Delicious Diwali treats

Indulge your sweet tooth with delectable festivalperfect desserts. From fusion to traditional sweets, here’s how you can jazz up your platter

STUFFED CHAM CHAM

For chena: Boil 1 litre milk on medium flame. Add 20ml diluted lime juice and stir well until milk curdles completely. Then add cold water to the milk and strain through a muslin cloth. Squeeze excess water from chena. Hang it for an hour to remove excess water. Now knead it well until smooth. Make oval shape balls. Keep it aside.

For cham cham: Boil 1 litre water with 500gm sugar to make a syrup. Add 5gm cardamom powder along with chena balls. The syrup must be at boiling consistently. Cook on medium flame for 8- 10 minutes. Take out the cham cham from syrup and cool it down. Slit the cham cham from the centre.

Make khoya stuffing by adding 250gm khoya, 150gm desiccated coconut powder and 50gm powdered sugar along with some chopped pistachio. Add the stuffing in cham cham. Sprinkle chopped pistachio on top. Garnish with desiccated coconut and serve it chilled.

By chef Devender Bungla, Hyatt Regency

GULAB JAMUN CHEESECAKE

Beat two egg yolks. Make sugar syrup by boiling 60gm sugar with 30gm water. Mix this syrup with eggs and beat it again. In another bowl, whip 200gm nondairy cream and 30gm mascarpone cheese. Mix 100gm crushed gulab jamun in this cream. Crush 50gm digestive biscuits, add 30gm sugar and 50gm gulab jamun and mix it well. Put the mixture of biscuits in a mould and spread it evenly by pressing it. Mix 10gm gelatin, 25gm water and mix in whipped cream. Pour this in the mould on top of biscuits. Keep it in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours to set. Garnish with pistachio and almond flakes before serving.

By chef Aavika Chhawchharia, Honey & Dough

BLACK SESAME AND AMARANTH LADDU

Dry roast 25gm sesame seeds and then add 100gm Amaranth seeds and roast again for 3-4 minutes. Take out the mixture and when it’s slightly warm, add 50gm grated jaggery and 15ml ghee and then mix well. When it’s done, roll the mixture to make medium-sized balls or laddus. Leave these to settle before serving.

By chef Balpreet, Annamaya, Andaz Delhi

SAFFRON JALEBI

In a bowl, mix 120gm maida, 5gm corn flour and 5gm curd. Then add 5ml vinegar and water to it. Mix it well, in round circular directions for four minutes. Add 2gm baking soda and mix gently. Now, carefully pour this batter in tomato ketchup bottles. Heat oil in a pan and add 5ml ghee. Squeeze the bottle and make round spirals of the batter. When one side is partly cooked, turn over and fry the other side. Fry till the jalebis are a light golden in colour. Then immediately drop the fried jalebis in 200gm warm sugar syrup with saffron for 30 seconds. Then serve these jalebis hot, warm or at room temperature on a base of carrot halwa.

By chef Vaibhav Bhargava,The Drunken Botanist, Gurugram

MULTILAYERED GHEVAR

For the sugar syrup: Combine 250gm sugar and 150ml water in a pan and simmer it. Remove it from the flame but keep it warm. Now, in a bowl, mix 50gm flour, 5gm arrowroot powder and 30gm melted ghee. Add 200ml of water to this and whisk. Keep this batter in a cool place, away from the heat. Place the ghevar ring in a kadhai and pour melted ghee in it till it reaches 3/4th of the height of the mould. Heat the ghee on a medium flame and add a spoonful of the batter into the mould . The batter should settle in the mould. Repeat this step seven times while making a hole in the centre of the ghevar, using a wooden skewer. Pour the batter into this centre each time. Once cooked, take out and immerse in sugar syrup, drain quickly and place on a serving plate. Arrange multiple layers with different sizes and serve.

Recipe by chef Prem K Pogakula, The Imperial