40 Famous Indian Sweets and Mithais

Indian sweets names: India is a country that is close to sweets. It might be a landing of a new job interview, some new purchase, or the celebration of a festival, but there is always something sweet to commemorate the occasion. It is the way we celebrate, start new life phases, and make even a regular day even more special.

Each region of the country does it differently, as a family recipe, a local favourite or an age-old mithai that has managed to endure the times. They join their tales of tradition, celebration and all that makes the Indian culture as beautiful as it is diverse.

You should get a plate (and perhaps a napkin), though, as we are going to plunge with 40 of the most popular sweets and mithais of India, that is, those desserts which make any occasion a little more special.

1. Indian Sweets Names: Soan Papdi

Soan Papdi is the melt-in-your-mouth sweet that is included in all your Diwali boxes. Prepared by dragging vats of gram flour, ghee and sugar into fine and airy strands, it falls apart the second you feel it. Believed to have Persian roots in sohan pashmaki, it rose to fame in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, and remains India’s most gifted guilty pleasure.

2. Indian Sweets Names: Mysore Pak

Born in the royal kitchens of Mysore, this golden Karnataka classic is a ghee lover’s dream. Made from roasted gram flour and sugar syrup, it’s dense, buttery, and crumbly in all the right ways. It is evidence of the fact that even an accident may turn into a legend that was created by palace chef Kakasura Madappa.

3. Indian Sweets Names: Karanji

Karanji (a pastry filled with crescent-shaped crispy pastry, stuffed with coconut, jaggery, and cardamom) is a Maharashtra Diwali specialty. It is golden-fried with a crunchy crust concealing a sweet fragrant interior. The north names it Gujiya, but regardless of the name, it is the festal nostalgia.

4. Indian Sweets Names:Rabdi

Rabdi is milk that takes the most luxurious shape, creamy, dense, and covered with love. It is prepared out of simmering milk hours with saffron, sugar and cardamom until it is converted into sweet silk. It is the ideal companion of jalebi or malpua, and it originated in Mathura, and Varanasi.

5. Indian Sweets Names: Shrikhand

Shrikhand is from Maharashtra and Gujarat which is cool, creamy and comforting. Sugar, saffron and cardamom are added to the Hung curd to create a creamy-tangy-sweet dish. It is quite light and luxurious and addictive and it goes well with puris and is served in chilled form.

6. Indian Sweets Names: Jalebi

Jalebi is sweet and hot and crazy and that is what is good about it. It is cooked in fermented batter and dipped in saffron syrup making it crisp on the outside and juicy inside. Dating back to Persian zulabiya, it is evidence that not all imports can be made in India.

7. Indian Sweets Names: Besan Ladoo

Besan Ladoo is made by first feeling the smell of roasted besan and ghee. These golden balls are tender, nutritious and unbelievably comforting. They are available in every festive household in India and evidence that nothing is too simple.

8. Indian Sweets Names: Chum Chum

Chum Chum is a syrupy sweet of Bengal which is soft and defines elegance. It is so light, but it is rich made with chenna cylinders boiled in sugar syrup and rolled in coconut or mawa. It is one of the most elegant works of Bengal, and its origin is Porabari.

9. Indian Sweets Names: Puran Poli

Puran Poli is sweet comforter in form of flatbread. Mashed chana dal, jaggery and cardamom are put into soft dough and roasted in ghee till golden. It is Maharashtrian through and through, and it is the ideal feast meal, which can also serve as dessert.

10. Indian Sweets Names: Kheer

Kheer is the Indian perpetual solace pudding, which is creamy rice pudding cooked slowly in milk and sugar. Scented with cardamom and sprinkled with nuts, it is consumed in temples, wedding ceremonies and all the intermediate. Other dishes come and go, Kheer simply remains timeless.

11. Indian Sweets Names: Coconut Barfi

Coconut Barfi is sticky, soft and sweet with a taste that reminds one of the coast. The coconut is grated and cooked to a thick paste with milk and sugar and cut in shiny squares. Adored all over India, it is evidence that coconut and comfort go together.

12. Indian Sweets Names: Kharvas

Delicate and rare, Kharvas is Maharashtra’s silken milk custard. Made from cow’s first milk (colostrum), sugar, and cardamom, it’s steamed till just set. Known as junnu in Karnataka, it’s gentle, old-fashioned sweetness at its best.

13. Indian Sweets Names: Seviyan Kheer

Seviyan kheer is also the light version of the traditional rice kheer. Here, Vermicelli is roasted and cooked in milk, sugar and ghee and its taste is flavored with cardamom and nuts on it. It is the dessert that is particularly popular during the Eid and it reminds home.

14. Indian Sweets Names: Payasam

Kerala’s answer to kheer, Payasam is rich yet delicate. It is aromatic, soulful and made of rice, moong dal, or ada cooked in coconut milk and jaggery. It is sweet and sacred served on banana leaves at Onam.

15. Indian Sweets Names: Malpua

Malpua is the pancake of India, the one dipped in syrup, crispy on the edges, and mushy in the interior, and streaming with sugar. It is a fried dish of Odisha and Bihar origin and is cooked with ghee and occasionally topped with rabdi. A single bite and it is no wonder that this ancient sweet did not lose its popularity.

16. Indian Sweets Names: Khaja

Khaja is crispy and sweet rolled in syrup. Thin oily layers of dough are fried and after that they are lightly sprayed with sugar syrup to achieve that flaky, glossy look. It is a temple favourite in Bihar and Odisha and it has been the source of joy to devotees over the centuries.

17. Indian Sweets Names: Lobongo Lotika

Lobongo Lotika is a small pastry packet with khoya and a clove in Bangali. It is fried and dipped in syrup and it is sweet with a touch of spice. It is delicate, rich and can only be enjoyed with hot tea on a slow evening.

18. Indian Sweets Names: Thekua

Thekua is rustic and sincere, the sweet of devotion of Bihar. It is prepared out of wheat flour, Jaggery and ghee and is prepared by hand then fried until crisp. It is served at Chhath Puja season and it is more of a tradition than a delicacy.

19. Indian Sweets Names: Modak

Modak, the Maharashtrian jewel is soft, warm, with jaggery and coconut and is the special treat of the festivals. Steamed or fried its little shell is filled with divine sweetness. Lord Ganesha’s favourite, it’s as symbolic as it is delicious.

20. Indian Sweets Names: Ada (Ela Ada)

The simple Ada of Kerala is served in a banana leaf. The rice dough stuffed with jaggery and coconut is steamed to an ideal level, taking the earthly smell of the leaf. Served during Onam, it’s a dessert that tastes like calm

21. Indian Sweets Names: Singori

Singori of Uttarakhand is a pastry that is covered in a leaf and dipped in nostalgia. Khoya is sweetened, moulded and enwrapped in maalu leaves which provide it with its trademark fragrance. It is so creamy, so earthly and so beautiful.

22. Indian Sweets Names: Aamras

The sweetest indulgence of the summer is amras - mango pulp that is quickly mixed with sugar and cardamom. It is a chilled dish, frequently accompanied by puris, and pure sunshine on a plate. Another Maharashtrian-Gujarati signature dish during the season of mangoes.

23. Indian Sweets Names: Ras Malai

Ras Malai is Bengal’s velvet-textured masterpiece. Soft chenna discs are soaked in saffron milk till they turn creamy and luscious. Elegant and cool, it’s dessert with poise and personality.

24. Indian Sweets Names: Gulab Jamun

Golden, syrup-soaked, and irresistible, Gulab Jamun is India’s go-to indulgence. Khoya balls are fried slowly till bronze and soaked in rose-scented syrup. A Mughal-era import turned national treasure, it’s the dessert equivalent of joy.

25. Indian Sweets Names: Rasgulla

Rasgulla is spongy, soft, and full of syrup and it takes the pride of the eastern India. It is light, juicy, and is made of chenna balls simmered in sugar syrup, and is the subject of endless debate between Bengal and Odisha. But everyone agrees on one thing — it’s happiness in a sphere.

26. Indian Sweets Names: Kaju Katli

Kaju Katli is a luxury, and made edible; it is smooth and diamond shaped and silverleafed. Ground cashews are cooked using sugar syrup until glossy, rolled and sliced into thin. Nutritious, classy, and yummy--the Diwali present every one wants.

27. Indian Sweets Names: Ghevar

A Rajasthani showstopper, Ghevar is a honeycomb disc made by frying flour batter in ghee. Soaked lightly in syrup and topped with malai, it’s crisp, airy, and celebratory. The true star of Teej and Raksha Bandhan.

28. Indian Sweets Names: Bebinca

Bebinca is a dish of layers of patience and coconut milk in Goa. The layers are baked individually until caramelised to produce a pudding-cake that is very dense and buttery. It is a piece of Goan history and has its basis in Indo-Portuguese tradition.

29. Indian Sweets Names: Sheer Khurma

Sheer Khurma — literally “milk with dates” — is the taste of Eid mornings. Vermicelli simmered in milk with ghee, sugar, and dry fruits creates a warm, fragrant hug in a bowl. Born from Persian influence, perfected in Indian homes.

30. Indian Sweets Names: Gajar Ka Halwa

There is nothing that reminds more of winter than the smell of Gajar Ka Halwa. Carrot grating is boiled in milk and ghee till thick, sweet and caramelised. A heritage of the Mughal era became contemporary comfort, it is nostalgia by the spoonful.

31.  Indian Sweets Names: Atta Gondh Ladoo

Healthy and nutritious, such ladoos are prepared using roasted wheat flour, edible gum (gondh), and nuts impounded in ghee. Warm, crunchy and comforting, they are designed both to cozy up in winter and to keep one healthy. A North Indian classic that is not only tasting great, but traditionally, as well.

32. Indian Sweets Names: Motichoor Ladoo

Motichoor Ladoo is the golden hue of the festival made of hundreds of small boondi pearls. It is melt in your mouth magic fried in ghee and dipped in syrup and pressed into soft rounds. It is the sweet of celebration and it all began in Rajasthan and UP.

33. Indian Sweets Names: Milk Cake (Alwar Ka Mawa)

Dense, grainy, and caramel-toned, Milk Cake is Rajasthan’s rustic pride. Milk is reduced, sweetened, and left to set into rich, chewy blocks. Born in Alwar, it’s the dessert that rewards patience.

34. Indian Sweets Names: Kalakand

Soft, milky, and slightly grainy, Kalakand is a gentle kind of sweet. Made by curdling milk and reducing it with sugar, it’s moist and rich without being heavy. Popular across North India, it’s the unsung hero of sweet shop counters.

35. Indian Sweets Names: Narikol Laru

From Assam comes Narikol Laru — soft coconut balls made by cooking grated coconut with sugar or jaggery. Chewy, fragrant, and simple, they’re prepared during Bihu. The kind of sweet that feels both humble and heartfelt.

36. Indian Sweets Names: Bombay Halwa (Karachi Halwa)

Bombay Halwa is a sweet that you chew, not melt, glossy, chewy and jewel toned. It is also composed of cornflour, ghee and sugar giving it its unique jelly-like texture. It is old-school attitude with a confectionery once Karachi-based now the pride of Mumbai.

37. Indian Sweets Names: Indian Sweets Names: Shahi Tukda

Fried bread dipped into saffron milk -that is Shahi Tukda, Mughal extravagance on a dish. Crowned with rabdi and nuts it is refreshingly creamy and yet simple and royal. Each bite reminds of the kitchens in palaces.

38. Indian Sweets Names: Lagan Nu Custard

Baked to golden perfection, Lagan Nu Custard is the heart of every Parsi wedding feast. Milk, eggs, sugar, and nutmeg come together into a lightly spiced, creamy dessert. Elegant, nostalgic, and made to be shared.

39. Indian Sweets Names: Khoya Barfi

Khoya Barfi is all about pure, milky sweetness. Thickened milk cooked with sugar and ghee forms dense, soft squares that melt slowly on your tongue. Classic, unpretentious, and found in every North Indian mithai shop.

40. Indian Sweets Names: Chhena Poda

Odisha’s baked beauty, Chhena Poda literally means “baked cheese.” Fresh chenna mixed with sugar and semolina is baked till caramelised outside and soft inside. An accidental creation turned icon — and now Odisha’s pride.

Also Read: 15 Easy And Healthy Millet Recipes For Babies

Conclusion

India does not only create sweets, but it creates memories out of them. Each bite has a story, a family secret or even a festival that does not end. You may have a lifetime of taste-testing them all and still discover something new in each new city, a little shop in the corner, some recipe being handed down, a taste that is both familiar and new. And that is what is about Indian sweets, they do not only saturate your cravings but will linger with you long after, remind you to go back and get another bite, another tale, another reason to celebrate.

FAQ’s

Which sweet is best to eat?

There isn’t just one, every sweet has its own charm, and the best one is usually the one that fits the moment you’re celebrating.

What is India’s national sweet?

There’s no official national sweet, but Jalebi often takes the spotlight for being loved almost everywhere in the country.

What are traditional sweets?

Traditional sweets are age-old Indian desserts made from milk, ghee, sugar, or jaggery recipes that have stood the test of time and still bring people together.