Guides · 3 min read ·
A Beginner's Guide to Indian Sweets (Mithai) You Can Make at Home
Indian mithai explained: milk-based sweets like rasgulla and mishti doi, nut fudges like kaju katli, gram flour sweets like Mysore pak, and yogurt desserts like shrikhand, with the key technique for each.
Walk into any Indian sweet shop and the counter is a rainbow: white and silver diamonds, golden squares, syrupy balls, pastel fudges. Mithai is central to celebrations across the subcontinent; a box of sweets marks weddings, births, exam results, Eid and Diwali. Many look complicated, but most are built on a handful of techniques. Learn them and you can make shop-quality sweets at home.
Family 1: sweets from fresh curds (chhena)
Milk curdled with lemon juice and kneaded smooth becomes , the base of Bengal’s famous sweets.
- Rasgulla: chhena balls boiled in thin syrup until spongy.
- Key technique: knead the chhena for 8–10 minutes until completely smooth and your palm feels greasy.
Pakistani cousins: rasmalai and chum chum start the same way.
Family 2: yogurt sweets
- Mishti doi: Bengal’s caramelised sweet yogurt, set in clay pots.
- Shrikhand: yogurt hung overnight until thick, then sweetened with saffron and cardamom.
- Key technique: temperature. Set yogurt in a warm place; hang curd in the fridge so it doesn’t sour.
Family 3: nut fudges
- Kaju katli: ground cashews cooked in sugar syrup, rolled thin and cut into diamonds.
- Key technique: grind nuts in short bursts so they don’t turn oily, and cook the syrup to one-string consistency (a drop between finger and thumb forms one thread).
Family 4: gram flour and ghee
- Mysore pak: besan cooked in syrup while hot ghee is added little by little until it froths.
- Key technique: keep the ghee hot and pour the mixture out the moment it leaves the pan.
Pakistani cousins: besan ladoo and sohan halwa.
Family 5: fried and soaked
The sweets most shared across the border are fried and soaked in syrup: gulab jamun, jalebi and chum chum. You’ll find them in our Pakistani collection.
Understanding sugar syrup
Many mithai depend on (sugar syrup) at the right stage:
- Thin syrup: for soaking rasgulla and gulab jamun.
- One-string: for kaju katli, Mysore pak and many barfis.
- Two-string: for firmer sweets that need to set hard.
Test by cooling a drop on a spoon and pulling it between finger and thumb.
Silver leaf
Many sweets are decorated with varq, edible silver leaf. It’s optional and adds no flavour; if you use it, buy a food-grade brand you trust.
Where to start
The easiest mithai for a first try is shrikhand: no cooking at all. Next try kaju katli, then rasgulla when you’re ready for a challenge. For a festive sweet platter, combine two or three with barfi and besan ladoo.
