Indian Traditional Sweets

In this article we will be discussing about some of the most popular traditional sweets. We have picked three sweets that enjoy maximum popularity; they are loved equally by people of all age groups.

Laddu: This sweet can be made using a range of pulses, grains, flour, semolina, dry fruits, seasonal fruits and many other ingredients. Whatever might be the main ingredient of the sweet, the confectioner will have to use sugar for making it. Laddus are round in shape and are available in different sizes; you will get small bite-size pieces as well as big pieces that resemble the size of a tennis ball.

One of the most widely loved types of laddu is motichur ka laddu. This sweet is made using roasted flakes of gram flour, clarified butter, almonds and sugar. Many also refer to this sweet dish as boondi ka laddu. The other most admired laddu type is besan ka laddu, which is prepared using gram flour, clarified, dry fruits, and sugar. The ingredients used for making these two different laddu types might be more or less same, but the process of making them is absolutely different.

Peda: The main ingredients used for making this sweet are khoa or dried condensed milk, traditional flavorings like saffron, rose, and cardamom, and sugar, but confectioners use a range of other ingredients for making the pedas even tastier. You will often come across pedas made using nuts, pistachio, resins etc. Pedas are usually off-white or yellow in color; however, based on different ingredients used for making these sweets, their color keep on changing. Today, confectioners even make chocolate pedas and vanilla pedas. However, those new recipes of making these sweets are not as popular as the traditional recipes.

Kaju Katli: This sweet is made using cashew nuts, clarified butter, sugar and thickened milk or condensed milk. Other ingredients such as mild spices and dry fruits are also used. The kaju katlis that enjoy maximum popularity are the ones made with saffron. They are mostly available in diamond-shaped pieces; however, you may also come across pieces that are square in shape.

If you check the history of all these three sweets, you will find that all of them were first made as offerings to Gods. However, now it seems they are made more for the humans than for the Gods. If you are planning to buy these sweets, make sure you always buy them from a well-known confectioner. This is important because only reputable confectioners use the best and purest ingredients to make sweets.