In India, the sweet spot hits differently with local confectionary mithai

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In India, the sweet spot hits differently with local confectionary mithai

Published: 24 Sep. 2025, 12:00 Updated: 24 Sep. 2025, 19:20

LEE JIAN
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Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Mithai with modern riffs at Bombay Sweet Shop in Mumbai, India [LEE JIAN]

MUMBAI, India — Juicy, golden balls of fried chickpea flour, spongy chhena cheese dumplings in saffron-stained syrup and milk fudge that melts on the tongue — these are just glimpses into the world of Indian confectionery, collectively known as mithai.

They will be in peak demand during Diwali on Oct. 20, the festival of lights annually celebrated by a billion people worldwide. Yet even beyond Diwali, mithai are enjoying a renewed heyday across India, with modern renditions bringing fresh excitement to these time-honored sweets — and opening the door to a place on the global stage.

Korea, like much of the world, is eager to discover imported treats. It has gone through spurts of trending crazes: Dubai’s chocolate bars filled with pistachio cream, tahini and shredded kataifi, or shredded filo dough strands; Turkey’s dense chocolate “brick cake” layered with buttercream and cherries; and China’s crepe “towel rolls." Such global appetite for the next fad is paving the way for mithai, which draws on ingredients and techniques still largely unfamiliar outside the subcontinent.

Mithai holds its own distinct space in the vast universe of desserts by using local ingredients — chickpea flour instead of wheat, milk solids rather than fresh cream, jaggery alongside refined sugar, and ghee in place of butter or oil. They also rarely include eggs, reflecting the religious and cultural vegetarianism of the Hindu and Jain communities.

The types of mithai are as diverse as India itself, but the sweet kinds can largely be understood in broad subcategories.

Barfi, made from evaporated buffalo milk solids, at Bombay Sweet Shop [LEE JIAN]

The creamy and dense milk-based mithai are made from evaporated buffalo milk solids called khoya, simmered and stirred for hours. Some, like barfi and peda, are served in bite-sized blocks and diamonds, with a texture that is similar to fudge from the United States or Korea's yanggaeng (red bean paste jelly). They can be almost any flavor, but common ones include cardamom, nuts and coconut. Gulab jamun, also made with khoya, is deep-fried in ghee, then served in a pool of hot syrup.

Airy, spongy varieties, like rasgulla and rasmalai, are made with whey cheese called chhena, similar to cottage cheese in the West. The fresh curdled milk is shaped into small balls or discs, which are then boiled in syrup to produce a bouncy texture, mild sweetness and acidity. Both are usually served cold, dunked in chilled, clear syrup or aromatic, gold-colored milk infused with saffron, nuts, rose and cardamom, which oozes out with each bite.

The richer and nuttier mithai, like mysore pak and laddoo, use chickpea flour, or besan, as a base, and are roasted in ghee to produce a toasty, caramel-like aroma.

Motichoor laddoos, a classic sweet at Indian weddings and festivals, are an especially delightful sweet under this subcategory of mithai, made with fried droplets of chickpea flour batter. The batter is poured through a sieve into hot ghee, creating delicate, pearl-like balls, then immersed in syrup and formed into mini-spheres.

Fried chickpea dough shaped like pearls. They are shaped into spherical desserts called motichoor laddoo. [LEE JIAN]

Making motichoor laddoos is an intricate process, involving head-spinning physics terms like capillary action, surface tension and crystallization — but it is best appreciated by eating rather than with any explanation. Each tiny pearl holds syrup within its delicate shell, popping as you chew, which turns the laddoo into a burst of juiciness.

Such temperamental, technique-driven cooking applies to most Indian desserts. Even for a professional, "they are difficult to get right," said Girish Nayak, the chief mithaiwala, or mithai baker and/or seller, of the Bombay Sweet Shop chain in Mumbai.

Sugar syrups require precision — made too thin, the sweets fall apart; too thick, and they crystallize or harden. The milk-based mithai requires careful curding and kneading of chhena to puff correctly. The chickpea-based sweet can easily turn raw or bitter if the flour is roasted incorrectly.

Chefs are making mithai at Bombay Sweet Shop. [LEE JIAN]

Nayak built his pastry foundation at the Culinary Institute of America and subsequently worked under chef Johnny Iuzzini at Jean Georges in New York before returning to India and working at Bombay Sweet Shop — which, since its foundation in 2020, has captured the attention of Indian social media and grown to five locations in Mumbai, with shipping available across India.

“The way I see it, mithai are about condensing — cooking down ingredients — whereas Western desserts are generally made by expanding,” said Nayak.

With roots in both Indian and Western pastry, Nayak puts Western riffs on mithai at Bombay Sweet Shop. His rasgulla tiramisu, for instance, soaks rasgulla in coffee, layers it with mascarpone cream and tops it off with almond brittle bits and cocoa powder.

Other offerings include dark chocolate and coffee barfi shaped like mini tarts; Kaapi Pak, which is the shop’s take on mysore pak with a hint of coffee and crunchy sesame seeds, and a classic milk cake infused with coffee, cooked until caramelized and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

The chef has also reduced the oiliness in ghee-fried mithai and saccharinity of the traditionally cloyingly sweet treats made with no added salt.

Mithai are on sale at a Bombay Sweet Shop [LEE JIAN]

The results at Bombay Sweet Shop are aesthetic treats with balanced flavors that are bound to please while still being quintessentially Indian.

“People were gifting Western desserts, like Ferrero Rochers, and we wanted to put a spotlight back on Indian mithai,” said Nayak. Their flavors and cultural stories "have huge potential, which I hope more people will come to realize."