Diwali Sweets to Make Outside India

In India, most Diwali mithai is bought. Sweet shops build towers of boxes in the week before, and the box itself is the gift: you take one to every house you visit, and come home with as many as you gave away. Outside India the shop is often an hour’s drive away, sells out early, or does not exist. So the box gets made at home, by someone who never had to make one before.

This page is for that person. The recipes it links to are written around what a kitchen in the US or UK actually has. None of them needs khoya, and the ones that keep well can be made over two weekends instead of one long night.

Five days, not one

Diwali is a five-day festival, though outside India it is often squeezed into a single evening. It starts with Dhanteras, when new pots, pans and gold are bought. Next comes Naraka Chaturdashi, called Choti Diwali in the north. In Tamil Nadu it is Deepavali itself, begun with an oil bath before dawn, and in some years it falls on the same day as the main night. The main night is Lakshmi Puja, with lamps on every ledge. Then comes Govardhan Puja, usually the next day but sometimes two days later, when Annakut, a “mountain” of food, is offered. In Gujarat it is also the new year, and in Maharashtra it is Padwa. The festival closes with Bhai Dooj, for brothers and sisters.

Sweets run through all five days, but the box matters most in the two or three days around the main night. That is the deadline to cook towards.

Diwali follows the moon, so it moves by several weeks from one year to the next. Check the date each year before you plan backwards from it.

What to make first

The sweets that keep longest go first. These keeping times are the ones each recipe page gives, so you can plan from them.

About two weeks before. Besan ladoo keep for two to three weeks at room temperature in an airtight tin, because of all the ghee, and six to eight weeks in the fridge in a warm or humid kitchen. They are also the sweet most people remember from childhood boxes, which makes them a good place to start. Roasting the besan is the one stage that needs your full attention, and the recipe has a diagram for judging it.

About a week before. Mohanthal keeps ten to twelve days at room temperature and improves after a day or two, so it can go in early. Khajur barfi keeps about a week at cool room temperature and three to four weeks in the fridge. It needs no sugar syrup, and it is the easiest of these to get right the first time.

Two or three days before. Kaju katli is the sweet most people picture in a Diwali box: a pale diamond, often with silver leaf. Making it two or three days ahead is normal practice. Cut pieces keep about a week in a tin. The one-string syrup is the hard part, and the recipe shows how to judge it without a thermometer. Kaju roll is the same cashew dough rolled around a saffron filling, and the sliced rolls keep up to a week in the fridge. Soan papdi keeps about a week in an airtight tin at room temperature. Keep it out of the fridge, because humidity softens the layers.

The day before. Gulab jamun are better made the night before, fried and left to soak overnight. They are for the table rather than the box, since a sweet sitting in syrup does not travel.

Any evening that week. Coconut ladoo take about twenty minutes from start to finish and use a tin of condensed milk, so they are the ones to make when the schedule slips. They keep up to a week in the fridge but only about two days at cool room temperature, so chill them until the box is packed. Anjeer roll can be made with no added sugar and needs very little cooking. Wrapped, it keeps up to a week in the fridge.

Making a box that travels

A box that is going to be carried, posted or left on a doorstep needs firm sweets with no syrup.

The barfis travel best: kaju katli, khajur barfi and mohanthal all hold an edge and do not weep. Ladoo travel well if they are packed snugly so they cannot roll. Keep anything in syrup at home. Gulab jamun in a box are a leak waiting to happen.

Pack each kind in its own paper liners or its own layer, so soft sweets are not crushed by firm ones and nothing sticks together.

If someone at the table eats differently

Each recipe page lists the diets it suits exactly as written, and the one swap that changes that. For Diwali, the useful short version is this:

• Without dairy: kaju katli, khajur barfi and anjeer roll can each be made vegan with a swap or two, given on each page.
• Silver leaf: the vark on kaju katli was traditionally beaten between layers of animal gut. India now bans that, but leaf sold abroad is not always labelled with how it was made. For a vegetarian or vegan table, leave it off unless the packet says. It adds nothing to the taste.
• Without wheat: besan ladoo, mohanthal, kaju katli, khajur barfi, coconut ladoo, anjeer roll and gajar ka halwa. Gulab jamun uses a little flour. Besan is naturally wheat-free, but check the packet: some brands are milled alongside wheat.
• Without added sugar: khajur barfi is sweetened only by the dates, and anjeer roll can be.

Most of these contain nuts, and each page says which.

Why nothing here needs khoya

Most of what a sweet shop sells for Diwali is built on khoya, the dense milk solids that an Indian kitchen buys and a kitchen abroad usually cannot. These recipes are routes around it. Kaju katli and khajur barfi use nuts and dates instead. Besan ladoo and mohanthal use roasted gram flour. Gulab jamun use full-fat milk powder. Coconut ladoo use condensed milk. That is not second best: a box made this way is closer to what an Indian home kitchen makes than to what a shop sells, and the home box has always been the better one.

What to make

• Besan ladoo: the one to start with.
• Motichoor ladoo: tiny fried boondi pearls bound in syrup, made with a slotted spoon instead of a jhara.
• Mohanthal: the Gujarati besan barfi, grainy on purpose.
• Besan barfi: the smooth, fudgy one, for anyone who prefers it to mohanthal.
• Kaju katli: the box’s centrepiece, with or without silver leaf.
• Kaju roll: kaju katli dough rolled around a saffron filling and sliced.
• Soan papdi: the flaky one from the gold tin, pulled by hand at home.
• Khajur barfi: no sugar, no syrup, no thermometer.
• Coconut ladoo: twenty minutes, for when the plan slips.
• Anjeer roll: fig and pistachio, sliced into rounds.
• Gulab jamun: for the table, made the night before.
• Gajar ka halwa: not a box sweet, but a warm one for the meal once the evenings turn cold.