Fancy Sweet Recipes For The Festive Season

With the festive season on, we tend to have a lot of guests dropping by. We offer them a lot of Indian sweets but why don't you try something fancier yet Indian? Here are some easy-fancy-Indian recipes by Swasti Aggarwal, Food Strategist at Foodhall, for the sweet souls. 

Jalebi Panna Cotta

Image courtesy: Foodhall

Ingredients:

For Jalebi Batter:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1½ tbsp corn flour
• 1½ tbsp gram flour
• 2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• Pinch of salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp yeast
• About 1 cup warm water
• Orange food colour (optional)

For The Syrup:

• 1½ cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• 3 cloves
• 2 green cardamom, crushed
• Pinch of saffron threads (optional)

Method: 

• Mix half a cup of warm water with sugar and yeast. Stir, cover and let it activate.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk all-purpose flour with corn flour, gram flour and salt. Pour ghee and give it a mix. Now, pour the activated yeast and start whisking. Put couple spoons of warm water at a time as you continue making a smooth pancake-like batter. 
• Finally, pour the food colour (optional) and give it one last whisk. Cover the bowl and keep it in a warm place for the batter to ferment. It should take about 2 to 3 hours and during that time, do not shake or move the bowl.
• Once the batter ferments, make the sugar syrup. In a saucepan, mix everything and let it boil in high heat for about 7 minutes. It should be sticky and not too thick.
• To fry the Jalebi, heat enough oil in a flat saucepan. Keep the heat at medium-low. Now using either a piping bag/ziplock bag or a squeeze bottle, start squeezing out the batter in hot oil making concentric circles. Do not overcrowd the pan.
• Fry until its golden brown. It should take about 5 to 7 minutes. Once done frying, transfer it to the golden syrup and let it swim there for about a minute or two. Then, take it off and put in a serving plate.

Notes:

• The batter can also be prepared without yeast. In that case, you have to add sour yogurt to prepare the batter and allow it to rest overnight for it to ferment.
• While frying the Jalebi, make sure the oil is at medium-low or else the concentric circles will be very difficult to shape up. Also, please remember that making perfect Jalebi spiral is an art that comes with lots of practice.

   

Masala Chai Carrot Cake

Image courtesy: Foodhall

Ingredients:

For The Cake

• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 4 tbsp Assam tea
• 2 + 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp green cardamom, ground
• 500 g carrots, peeled
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• ½ cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 eggs, at room temperature
• ½ cup vegetable oil

For The Frosting

• 227 g cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3 cups icing sugar, sifted
• Crushed walnuts, for decoration

Read More: Prepare Chocolate Barfi And Strawberry Sandesh This Diwali With These Easy Recipes

Method:

For The Cake

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Butter a 9 inch round cake pan.
• Pour boiling water over the tea leaves and let this sit aside for 10 minutes. Strain the tea leaves and reserve the water.
• Whisk the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and green cardamom together in a bowl.
• In another bowl, beat the granulated sugar, brown sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and tea until combined. Using a spatula fold in the carrots. Fold in the flour mixture and gently mix only until well-combined.
• Transfer the batter to the prepared cake pan and bake the cake for about 35 to 40 minutes

For The Frosting

• Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy.
• Add icing sugar, one cup at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Assembly

• Cover the cooled cake with the frosting using an offset spatula and decorate with crushed walnuts