Have a cracker' of a meal today!

One of the most beautiful festivals, Deepavali is also a time to indulge in a variety of sweets from the mithai shops that are located in every nook and corner of your street. Rather than indulging in bakery-made sweets, try and make these  sweets and savouries at home.

Now, don your aprons and try out these amazing recipes shared by some of the most popular food bloggers.

Vanilla Custard Powder Halwa
Ingredients:
Flavoured custard powder — 1/2 cup
Sugar — 1 1/2 cup
Water — 2 cups
Ghee — 2 tbsp
Cashew nuts — 12 -15

Method:
Grease a baking tin or muffin cups with ghee and keep it ready.
In a non-stick pan, mix together custard powder and sugar.
Add water and mix well without lumps. Then switch on the heat and cook on low heat stirring continuously. After few minutes, add ghee.
Once it starts to thicken, add chopped cashew nuts and cook on low heat stirring continuously until it leaves the sides of the pan.
Then pour the mixture into the greased tray and allow it to set.
Once set, cut it into squares and serve. You can also pour the mixture into muffin cups to set.

Badam Puri
Ingredients:
All purpose flour (maida) — 1 cup
Almonds — 1/2 tbsp
Ghee — 1/2 tsp
Saffron — 1 pinch
Kesar food colour — 1 pinch
Salt —1 pinch
Oil — for deep frying

Badam Puri

For sugar syrup:
Sugar — 1 cup
Water — ½ cup
Cardamom powder — ½ tsp

To make paste:
Rice flour — 2 tbsp
Ghee — 2 tbsp

Method:
Soak almonds in hot water for 10 mins. Remove the skin and grind it into a smooth paste using  3 tsp water. Sieve all purpose flour without any lumps in a mixing bowl.
Add salt, saffron, kesar food colour and mix well. Make a well in the centre and drop in the ground almond paste.
Add 2 tbsp water to the mixie jar, rinse well and add the water to the bowl. Knead into a soft dough adding more water if necessary.
In a flat plate, put ghee and rub with finger tips till it is smooth. Add rice flour to the ghee and rub both together for 5 to 7 mins till it becomes shiny and smooth. Keep aside.
Divide the dough into equal lemon-sized balls. Roll each ball into thin chapatis of 8 inch discs.
Place one chapati on a plate. Drop ½ to ¾ tsp of rice-ghee paste and smear all over the surface.
Place another chapati on top and smear the paste all over. Repeat till 5 such layers are stacked. Roll it like a mat from one end to the other tightly resembling a cylinder. Using a sharp knife, cut across the cylinder into ¼ inch thin, round pieces.
Once again roll each round piece into thin discs. Use all purpose flour for dusting.
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry this badam puri till it turns golden in colour and crisp.
To make the sugar syrup, heat water in a sauce pan. When it comes to a boil, add sugar and mix well.
Boil till the sugar syrup reaches one string consistency, add cardamom powder and keep it aside. Dip the puris in warm sugar syrup and arrange on a plate side by side.    Garnish with chopped nuts or powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Pirandai Thattai
Ingredients:
Processed rice flour — 1 cup
Urad dal — 3 tsp
Pottukadalai (roasted gram dal) — 1 tsp
Channa dal — 2 tsp (optional)
Hot oil — 2 tsp
Pirandai — ¼ cup
Green chillies — 4
 Salt — to taste
Oil — for deep frying

Method:
Soak channa dal in water for half an hour. Dry roast rice flour for 1 or 2 minutes on low flame.
Transfer it to a mixing bowl. In the same pan dry roast urad dal over low flame till golden brown in colour until you get the aroma.
Let it cool down completely. In a mixie jar, take the roasted urad dal and pottukadalai (roasted gram dal) and grind to a fine powder.
Sieve well and add the flour to the mixing bowl. Heat a deep pan with oil for deep frying.
Clean pirandai and remove the veins and chop into pieces. Take pirandai and green chillies in a mixie jar and grind coarsely.
Add ¼ cup water and grind to a smooth paste. Transfer to a metallic sieve and squeeze the juice.
To the mixing bowl containing the flours, add salt and mix well.    Add 2 tsp hot oil from the pan. Mix well with your finger tips.
Add drained, soaked channa dal and mix well to distribute evenly. Add the pirandai juice and knead to smooth dough.
Pinch lemon size balls and place it on a greased plastic sheet and pat into 3 to 4 inch thin discs.
Using a fork prick the thattais at 2 or 3 places on the surface. Slip the thattais gently into the hot oil and deep fry till golden brown. Gently flip them and fry till the sizzling stops over medium low flame.
Remove on a kitchen paper and let it cool completely.

Okkarai
Ingredients:
Bengal gram dal/chana dal     —1/2 cup
lMoong dal     (split yellow variety) — 1/2 cup
Jaggery — 1 cup
Ghee — 1/3 + 1 1/2 tbsp
Coconut — 1/3 cup grated
Cashew nuts —10-12
Cardamom powder — 1/4 tsp

Method:
Melt jaggery in ¼ cup of water and filter it to remove any impurities.
Dry roast both the dals separately till you get a nice aroma. Soak both the dals together in hot water for an hour.
Drain the water completely and grind it coarsely without adding water.
Then steam the ground dal in idli plate for 10-15 minutes. Once it cools completely, crumble it nicely with your hands or you can pulse in the mixer a couple of times to get even crumbs.
Heat 2 tsp of ghee and fry cashew nuts until  it turns golden brown. Remove it and set aside.
In the same pan, fry the grated coconut until it turns golden brown. Set aside.
Heat another 3 tsp of ghee and fry the crumbled dal for a few minutes.
In another pan, heat jaggery water, when it starts boiling, add cardamom powder, crumbled dal mixture, remaining ghee and cook on medium flame till it leaves the sides of the pan.
Garnish with fried coconut, cashew nuts and mix well. It is ready to be served.