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Diwali, often called the festival of lights, symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. This is the most widely marked celebration across India and feels a bit like holiday festivities abroad. It’s synonymous with pyrotechnic displays, brilliant shades, non-stop gatherings and countertops straining under the immense load of culinary delights and sweets. Not a single Diwali is complete without packages of confections and dehydrated fruits exchanged between kin and companions. Across the United Kingdom, these customs are maintained, wearing traditional clothes, going to places of worship, reading Indian mythology to the kids and, crucially, meeting with companions from diverse cultures and beliefs. In my view, Diwali represents togetherness and distributing meals that seems extraordinary, but won’t leave you in the kitchen for hours. The bread pudding is my interpretation of the rich shahi tukda, while the ladoos are perfect to gift or to enjoy with a cup of chai after the banquet.

Effortless Ladoos (Featured at the Top)

Ladoos are among the most iconic Indian sweets, alongside gulab jamuns and jalebis. Envision a classic Indian halwai’s shop overflowing with sweets of every shape, hue and dimension, all professionally prepared and abundantly coated with traditional butter. Ladoos often take the spotlight, rendering them a favored option of gift during auspicious occasions or for presenting to divine figures at religious sites. This adaptation is among the easiest, calling for a small set of items, and is ready quickly.

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 50 min plus cooling
Makes 15 to 20

110 grams of ghee
9 ounces of chickpea flour
a quarter teaspoon of cardamom powder
1 pinch saffron (as an option)
50g mixed almonds and pistachios, roasted and coarsely chopped
6-7 ounces of white sugar, to taste

Liquefy the clarified butter in a non-stick skillet on a medium flame. Reduce the temperature, mix in the chickpea flour and simmer, with constant mixing to blend it with the liquid ghee and to prevent it from sticking or burning. Keep cooking and stirring for half an hour to 35 minutes. At the start, the mixture will look like wet sand, but with further heating and mixing, it will turn to a peanut butter consistency and smell wonderfully nutty. Avoid hurrying the process, or neglect the mixture, because it can burn very easily, and the gradual roasting is vital for the characteristic, nutty flavour of the sweet balls.

Remove the pan from the stove, blend the cardamom and saffron, if added, then leave to cool until moderately warm on contact.

Incorporate the nuts and sugar to the room temperature ladoo mix, combine well, then break off small pieces and form using your palms into 15-20 spherical shapes of 4cm. Place these on a dish with some distance between them and leave to cool to ambient temperature.

These are ready to be enjoyed the sweets promptly, or keep them in a sealed container and maintain at room temperature for about seven days.

Traditional Indian Bread Pudding

This draws inspiration from Hyderabadi shahi tukda, a recipe that is usually prepared by cooking bread in clarified butter, then immersing it in a dense, creamy rabdi, which is produced by heating full-fat milk for a long time until it thickens to a small portion of its initial amount. This adaptation is a more nutritious, simpler and faster option that needs much less attention and allows the oven to handle the work.

Prep 10 minutes
Cook 60 minutes plus
Serves 4 to 6

Twelve slices day-old white bread, crusts cut off
3.5 ounces of clarified butter, or heated butter
4 cups of full-fat milk
1 x 397g tin sweetened condensed milk
5 ounces of sugar, or as preferred
1 pinch saffron, steeped in 30ml of milk
a quarter teaspoon of cardamom powder, or the seeds from 2 pods, crushed
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg (as an option)
40 grams of almonds, broken into pieces
40 grams of raisins

Trim the bread into triangular shapes, spread all but a teaspoon of the ghee over both sides of every slice, then set the triangular pieces as they fall in a greased, approximately 20cm by 30cm, rectangular ovenproof container.

Within a sizable container, mix the milk, sweetened milk and sugar until the sugar melts, then stir in the saffron and its soaking milk, the cardamom and nutmeg, if added. Transfer the milk blend uniformly onto the bread in the pan, so each piece is saturated, then leave to steep for 10 to 15 minutes. Set the oven temperature to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6.

Bake the pudding for half an hour or so, until the surface is golden brown and a pick stuck into the center exits without residue.

At the same time, heat the leftover ghee in a little pot over medium heat, then cook the almonds until lightly browned. Switch off the stove, mix in the raisins and leave them to cook in the residual heat, stirring constantly, for a minute. Dust the almond and raisin blend over the dessert and serve warm or chilled, just as it is or accompanied by vanilla ice-cream.