Udaipur New: Local Desserts

Wheat baati are baked, cooled, then crushed to a coarse crumb. Ghee and jaggery or powdered sugar are worked through the crumb. Cardamom and chopped nuts finish it. The sweet exists because leftover baati kept poorly. It is normally served alongside dal baati rather than as a separate course. The texture should stay coarse.

A thin flour batter is poured in a steady stream into hot ghee. It sets into a flat disc with a honeycomb structure. The disc is soaked in sugar syrup, then topped with thickened cream and pistachio. The sweet is associated with the monsoon festivals of Teej and Raksha Bandhan.

A savoury shape is used for a sweet filling. Refined flour pastry is stuffed with mawa, chopped nuts and cardamom. The parcel is deep-fried in ghee, then soaked in sugar syrup. The sweet is traditionally associated with Jodhpur. Udaipur's older sweet shops carry it through the festival season. It is eaten warm rather than chilled.

Full-fat milk is simmered for hours in a wide pan. The skin that forms is folded back in repeatedly until the milk thickens. Sugar, cardamom and saffron are added near the end. The result is eaten chilled on its own. It also forms the base of falooda and of rabdi lassi across the city.

Coarse gram flour is roasted slowly in ghee until it turns nutty and dark. Mawa, sugar syrup and cardamom are folded through. The mixture is set in a tray, then cut into diamonds. Mohan is a name for Krishna, and the sweet is offered as bhog at Diwali and Janmashtami.

Split green gram is soaked, ground to a paste, then roasted in ghee. The roasting takes well over an hour and decides the flavour. Milk, sugar and cardamom go in once the paste turns golden. The sweet is made mainly in winter, when the ghee content is easier to eat.

Fresh curdled milk solids are beaten into a loose batter with flour. Spoonfuls are fried in ghee until the edges crisp. The discs are then steeped in cardamom sugar syrup. Rabadi is often spooned over the top. The sweet appears at weddings and during festival weeks in Mewar. It is served warm from the pan.

Gram flour batter is dropped through a perforated ladle into hot ghee. It sets into small round pearls. The pearls are soaked in sugar syrup and scented with cardamom. Sweet boondi is sold loose by weight and is also pressed into laddoo. It is the standard temple prasad across Rajasthan.

Flour is rubbed with ghee until the dough turns short and flaky. Discs are fried slowly at low heat so the centre stays soft. They are then dipped in sugar syrup, which sets to a pale glaze. The texture is closer to a shortcrust than to a doughnut. Older Udaipur sweet shops make it fresh daily.

Fermented flour batter is piped in spirals into hot ghee. The coils are lifted while still crisp, then dropped into warm sugar syrup. The short fermentation gives the faint sourness that balances the sugar. In Udaipur it is eaten hot at breakfast, frequently paired with kachori or with poha. Ghee frying carries the deeper flavour.