15 Indian Dessert Recipes To Celebrate Any Occasion

Desserts: Who doesn't love 'em? Be it a bountiful birthday cake, an over-the-top sundae or pies and tartlets galore — it's hard to get sick of desserts.

Every culture treats its desserts differently and, in India, desserts are often reserved for special occasions such as Diwali, the festival of lights or Holi, the festival of colors. These recipes are certainly worthy of any festive occasion — but, if you're anything like us, you'll want to make them a lot more often than that.

A good starting place? Try Aarti Sequeira's rice pudding. A hug in a bowl, this kheer is the sweetened version of a child-friendly rice porridge that's only mildly seasoned with ground cardamom and rosewater. This dessert is always a family favorite and can often settle the stomach after a rather heavy, celebratory meal. The secret? Basmati rice.

Oftentimes, ladoos play a significant part in religious stories — from residents of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and other Southern states undergoing pilgrimage to the holy site of Tirupathi to seek blessings from a specific deity and taking back ladoos as prashad (or offerings from God) to ladoos being offered to guests who, when they enter the house, are treated like God. Ladoos carry a specific significance that can't be overlooked.

And the addition of pistachios? Purely festive, although the cost of nuts never seems to come down in India — which means these ladoos are meant to show your guests how important they are, making them feel extremely special and decorated.

We're sure you've heard of carrot cake. You've may have been presented it at Easter as a young'un, having no interest in eating vegetables for dessert — who ever thought of such a thing?! Or perhaps you encountered carrot cake masquerading as another dessert (we're looking at you, massive slice of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake that's slathered in so much cream cheese frosting no one can resist diving right in).

Well, it turns out, India has their own answer to carrot cake, too: carrot halwa. Because they feel, if you're going to embrace the carrot — you must really embrace the carrot. In Nidhi Jalan's recipe, the carrots are shredded down and doused in a mixture of ghee, reduced milk, cardamom and sugar. Garnish with glistening cashews and pistachios, and you've got a table stunner that can beat out any carrot cake, no matter how many tiers.

Similar to Diwali, Holi (the festival of colors) is celebrated far and wide in India. Using colored powders to symbolize new beginnings full of vibrancy, festivity and prosperity, the festival is all about ushering in new beginnings in the new year. And what better way to do that than with colorful desserts that match that spirit?

That's exactly what Maneet's done here, using all-natural food dyes to transform paneer cheese into a chewy, colorful confection that brings a touch of festive spirit to the party.

Indian dessert lovers tend to separate themselves into two categories: sweet-eaters and milk-drinkers.This treat, however, pleases both.

For some people it's the draw of the unique seasonings, flavors and garnishes that keep them enticed. For others, it's those succulent little 'sponges' of paneer that soak up the simple syrup they're nestled into. Either way, who's going to turn down a chance to eat paneer paired with fragrant saffron and cardamom?!

Say the word 'candy,' and all the kids around you will scream in enjoyment. Say the word 'burfi,' and every Indian adult smiles secretly to themselves. They may not be able to express their enthusiasm outright, as they did when they were children, but the word elicites a universe of memories: helping one's grandmother blanch the almonds, sieve them into a powder — not too finely! — and, once set, cutting them into the perfect diamond shape for the in-law-to-be to be impressed by. Luckily, they're easy enough to make anytime — so you can enjoy them with or without a special occasion.

Ask a new bride what special dish she's learned how to cook to impress her mother-in-law, and chances are, it's sooji halwa. A one-pot dessert made out of semolina flour, it gets its creamy, rich moistness from generous ladles of ghee (clarified butter) and is the mainstay of festive desserts.

To jazz it up, of course, we've got some hacks: don't skimp on the cardamom and saffron, for one. We know it's expensive, but this is the one occasion where paying for saffron will pay off. Oh, and make sure you garnish it with a garden of dried rose petals, slivered nuts of your choice, and, if you prefer, plump golden raisins that align with the dessert's color scheme.

Kulfis are a rather underappreciated dessert, if you ask us. Sure, at first glance, they look like ice pops, but have you noticed? They're not just flavored ice! They're actually ice cream, brought to India by the Mughals all the way back in the 16th century. In it, whole milk is simmered for hours before it's thickened, at which point flavors can be infused into the mixture. Denser than Western ice creams and stored in molds placed in a slurry of crushed ice and salt to chill properly, Nidhi's version is what she calls her "favorite of them all." She takes no shortcuts, and therein lies the secret to her Rose and Pistachio Kulfis. Don't believe us? Whip up a batch for yourself!

Go to any Indian restaurant, go to your Indian friend's house or crash an Indian wedding (ok, that might be taking it a bit too far) — and what are you bound to find? Gulab Jamun. The sugar cookie of all Indian desserts, belovedly referred to as an Indian donut hole soaked in simple syrup, a mouthful of these could wear the enamel on your teeth right off. But boy, are they worth it. If you're lucky, you'll find a batch laced with an even hotter commodity: strands of saffron, hard to come by but game-changers in their own right, especially when found in good quality.

And while this recipe doesn't explicitly say it — we're supposed to care about your health, after all — no one will judge you for serving this dish the way they do at Indian weddings: two balls, piping hot, doused in sugar syrup, topped with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream — Amul ice cream, if you can get your hands on it. (Almost) nothing can beat it.

Ok: moms, dads, aunties, uncles and paatis and thathas galore — close your ears for one second because what we're about to say could very well fall under the category of sacrilege.

Vegan. Mango. Lassis.

We know, we know...it's wrong! After all, lassi refers to purely churned yogurt, rich in probiotics, akin to kefir! How can that be veganized? Well, it turns out tha Palak Patel found a way... and it's really not that far off the traditional mark. So give it a try — if not for you, for your newly returned college grad that's trying to live a more sustainable lifestyle, or perhaps your dairy-intolerant daughter that would rather not pop Lactaid every time she eats something lovingly prepared by mumma. Who knows? In the summer heat, this might be the lassi you've been searching for all along!

Think of mini pancakes. Oh-so-soft, oh-so-fluffy, warm off the griddle and ready to be eaten in stacks of ten, right? Well, it turns out, Indians like to take this breakfast winner and twist it into dessert.

The proof? Malpua. If you've never had it, malpua are — yes — desserts made often on the Hindu spring festival of Holi, or the festival of colors. The traditional recipe often sticks to some all-purpose flour that leaves the product unpredictably successful, but Nidhi's mom sometimes likes to jazz it up with a dash of semolina for a crunchy pancake edge that then gets dunked in a saffron-cardamom syrup ... you know, just for kicks.

Not every Indian dessert is cloyingly sweet, doused in ghee or takes hours (or perhaps days) to put together, contrary to popular belief. Instead, some are the exact opposite! Here, Palak Patel presents an Indian fruit salad that we are all familiar with. A milk- or custard-based pool of mild sweetness, the fruits you choose bob temptingly along the crevices in the custard, from triangles of firm apple slices to ripe, plump red grapes and really, any other fruits that serve your fancy.

Palak's family prefers a standard, supple custard, but you could also replace the homemade custard with mango puree for a fun nod to mango lassi, essentially.

There are many contexts within which you might have heard the word 'laddoo.' Perhaps you were dragged into watching an iconic millennial Bollywood movie and heard someone call another certain someone 'laddoo' as a term of endearment. Perhaps you are Indian and have watched as your mother, grandmother and other women of the house make balls upon balls of these delicacies as the men sit in front of the TV, engrossed in the latest cricket game.

There are a multitude of scenarios during which ingesting a laddoo is considered perfectly normal. There are also, well, multiple ladoos that exist! Take, for example, Nidhi's family's Bengali ladoo, narkel meaning coconut, and naru meaning ball-shaped sweet. Made with unrefined sugar, like jaggery, these laddoos have a sweet, caramelly, almost sultry, addictive taste. No wonder we can't just eat one!

A symbol of abundance and gratitude during the Harvest festival that comes around every January, Chakkarai Pongal is extremely special for South Indians who put possibly far too much stock in horoscopes, zodiac signs, calendar predilections by the family priest...truly anyone that can be trusted.

Sweetened using 'naatu chakkarai,' or sugar from the homeland (i.e. jaggery or, the closest you can get on American soil, brown sugar), chakkarai pongal is full of girth and energy to help you get through the year ahead. It uses both freshly harvested rice and moong lentils and, when stirred with an enticing dollop of ghee, gets a velvety texture that you just can't get enough of. Top it off with some ghee-sauteed cashews that give the porridge-like dessert the crunch it deserves, and there you have it: You have breakfast!