Missing Your Sibling This Rakhi? Make These 5 Mithais At Home For Long-Distance Celebrations In 2023

Missing your long-distance sibling this Raksha Bandhan? What better way for sweeter celebrations than making delish mithais for the occasion.

Indian festivals are not only an extension of beliefs in holy legends and ceremonial rituals but also of undying faith, emotions and of course a melange of good food. So, here's a list of easy and quick desserts that you can share with your brother or sister for your virtual rakhi-tying. Take a look.

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1) Coconut Ladoo

Ingredients

1.5 cups of tightly packed fresh grated coconut

1 teaspoon ghee

? teaspoon green cardamom powder

? can of sweetened condensed milk 每 220 grams

? cup fresh grated coconut or unsweetened desiccated coconut

preferred chopped nuts or dry fruits 每 optional

coconut-ladoococonut-ladoo

Recipe

Heat 1 teaspoon of ghee in a frying pan or kadai. You can also use coconut oil instead of ghee. Add 1.5 cups of tightly packed grated coconut. Stir and saut谷 the coconut on low heat for 3 to 4 minutes but make sure they don＊t brown. Roasting gets rid of the excess moisture.

If you are using desiccated coconut then there is no need to roast it in ghee. Simply mix the desiccated coconut with condensed milk (milkmaid) and heat the mixture. On the other hand, if you are using frozen coconut then let it come to room temperature before you start to roast it.

Now add ? cup of sweetened condensed milk. Add ? teaspoon of green cardamom powder. Mix well and cook the mixture on a low heat. The mixture should begin to thicken. Keep stirring regularly. Once the mixture leaves the sides of the pan and you see some coconut fat at the sides, turn off the heat.

Pour the coconut ladoo mixture in another bowl or pan and allow it to cool. Once the mixture has cooled completely, pinch medium balls from the mixture and form ladoo. Rub ghee on the palm of your hands and shape the coconut ladoo. If the mixture is loose then you won＊t be able to make the ladoo.

If the mixture is loose then put it back in the pan and heat it for a few more minutes. Roll the ladoo in to the desiccated coconut or in fresh coconut until it is evenly coated. You can also make all of the coconut ladoo at the same time and roll in them in desiccated coconut.

Serve coconut ladoo straight away or refrigerate for later. Coconut ladoo can be refrigerated for 2 to 3 days. Keep them covered in an air-tight container in the fridge.

2) Kaju Katli

Ingredients

1 cup cashew nut or 150 gm cashew nuts

1 tbsp milk powder (optional)

? cup sugar or 75 gm sugar

4 tbsp water + 1 tbsp rose water

1 tsp cardamom powder

1 tsp saffron strands (optional)

1 tbsp pistachios chopped finely (optional)

some oil or ghee for greasing the tray

kaju katli

Recipe

If you are using saffron just dry roast them for a minute before using. Firstly dry grind the cashew in a coffee grinder or grinder. Grind for 20 sec and check it should be powder. Ensure they are fine powder form and not doughy or wet paste. This is the important factor for outcome of the sweet. If you grind too much they would end up being cashew butter as cashew would start leaving oil. So please take care of this process.

Heat a nonstick pan with water, rose water and sugar. Mix milk powder if using now and ensure there are no lumps. Once the sugar and milk powder dissolves you could add the cashew powder. You don't have to wait until it becomes one thread consistency. Add cashew powder and mix well. Also, add roasted saffron strands and chopped pistachios if using.

Keep stirring the mixture until they thicken. Once you see the mixture has almost become a one lump mass and leaving the edges of the pan. Don't wait just switch off the gas as soon as it starts leaving the edges. If you over cook they might become chewy.

Now remove them on a dish or tray. Allow the mixture to slightly cool. Once you are able to manage the warm mixture.

Just grease your hand and start kneading the dough for a minute or until they look smooth. You have to do this quickly as once they cool they would become firm and difficult to manage. So spread the dough on a greased tray or dish. Cover with a butter paper and then with the help of a pin roller or pav bhaji masher just spread them giving the shape of your dish or tray.

Ensure you don't make them too thin. Allow to cool and place them in the fridge for 20 mins. Now diagonally slice them with a greased knife into squares or diamond shape. Serve your kaju katlis with love or as an offering to God.

3) Rava Sheera

Ingredients

Rava (Semolina or Sooji): You＊ll need a regular, coarse sooji variety (same as the one we use for upma)

Ghee: Please do not reduce the amount of ghee. It adds nice flavor and richness. NO, you cannot make it vegan by using oil. It doesn＊t taste good at all. If you＊re making it as a prasad sheera then you must use cow＊s ghee

Sugar: Regular white sugar is used

Milk: Full-fat whole milk is highly recommended for a rich, creamy texture

Nuts: Almonds and cashews are used

Raisins: Golden raisins are used here in sheera recipe

Cardamom: Crush the green cardamoms in mortar and pestle. Discard the pod and make powder out of the seeds

Optional: Many like to add freshly grated nutmeg

Rava Sheera

Recipe

Add ghee to a heavy bottom pan and turn the heat on to medium. Let the ghee get nice and hot. Meantime, take milk in a microwave-safe bowl and heat it until it just starts to come to a boil. Alternatively, you can heat the milk in a saucepan on the stovetop.

Ghee must be hot, so check by adding a pinch of rava in the ghee and it should sizzle right away. That＊s the right temperature of ghee. If rava settles at the bottom of the pan then the ghee is not hot enough.

Once the ghee is hot, add semolina. You can see semolina is bubbling and becomes frothy from the sides. That＊s perfect and crucial for fluffy texture and it happens when added to the hot ghee. Keep stirring constantly and roast the semolina until it is very light golden brown in color. We don't want to burn or are not looking for dark golden color.

The hint is, ghee starts to separate from rava as it is roasted. Earlier all the ghee was absorbed by the unroasted semolina. Now add hot milk and stir with a spatula with another hand. Be careful as milk will froth up as you add.

Once all milk is added the mixture becomes runny and liquidy. Add almonds, cashews, and raisins at this time. Keep stirring and cooking, the mixture will start to thicken in minutes. Semolina will absorb all the liquid and becomes fluffy and the mixture becomes thick and leaves the sides of the pan. Add sugar and cardamom seeds powder. Mix, as the sugar melts the mixture becomes loose again. Keep stirring and cooking until it becomes thick and the ghee will ooze out from all sides.

Sheera is ready, turn off the stove.

Adding rava (sooji) into hot ghee is a crucial step. This way semolina will puff up nicely and result in a fluffy texture. So never add rava into warm or room temperature ghee.

Roasting semolina is an important step to get the best texture of sheera. Roast with stirring continuously until they are light, fluffy, slightly golden, and aromatic.

Low-medium heat: During the entire sheera making process, keep the heat low-medium. If you have kept the heat medium to high, semolina will get color soon without being properly roasted.

Stir constantly: Whether it＊s the semolina roasting process or after adding milk, or sugar you＊ll need to stir constantly from start to finish. You can＊t do other tasks simultaneously. Focus on making sheera only.

Milk temperature: Always add hot milk. Never add cold or room-temperature milk.

4) Truffles

Ingredients

Almonds 每 can be subbed with your favorite nut

Desiccated Coconut 每 unsweetened coconut

Almond Butter 每 can be substituted with any other nut butter

Medjool dates 每 make sure they are soft

For coating

Brown color 每 Melted Dark chocolate with coconut oil

White Color 每Desiccated coconut

Green Color 每 Crushed pistachios

Pink color 每 Dry Strawberry

Beige Color 每 powered almonds

truffles

Recipe

If the dates are not soft, soak them in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain the water, pat them dry and use it. Slightly toast the almonds and desiccated coconut. This step is optional, you can also use the raw almonds.

Add the almonds, coconut and dates in the food processor. Pulse it few times till the almonds break down. Add the nut butter and blend again till the whole mixture comes together. If the mixture is crumbly, add little more almond butter or dates or one tablespoon of water.

If you can form a ball, the mixture is ready. Roll the mixture in to small balls. You should get about 15-18 balls.

Coating

Grind the almonds, pistachio and dry strawberry separately and transfer it to different plates. In a microwave safe bowl add the chocolate wafers and coconut oil and microwave for 45 seconds to a minute till the chocolate melts.

Using a fork, coat the balls in the melted chocolate and let the excess dip off before placing them on parchment paper or greased baking sheet. While the chocolate is still wet, you can top them with crushed nuts or coconut or dry strawberry.

If you are not a fan of chocolate, coat the balls directly with crushed nuts, desiccated coconut or powdered dry strawberry.

5) Bread Halwa

Ingredients

Sugar

Ghee

Cashew

Saffron water

Khoya

White bread & milk

bread-halwa

Recipe

Soak little saffron in warm water. Trim the edges of the bread and cut them to four pieces and set a side. Add a tea spoon of ghee and fry the cashew till light brown. Remove and set a side. You can choose to deep fry the bread, traditionally that＊s how it is made. I just pan fry them and the halwa is equally tasty. In the same pan add half the ghee and add half of the bread slices and fry till golden on both sides. Remove and repeat with the rest of the bread. If you are using a wide pan you can fry the all the bread pieces at the same time.

Make sure the bread is nice and crisp. Let cool few minutes. Add water and sugar to the pan and bring it to a rolling boil. Add the bread pieces and cook for one to three minutes. The bread will almost instantly start absorbing the syrup. If you pan fried the bread you just need to cook for a minute before going to the next step. Add 3 tbsps of milk, saffron water and unsweetened khoya. Mix it gently. Do not over mix. We want to have few chunks of bread in the halwa for texture. Very soon halwa will start coming together. Finally add the cashew and give a mix and turn off the heat.

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