Sugary greetings: Christmas sweets year after year

Growing up in Mumbai, I remember my mother spending hours preparing Christmas sweets year after year. We joined her in the kitchen while she chopped, stirred, rolled and baked a whole range of goodies for friends and family. Christmas was first observed centuries ago and over the years the became a time to reflect on the blessings bestowed by the Creator.

It is also a time to share a warm meal with the less fortunate. Families put up Christmas trees and decorate the house in the weeks running up to the big day.

Festive sweets are prepared and shared with friends and neighbours and offered to visiting guests. Women all over the world take pride in making their own Christmas goodies and Indian women are no different.

Here are some Christmas sweet recipes that are popular every year in India.

Coconut sweets

II 2 cups scraped coconut

II 2-1/2 cups sugar

II 1 cup milk

II 1 tsp butter or ghee (clarified butter)

II 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

II 1/2 tsp food colouring (pink or green)

Take a thick-bottomed vessel and heat the sugar and 1/4 cup water on high heat. When the sugar melts, add the coconut, vanilla essence, ghee or butter and the milk. Cook on medium or low heat till the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the vessel. Drop a teaspoon of the mixture in a cup of water and if it forms a ball when rolled between the fingers, the right consistency has been reached. Grease a flat plate well and pour the mixture on to it. Cool and cut into shapes.

Nankatai (Indian cookies)

II 50g sooji (semolina), fine

II 85g sugar, powdered

II 1 tsp vanilla essence

II 150g plain flour

II 120g butter

II A few almonds and cashew nuts

Cream the butter and sugar till the mixture turns fluffy. Add vanilla essence, followed by flour and sooji. Make a smooth dough of this mixture and roll out medium-sized balls and put a cashew nut on top of each piece. Bake them on a greased pan for 25 minutes at 150°C. Store after cooling.

Kulkuls

II 1/2kg plain flour

II 1/2 tsp baking powder

II 2 eggs

II 1 cup coconut cream

II 4 tbs sugar, powdered

II 1 tbs butter

II Oil for deep frying

II 1 cup sugar, granulated

II 3-4 tbs water

Mix the flour and baking powder well. Add the butter a little at a time, mixing gently. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the flour-butter mix. Add the powdered sugar and coconut milk to this and mix into a soft dough.

Form the dough into small marble-sized balls. Grease the back of a fork with some oil and flatten and press a ball of dough on to it. Starting at one end, roll the dough off the fork and into a tight curl. The end result will be a tube-like curl with the design from the fork on it.

Use up the remaining dough similarly. Heat the oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pan on a medium flame. When hot, fry the kulkuls in it, making sure to turn them often, till they are a light golden brown in colour. Drain and cool on paper towels.

Put the granulated sugar and water in a separate pan and cook till the sugar melts. Put the cooled kulkuls into this sugar syrup until they are well coated. Remove and allow to sit on a plate till the sugar encrusts the kulkuls. When fully cooled, you can store the kulkuls for a long time in an air-tight container.