Beyond Gujiyas: 3 Easy Desserts You Must Add To Your Holi Menu
Image Credit: Platform 65 (Bread Malai Roll)

Think Holi, and you cannot look past delicious Gujiya. The deep-fried dumpling with sweet fillings of khoya and nuts is ubiquitous around this time, but let’s admit it, it is not the easiest thing to make these at home. From making the filling to shaping the actual dumplings and ensuring none of them break while frying, requires skill, and more importantly, a lot of time and patience. Holi, the festival of colours, is arguably one of the biggest festivals of the subcontinent, and it demands a fitting feast. When people visit to apply gulaal on your cheeks, you cannot turn them away without anything to eat, can you? That’s just so not ‘festive’ of you.

Platform 65, a Hyderabad-based multicuisine restaurant, shared three easy dessert recipes from their menu that are easy, but enough to make a statement. Here are recipes of dry fruit custard, dry fruit malai and bread malai roll, that you can rustle up in no time. Made with easy, everyday ingredients like fruits, milk, fresh cream and bread, you can make these desserts with or without an occasion.

So without further ado, let's get started.

Dry Fruit Custard

Ingredients:

  • Milk - 500 ml
  • Custard powder- 200 g
  • Sugar - 300 g
  • Vanilla Essence - 2 drips
  • Dry Fruits: Dates: 50 g, Almonds: 50 g, Pistachios: 50 g: Cashews Broken: 50 g,
  • Green apple, chopped: 1
  • Kiwi, roughly chopped: 50 g
  • Grapes: 50 g
  • Raisins: 50 g

Method of preparation

  1. Take a pan and heat the milk and add sugar and mix well.
  2. Then add 2 drops of vanilla essence.
  3. Take a bowl, add 100 ml water, add custard powder and mix well.
  4. After the milk boils, add this water. Let the milk thicken
  5. Cut all the dried fruits into small pieces and mix them well, then add the dried fruit cut pieces to make.
  6. Garnish with grape, kiwi and apple slices. Serve cold.

Dry Fruit Malai

Ingredients:

  • Malai/fresh cream - 2 bowls
  • Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup (as required)
  • Milk - 2 tablespoons (as required)
  • Apple - 1 small sized finely chopped
  • Banana - 1 small sized finely chopped
  • Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon
  • Almond - 1 teaspoon slit
  • Cashew - 1 teaspoon slit
  • Pistachio - 1 teaspoon slit

Preparation:

  1. Take a bowl and add malai. Now whisk malai for a few seconds. Mix in powdered sugar until it dissolves.
  2. Now, add the milk and stir well.
  3. Combine the apple, banana, cardamom powder, almond, cashew, and pistachio in a food processor. 
  4. The delectable Fruit Malai Dessert is prepared and ready to serve.

Bread Malai Roll

Ingredients:

  • Milk Bread -2 Slices
  • Cream -30 gm
  • Sweet Khoya- 50gm
  • Sugar-150 gm
  • Milk -1ltr.

Preparation

  1. Take a pan and add milk, sugar, and sweet khoya and 15gm of cream.
  2. Take the bread slice, apply cream on the inner side and roll the slices. Place the roll in a serving plate and add the milk, sugar and khoya preparation. Garnish with dry fruits and serve cold.