Healthy Dessert Recipes By Chef Manish Mehrotra To Add To Your Ganesh Chaturthi Celebrations

The festive season in India is often marked by feasts, in which sweets form a major part. Festivals in different parts of the country are celebrated with a variety of desserts. While Ganesh Chaturthi sees modaks surface as a favourite, Pradhaman is popular during Onam.

The craving to dig into your favourite dessert as you celebrate festivals with your loved ones can be at an all-time high during this period. But, if the stress of the unhealthy eating gets to you, there's always a way to indulge your sweet tooth, while staying healthy.

To make your festive-binge smooth, we asked award-winning chef Manish Mehrotra to share his secrets to some delectable, healthy treats. Scroll on for the recipes and their nutritional content.

Serves: 4

Ingredients
Custard apple pulp: 2 gm
Double cream (fat): 1 gm
Castor sugar: 30 gm
Almonds: 30 gm

Method
- Toast almonds at 1 degree celsius for 1 mins in the oven
- Grind toasted almonds to a coarse powder and chop the remaining
- Mix custard apple pulp, double cream, and sugar together, then add the ground almonds and mix
- Chill in the refrigerator and garnish with chopped almonds before serving

Serves: 4–5
Ingredients
Freshly grated coconut: 1 cup
Almonds (blanched, ground): 1/2 cup
Sugar (fine): 1 cup
Desi ghee: 1/3 cup

Method
- Take ghee in a non-stick pan, and warm on low-medium heat
- Add coconut & almond mixture. Mix well and keep stirring until it begins to leave the sides of the pan, lumping up as one mass
- Add sugar and fold well
- Apply ghee onto a baking sheet and keep aside
- Reduce heat to low and continue stirring for a few more minutes until the residue sticking to the sides of the pan starts to look opaque and dry, which means the consistency is nearing almost right for solidifying
- Remove onto the greased plate/sheet
- Mix the dough with greased hands, pat it flat into a neat square with a greased rolling-pin to 1/4 inch thickness. Smooth out the surface if needed
- After it cools partially, cut into equal squares with a knife
- Once completely cooled (about an hour or so), separate out the burfis with a flat spatula and store in an airtight container

Serves: 2–3

Ingredients
Full cream milk: 2 cups
Sugar: 4 tbsp
Saffron strands: A pinch
Green cardamom powder: ½ tsp
Almond slivers: ½ cup
Makhana (fox nuts): 1 cup
Ghee: 2 tbsp

Method
- Heat ghee in a heavy-bottomed pan, roast fox nuts and almond slivers till they turn golden
- Heat milk and saffron strands in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring it to a boil; keep stirring the milk, so that it doesn't stick to the bottom
- Add the sugar to the milk, and mix well
- Add the fox nuts and almond slivers to the milk mixture
- Keep cooking till fox nuts become soft and milk thickens a bit
- Garnish with roasted almond slivers and chopped, roasted fox nuts. Serve hot or chilled

Serves: 4

Ingredients
Wheat flour: 2 cups
Semolina: 2½ tbsp
Roasted almond slivers: ¼ cup
Roasted White Sesame powder: ¼ cup
Ghee: ¾ cup
Gram flour (besan): 1½ tbsp
Sugar: 1 cup
Water: ½ cup
Green cardamom powder: ½ tsp
Roasted white sesame: 1 tbsp
Roasted whole almonds: 3 tbsp

Method
- Heat ghee in a pan, add semolina and wheat flour to it. Roast the mixture till it turns golden
- Mix sugar and water in a pan, and warm over low heat. Cook till single string sugar syrup is formed
- Mix the sugar syrup with the wheat flour mixture. Add green cardamom powder
- Cook mixture till it becomes a little dry. Add the roasted almond flakes and ground white sesame to the mixture and mix well
- Allow it to cool. Divide the mixture into equal parts and shape it into round balls
- Cut the roasted almonds into half and place over pinnis. Roll the pinnis gently in roasted white sesame