It’s warming up here in Southern California, so I made the Blackberry/Pistachio/Rosewater/Pomegranate Molasses Icebox Cake from Serious Eats.
It is delicious. Those of you who like your sweets not too sweet will enjoy this especially if you’re liberal with the pomegranate molasses as I was.
World Market carries the recommended Leibniz tea biscuit cookies.
Looks amazing! I don’t tho I I’ve ever eaten an icebox cake.
I’ve had the classic made with Nabisco famous chocolate wafers (RIP) and whipped cream, and I’ve recently been perusing a library ebook copy of this Icebox Cakes cookbook.
Three-fer for some care packages:
NUTELLA ENERGY BALLS:
Dates, cocoa, hazelnuts.
Kid creation – During the pandemic my nephews asked if we could experiment with hazelnuts for a Nutella flavor profile, and we have not turned back.
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KAJU KATRI / KATLI / ALMOND FUDGE:
Almonds and sugar, that’s all.
Cooking took a bit of care so the mixture stayed soft but not sticky.
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MAGAJ / BESAN LADDOO / GRAM FLOUR FUDGE:
Bengal gram flour (besan), ghee, and sugar.
The proportions are always a bit tricky because ambient temperature affects the setting, which means the quantity of ghee varies slightly from batch to batch.
The ugly shape is because I waited too long to roll them, and had to warm the mixture slightly, but I went a bit over. Usually they’re perfectly round!
(Also annoying that I have to roll them at all, because I grew up with the mixture set into a tray and cut into diamonds, which is a LOT easier. But the kids got used to the laddoo shape, which I have only myself to blame for 
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When I lived in Uganda, I used to receive every Diwali a thin, round, hard, white disk on a tray of sweets from a restaurant down the road; the owner’s daughter was a friend of my sister. I never saw it any other time of year; it was delicious!
I’ve been looking for it ever since. Some friends suggested that it might be kaju katli, so I bought some; that is not it. Any idea what it might be? None of the mithai shops here I asked could figure out what it was. It’s not a figment of my imagination; a friend (another Goan) I mentioned it to is also looking for it.
You’ll have to describe it a bit more – size, flavor, how hard, what you think was in it - nuts / no nuts, mawa, etc, and if you know the regional origin of the source (gujarati? sindhi? punjabi? other?)
Going by fading memory (it’s been over 50 years since I last had it): It was a circular disk, about 4” in diameter, 1/4” thick. It was much harder than burfi, and almost had a “snap” when you broke a piece. I don’t think it had nuts in it. I don’t know from which region it originated. I can’t remember the taste, except that I loved it! That restaurant had the best sweets I’ve ever come across (childhood memories!).
Sorry, not much information. I’ve looked for it in some Indian sweet shops, without any luck.
Not a lot of white, disc-shaped, not-mawa, not-nuts mithais I can think of.
The closest I can come is what we call Patri or Ice halva / halwa in Mumbai (elsewhere called Bombay halva / halwa), but it’s not 1/4’ thick – more like thin cardboard. And it’s square, but that could just be shaping.
The only other idea I have is Ghevar, but that’s thicker and distinctive-looking – lacey.
Remind me where you grew up in Africa – Uganda?
There’s a big diaspora of Indian Africans in the UK, one of the chef / authors I follow on IG might be able to identify it if it was a cross-cultural creation.
The Bombay halva looks like what I’m looking for. I’ll ask my contacts in Toronto to look for it. Failing that, I’ll ask my contacts in London. And yes, I grew up in Uganda.
Thank you!
You could try making it – I didn’t know the recipe was this easy, so Ithink I migth try myself (it’s one of my favorite sweets too).
(If you can’t track it down, I can mail you some the next time I go to India.)
Wow! That’s very kind of you, thank you, but I wouldn’t want you to go to all that trouble and then have it seized and destroyed at the border.
Now that I have the name of the sweet I’ll call the Indian stores around town to see if they have it. Let me know how yours turns out.
Remind me where you are?
This thing is pretty shelf -stable, so it can also be maile ordered from the big stores in Toronto
There are so many Indian sweet shops opening lately. In London On, with so many people arriving from South Asia over the past 3 years, I’m guessing the number of South Asian establishments have tripled in 3 years.
Up until around 2019, most Indian restaurants in LdnOnt had been run by Pakistani people, apart from Massey’s and one other that no longer exists (Lal Quila, probably closed around 2000). 5 years ago, we were excited to have 3 new Indian restaurants that had Indian owners, who offered more complex regional dishes. Now we have quite a few new places at different price points and more options for Southern Indian dishes and casual street food restaurants. And more halwa.
That said, Mississauga, Brampton and Scarborough still have the most choice when it comes to the largest variety of Indian sweets, I think!
I would have thought Ottawa is also having an Indian restaurant and sweet shop ripple effect.
Ottawa. Now that I have a name for the sweet, thank you, I’ll check online.
Yup, I was amazed at the selection at the last sweet shop I went to in Toronto a few years ago. Ottawa is far more modest.
A Gujarati place will have a higher likelihood of carrying it. Or call Surati in Toronto — they can likely send it to you if they’re making it. Also higher likelihood right now bec Diwali.
Lemon verbena posset, made with my homegrown verbena. This was really good.
I had an English recipe that called for double cream, so I just used heavy whipping cream. I didn’t make any other adjustments; perhaps I should have increased the lemon juice bec this posset didn’t set up quite as firmly as I would have liked. It also didn’t call for removing the stepped verbena leaves, which is definitely necessary. The wet texture is not appetizing. I had to fish mine out.
Another batch - not sure why I am small-batching these, but here we are.
KAJU KATRI / Cashew Fudge
This is one of my favorite sweets, always store-bought, but I thought I’d take a stab at it since the almond version turns out well. I got swayed by a friend I was chatting with who kept insisting there is no milk powder in the real deal even though all online recipes call for it, so I skipped it – and while it’s a very good start, I can taste that the milk powder is missing .
Still, I am very pleased with myself for having attempted it at all! Will try again when I get back from travels.
And another round of Magaj / Besan Laddoo – took a box of those and Nutella balls for my friend as a Diwali token.
I am not looking forward to round 3 of the Magaj and round 2 of the Almond Fudge / Badam Katri later this week 
– but I have ordered edible gold glitter to make it more exciting for myself 
Edible gold glitter! I can’t wait to see a picture!
The almond and cashew sweets usually have edible silver foil on top, but that’s tricky to work with. I think I can manage the gold dust with a small paint brush. Let’s see!
