghee, sugar and water respectively. Thus the sweet has a different taste than the usual atta halwa what we make at home.

If making at home, then you can add less ghee. For some texture in the halwa a few tablespoons of sooji is also added. 

Recipe 

Prep time - 5 minutes
Cook time - 25 minutes
Total time- 30 minutes
Servings - 6
Rough calories - 495 kcal 

Ingredients 

1 cup atta or 120 grams of whole wheat flour 
1 cup sugar or 200 GMs sugar 
1 cup ghee 
3 cups water 

How to make kada Prashad

1)Take one cup sugar in a sauce pan or pot . Add 3 cups of water to make sugar solution.
2) keep the pan on stove top on a medium low to medium flame 
3) stir the solution so that all the sugar dissolves 
4)Heat this sugar solution till it begins boiling
5) once the sugar solution boils then switch off the flame.

Method for wheat flour 

1)    meanwhile when you keep the sugar solution to boil, also place a heavy bottomed pan on another stove top on a low flame 
2)    Add one cup ghee for frying, let the ghee melt.
3)    Then add whole wheat flour to it 
4)    Mix well to get a mixture without lumps 
5)    On a low flame begin to fry the whole wheat flour in ghee
6)    Fry the atta stirring non stop 
7)    The colour of the atta changes gradually as you keep stirring and cooking it. Keep on stirring the flour to ensure even browning.
8)    The atta or whole wheat flour should have a shade of dark golden colour and should have a nutty fragrance.

Making of kada prashad

1)    when the atta turns to a golden brown colour, add the sugar solution in two parts. Be careful as the mixture bubbles and splutters a lot. 
2)    Mix and stir well
3)    Then add the second part of hot sugar solution. Continue to mix very well.
4)    Now cook the kada prashad stirring non stop 
5)    The mixture will thicken as it gets cooked 
6)    The halwa will also start releasing ghee
7)    Continue to stir non stop and cook till the whole mixture becomes one mass and leaves the sides of the pan 
8)    The consistency of the kada Prashad  will also change as well as the colour.
9)    When the kada prashad gets the consistency then you can switch off the flame to enjoy the delicacy.