By Niveditha Kalyanaraman
September 21st, 2023
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When you talk about Indian desserts, one starts listing Gulab Jamun and Jalebi, but there are a platter of delicious desserts that people don't know much about. Here are 12 Underrated Indian desserts you must try!
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Malpua alternates as a dessert and a snack and is prepared in Northern and Eastern households. It is prepared during Holi, Paush Sankranti and also as a part of the Iftar post-Ramadan. It is made by deep frying the batter and then dipping it in sugar syrup.
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The taste of coconut and sugar works well, making it a comfort food on its own. Maharashtrians make coconut barfis during Narali Pournima, in the month of Shravan, while the Bengalis make them during Holi.
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It is a healthy dessert because it's made of date palm jaggery and cottage cheese. The taste is milder than most of its counterparts that ooze with sugar syrup once bitten into.
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Mysore pak is a very simple dessert made of ghee, sugar and besan. The besan is fried in copious amounts of ghee over a slow fire and then drenched in sugar syrup, that melts in our tongues and tastes like heaven.
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The Pati Shapta closely resembles a crepe filled with a coconut and condensed milk mixture flavored with cardamom. The lightness of the crepe complements the sweetness of the coconut.
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Puran poli is a sweet stuffed poli (chapatti). It is not very sweet because it has the perfect balance of mixing the soaked, cooked chana dal with jaggery. This mixture is blended well and stuffed into whole wheat dough.
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Jaangiri looks akin to jalebis but with an intricate flower-like appearance. It is made from urad dal along with saffron, which renders it its light orange color. After being deep fried in ghee, it’s soaked in sugar syrup for sweetness.
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Adhirasam is a famous dessert from South India. It is made out of rice, ghee, and jaggery and flavoured with elaichi or saffron.
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Pootharekulu from Andhra Pradesh is a dessert made of rice paper sheets that are stuffed with jaggery and nuts and then rolled in a mixture of ghee and sugar.
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Made with layers of milk cream that are stuffed with khoya and then deep-fried, Bengal is famous for more than just rasagulla.
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Mawa bati is quite similar to our beloved gulab jamuns and is definitely worth a try. These sweet delights are made with mawa dough, which is then stuffed with nuts and some more mawa. They are then deep-fried and coated in sugar syrup.
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They are dumplings made of rice or wheat flour and filled with coconut and jaggery, scented with cardamom and saffron. The mithai version made of khoya and sugar are commercialized during Ganesh Chaturthi because of its sustainability and ease of preparation.
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