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Diwali, widely known as the festival of lights, symbolizes the victory of good over evil. It stands as the most extensively celebrated Indian festival and has a similar vibe to the Western Christmas season. It’s synonymous with pyrotechnic displays, vibrant hues, non-stop gatherings and dining surfaces groaning under the sheer weight of food and desserts. Not a single Diwali is whole without boxes of sweets and dehydrated fruits shared among friends and family. In the UK, these customs are maintained, wearing traditional clothes, visiting temples, narrating ancient Indian stories to the children and, above all, gathering with friends from diverse cultures and beliefs. In my view, Diwali is about togetherness and distributing meals that appears unique, but doesn’t require you in the kitchen for hours. The pudding made from bread is my take on the indulgent shahi tukda, while these ladoos are ideal for presenting or to relish with a hot tea after the feast.

Effortless Ladoos (Shown Above)

Ladoos are among the most recognizable Indian desserts, right up there with gulab jamuns and jalebis. Imagine a traditional Indian halwai’s shop overflowing with sweets of every shape, hue and dimension, all professionally prepared and abundantly coated with traditional butter. These sweets frequently occupy a prominent position, rendering them a favored option of offering for propitious moments or for presenting to divine figures at places of worship. This particular recipe is one of the most straightforward, requiring just a handful of ingredients, and is ready quickly.

Prep a brief 10 minutes
Cook 50 minutes plus chilling
Makes 15 to 20

110g ghee
9 ounces of chickpea flour
1/4 teaspoon of ground green cardamom
a pinch of saffron (if desired)
50g mixed almonds and pistachios, toasted and roughly chopped
180 to 200 grams of granulated sugar, as per liking

Liquefy the clarified butter in a Teflon-coated pan on a medium heat. Turn down the heat, add the gram flour and cook, stirring constantly to integrate it into the heated clarified butter and to prevent it from sticking or burning. Keep cooking and stirring for 30 to 35 minutes. At the start, the mixture will look like wet sand, but as you keep cooking and blending, it will become similar to peanut butter and emit a delightful nutty aroma. Avoid hurrying the process, or walk away from the blend, because it might burn rapidly, and the gentle heating is essential to the typical, roasted flavor of the ladoos.

Take the pan off the heat, stir in the cardamom and saffron, if included, then allow to cool until moderately warm on contact.

Mix in the nuts and sweetener to the room temperature ladoo mix, combine well, then tear off small chunks and form using your palms into 15-20 x 4cm balls. Place these on a dish separated a bit and let them cool to ambient temperature.

They can be served the ladoos immediately, or keep them in a sealed container and maintain at room temperature for as long as one week.

Indian Bread Pudding

This is inspired by Hyderabad’s shahi tukda, a food that is commonly created by sautéing bread in ghee, then immersing it in a dense, creamy rabdi, which is made by boiling whole milk for an extended period until it condenses to a fraction of its original volume. The recipe here is a better-for-you, straightforward and speedy version that needs much less attention and enables the oven to take over the task.

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 60 minutes plus
Serves 4-6

12 slices day-old white bread, crusts removed
3.5 ounces of clarified butter, or heated butter
1 liter of whole milk
1 x 397g tin condensed milk
5 ounces of sugar, or as preferred
a small pinch of saffron, immersed in 2 tablespoons of milk
a quarter teaspoon of cardamom powder, or the contents of 2 pods, ground
¼ tsp ground nutmeg (as an option)
1.5 ounces of almonds, roughly chopped
1.5 ounces of raisins

Slice the bread into triangles, apply almost all except a teaspoon of the ghee on both faces of every slice, then arrange the triangles as they sit in a buttered, roughly 20cm x 30cm, rectangular ovenproof container.

Within a sizable container, mix the milk, sweetened milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves, then blend the saffron and the milk it was soaked in, the spices including cardamom and nutmeg, if using. Transfer the milk blend uniformly onto the bread in the container, so each piece is saturated, then allow to soak for 10-15 minutes. Set the oven temperature to 200°C (180°C fan)/390°F/gas mark 6.

Heat the pudding for 30-35 minutes, until the surface is golden brown and a skewer placed in the middle exits without residue.

Meanwhile, liquefy the rest of the clarified butter in a small skillet on moderate flame, then cook the almonds until golden. Switch off the stove, mix in the raisins and allow them to heat in the leftover temperature, blending steadily, for 60 seconds. Scatter the nut and raisin combination over the sweet dish and present hot or cold, just as it is or accompanied by vanilla ice-cream.