Paper No. 09 Paper Title: Bakery and Confectionery Technology Module No. 35 Module Title: Overview of popular Indian flour confections 1. INTRODUCTION Sweetmeats are very popular in India and difficult to resist, either it a scorching summer or a bone smashing winter, Indian mithai is always ready to tempt the tongue. A sumptuous meal in every Indian house is always incomplete without sweet dish like gulabjamun or kulfi or gajjar ka halwa. Sweetmeat making earlier was confined to the kitchens of sweet shops and small dealers, but now has come up as a technologically advanced industry because of its enormous popularity and demand in consumers of India and abroad. The Hindustani word used to refer to sweets and confectionery is mithai. The origin of a sweet differs by region. Milk being staple in East India, is the basis for the most sweets. The main distinguishing feature of Indian desserts from the sweets of other lands is that they are not prepared to satisfy a sweet-tooth alone but also intended to provide nutrition. In our land of rich traditions, offering sweets is a sign of lone and affection. 2. HISTORY Hindus spirituality is the root for Indian sweets or mithai which is offered by a devotee to please the God or Goddess. Lord Krishna defines mithai as the “Food of Gods” in the Bhagvata Purana. Mithai are generally served during auspicious occasion and festivals such as Diwali, Eid, or Rakhi/raksha bhandan. People from other lands like the Mughals, Portuguese, British invaded our country and left the stamps of their cuisine on ours. Mughals acquainted us with aromatic culinary tradition, Goan cuisine complemented by the Portuguese while the Parsis brought a whiff of Iran along with. The puddings and cakes that form our daily fare are actually foreign stuff introduced to us by the Britishers. 3. IMPORTANCE Indian desserts shares a unique relationship with any good news in our country, like promotion in office, birth of a child, acquisition of a new job, fixing up of someone’s marriage or the examination result of a child, is always heralded with a box of sweets. Indian desserts are tempting, mouthwatering, simple and easy to make. A striking feature of Indian sweets preparation is that it requires a level of reduction with an essential of cardamom powder and kewra, which is speckled on the dessert at the time of serving. Indians are fond of sweets and have a mind-boggling variety of sweets ranging from ice cream like kulfi in north to the plentiful payasams of the south, the westernized cakes of goa and paneer based sweets of eastern India. Table1: List of some traditional Indian sweetmeats Sweetmeat Composition or method of preparation Apupa A round cake of barley meal or rice flour baked in clarified butter and sweetened with honey. Samyava Wheat flour fried in clarified butter and mixed with milk and jaggery (brown sugar); cardamom, pepper and ginger added sometimes. Svastika A cake-like product with barley flour. Modaka Sweet ball prepared with the flour of rice/pulses and sugar; it is popular even to-day (Hindi: Laddu). Ghayapunna A cake prepared with fine wheat flour mixed with milk, fried in ghee and coated with sugar. Madhusirsaka A sweet prepared from wheat flour which had honey or clarified or Madhukroda butter. Pupalika A small cake of rice or wheat flour fried in ghee with ghuda or jaggery inside (centre filled). Utkarika Rice flour, milk, clarified butter and jaggery. Gandika Sweet prepared from jaggery and wheat flour. Locika Delicious cakes prepared with wheat flour. Kasara Preparation based on wheat flour, milk, clarified butter, crystal, sugar, cardamom and black pepper. Udumbara Preparation from wheat flour stuffed with kasara. Murmura Preparation from wheat flour and jiggery. Phenaka Cakes from wheat flour coated with sugar. Khajjaka Wheat flour fried in ghee and sweetened. Ksiraprakara Boiled milk precipitated using a sour substance; the solid mixed with rice flour, formed into various shapes, fried and coated with sugar (loke Jamun, Rasagolla). Pahalika Soft cakes of wheat flour fried in oil. Patrika Circular cakes of wheat flour fried in oil. Mysore pak or Laddu All based on gram flour, sugar and fat. or Basin Laddu Gathe Gram flour, Maida, sugar and fat. (Prabhakar, 1986) 4. POPULAR FLOUR CONFECTIONS 4.1 Puran-poli, a typical Marathi dessert savored at festivities, bears a close resemblance to a stuffed roti. The popular flour based Indian relish prepared with cooked lentil paste and jaggery which forms the stuffing known as is Puran, while the outer shell termed as Poli comprises dough, prepared out of refined flour, milk and ghee. The latter is used as a stuffing in the dough balls, rolled and cooked over a hot grill and may be served with ghee or milk. 4.2 A modak is a sweet dumpling very popular in Western and Southern India for the worship of the Hindu god Ganesh. The soft outer shell made out of rice flour or wheat flour mixed with khava or maida flour has a sweet filling of fresh grated coconut and jaggery. The dumpling can be either fried or steamed. 4.3 Halva refers to a dense confection sweetened with either sugar or honey. Halva is prepared by frying the flour in oil and then cooking it in sugar syrup. Various types of halva include sooji (semolina) halva, aate (wheat) ka halva, moong dal (mung bean) ka halva, gajar (carrot) halva, chana daal (chickpeas) halwa , and Satyanarayan halwa (variation of suji halwa, with the addition of banana pieces ), and kaju (cashew nut) halva. Kashi halva, a traditional sweet of Karnataka is made with winter melon or ash gourd. The recipe for manufacture of Besan Halva is given in Table 2 while flow diagram of its manufacturing process is given in Figure 1. Table 2 Recipe for Besan Halva Ingredients Amount Gramflour 1 cup Milk 1 cup Sugar ¾ cup Ghee ½ cup Fry the flour in ghee to golden colour Add 2 cups of water, sugar and cardamoms, cook till it turns thick Continue cooking by adding milk till all the moisture gets absorbed Serve hot (Reejhsinghani, 2001) Figure 1 Flow diagram for the manufacture of Besan Halva 4.4. Laddoo is a ball-shaped sweet made with either besan (chickpea flour), rava (wheat semolina) or atta (whole wheat flour). It is prepared by combining flour with sugar and other flavorings and cooking in ghee followed by molding into a ball shape. The recipe for manufacture of Magad Laddoo is given in Table 3 while flow diagram of its manufacturing process is given in Figure 2. Table 3 Recipe for Magad Laddoo Ingredients Amount Wheat flour (atta) 1kg Claried butter (ghee) 750gm Sugar (unrefined) 750gm Raisins 2 tbsp Chiraunji 2 tbsp Almonds(chopped) 2 tbsp Divide wheat flour into two parts and fry in ghee one at a time till a golden brown color develops Add sugar, raisins, chiraunji, almonds and remaining ghee to the flour Make laddu by giving round shape with palm Cool and store in air tight container (Mathur, 2000) Figure 2 Flow diagram for the manufacture of Magad Laddoo 4.5 Ada or Ela is a traditional Kerala delicacy, comprising of parcels made with rice flour dough filled with sugar or jaggery and grated coconut steamed in banana leaf. 4.6 Adhirasam: It is a doughnut like pastry and is popular in Tamil civilization as an offering to the god. The sweet is made from fermented batter of rice flour, jaggery, butter and pepper which are deep fried in oil. 4.7 Ariselu is a Telugu word which means rice. It is a traditional dish made from rice flour, ghee and jaggery or granulated sugar during Sankranti. The dough is kneaded into flattened rice chapatti or poori which is further deep-fried in oil. 4.8 Boorelu is the traditional sweet dish prepared in the Telugu festivals. These are small balls made out of rice flour, stuffed with coconut, sugar, and dried fruits. It is served hot with ghee. 4.9 Gavvalu is a famous sweet of Andhra Pradesh. It is made by shaping the dough made with rice flour and water or milk into small rounds further flattened and rolled to the shape of gavvalu (cowrie shells). The resulting shells are fried in oil and transferred into sugar syrup. 4.10 Kakinada Khaja, a sweet delicacy of Andhra Pradesh having close resemblance to Gulabjamuns, were introduced to Andhra’s by Muslims. Wheat flour, mawa and oil are altogether mixed to form a paste, which is deep fried until crisp and then soaked in the sugar syrup (known as pak). There are two types of Khajas, madatha khajas being dry from outside and full of sugar syrup on the inside are rolled up into ribbons of pastry, whereas gottam khajas have melt in mouth characteristic and are made of cylinders of pastry. 4.11 Mysore pak a delicacy from the Mysore Palace is a sweet dish of Karnataka, served as dessert. It is made with generous amounts of ghee (clarified butter), sugar and gram flour. Pak or Paka in Kannada means the sugar. 4.12 Palathalikalu is a sweet prepared by cooking sifted rice flour added with ghee to boiling water. The hot mixture is kneaded to get a dough and divided into small balls which is later shaped into long strings. The strings are cooked in boiling milk added with sugar and cardamom powder 10 minutes. This dish is made during Sankranthi in Andhra Pradesh. 4.13 Malapua is a pancake very popular in Bangladesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Maharashtra and is one of the Chapana Bhoga of Lord Jagannath.