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Jain recipes: no onion, garlic or root vegetables

2,799

2799 Jain recipes with no onion, garlic, potato, carrot, fresh ginger or other root vegetables, and no mushrooms, eggs or honey. Hing, dry ginger and turmeric powder are fine. Each has photos, step-by-step instructions and cook times. The quickest, Apfelschorle, takes 2 minutes. Most take around 40 minutes.

Filter these by time, diet or cuisine · Make Jain your diet to see only these recipes everywhere on the site.

Pappada vadaFried pappadam fritters

Pappada vada is a Kerala tea-shop snack from the stretch between Thrissur and Palakkad, where a jar of them sits on the counter beside the banana fritters for the four o'clock chai break. Plain urad pappadams are dunked in a thin, chilli-red rice-flour batter with sesame and hing, then fried until the coating turns into a glassy, bubbly crust around the crisp pappadam inside. They are salty, peppery and loud to eat, and they keep in a tin for a week. The usual mistake is a thick batter: it fries into a hard, oily shell, so it should coat the back of a spoon thinly, like single cream. Chef's tip: use the small Kerala pappadams, not the big spiced Punjabi ones, and fry two at a time so the oil stays hot.

25 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sharkara varattiJaggery-glazed banana chips

Sharkara varatti sits at the top left of every Onam sadya leaf in Kerala, next to the salty banana chips, and boxes of it travel to relatives abroad every August. Raw nendran bananas are cut into thick half-moons, fried until crisp, then tossed in jaggery syrup cooked to the thread stage with dry ginger, cardamom and cumin, so each piece wears a thin, crackly brown coat. A common mistake is pulling the syrup too early: if it isn't at a firm one-thread stage the coating stays sticky and the chips go soft in a day. Chef's tip: once you add the chips keep stirring off the heat until the syrup turns dry and sandy; that's when it sets crisp.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vellai paniyaramWhite rice and urad puffs

Vellai paniyaram, 'white paniyaram', is the tiffin of Chettinad that surprises outsiders: a rice and urad batter thinned with a little milk-free water is spooned into hot oil and pulled out while it is still pale and pillowy, crisp only at the very edge. In Karaikudi homes it comes to the table at evening tiffin with spicy kara chutney, a tomato kosamalli or kathirikai gothsu. The key mistake is overheating the oil: the paniyaram browns and loses its signature white colour, so keep the heat at medium and fry quickly. Chef's tip: a teaspoon of sugar in the batter helps the puffs rise without colouring, and spooning oil over the top makes them balloon.

50 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bun butter jamGriddled bun with butter and jam

Bun butter jam is the most-ordered thing at a Tamil Nadu tea kadai after the tea itself: a soft, sweet bun split, griddled in butter until crisp at the edges, then spread with more butter and red fruit jam, eaten mid-morning or after school with a glass of milky tea. It is buttery, crunchy outside and pillowy inside, with sweet jam soaking into the crumb. The mistake is toasting on high heat; the sugary bun scorches before the butter has a chance to crisp it. Keep the tawa on medium-low. Chef's tip: press the bun down gently with a flat spatula as it toasts, the way the tea-shop masters do, for a wider, crunchier golden face.

10 minIndianSnacks & Starters
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Halasina happalaJackfruit papads

In Udupi and the rainy Malnad hills, families turn the glut of summer jackfruit into happala: raw bulbs cooked soft, ground with chilli and cumin, pressed into thin rounds and dried on the terrace for the monsoon months. Fried in coconut oil they puff into a crisp, earthy papad with a gentle chilli heat, eaten with rice and saaru or on their own with tea. The common mistake is pressing them too thick; they stay leathery and won't puff. Aim for about 2 mm, thin enough to see light through the edges. Chef's tip: oil your hands, the plastic sheets and the press, because raw jackfruit latex is very sticky and will glue everything together.

90 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Kakara pithaFried semolina coconut cakes

In Odisha no festival plate is complete without kakara pitha, and during Durga Puja (and on Prathamastami and Dussehra) Odia homes fry them by the dozen to offer and share. A soft semolina dough cooked in sweetened milk-water is wrapped around a filling of fresh coconut, jaggery, cardamom and a surprising pinch of crushed black pepper, flattened into discs and fried in ghee until golden. They are crisp outside, soft and chewy within, with a gently spicy sweet centre. Common mistake: letting the jaggery filling stay wet, which makes it leak and burst in the hot fat; cook it until it gathers into a ball that leaves the pan clean. Chef's tip: knead the cooked semolina while it is still warm with a little ghee on your palms; it turns smooth and pliable and will not crack as you shape the pitha.

60 minIndianIndian Sweets
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RasiyaJaggery rice kheer

On the evening of Kharna, the second day of Chhath in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the vrati who has fasted since dawn cooks rasiya on a new clay chulha over mango wood: arwa rice simmered in milk with jaggery, offered to Chhathi Maiya and eaten with ghee-smeared roti before the 36-hour waterless fast begins. It is pale brown, creamy and tastes of caramel and milk. Common mistake: adding jaggery while the milk is boiling hard, which curdles it; take the pan off the heat, let it calm, then stir in the jaggery, and the kheer is ready when the rice is completely soft and it coats the spoon. Chef's tip: many families cook it with no salt and in a separate pan from everyday cooking; do the same if you are making it for the puja.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Narali bhaatCoconut jaggery rice

On the full moon of Shravan, Konkan fishing families offer a coconut to the sea to mark the end of the monsoon, and the same day in most Maharashtrian homes is Raksha Bandhan, so sisters and brothers sit down to a plate of narali bhaat. It is basmati or ambemohar rice cooked with fresh grated coconut, jaggery, ghee, clove and cardamom until each grain is glossy, golden-brown and separate, with cashews and raisins through it. It tastes of caramel and coconut, warm and only gently spiced. Common mistake: adding the jaggery to rice that is not fully cooked; jaggery stops rice softening, so the grains must be tender before it goes in, then the mixture is cooked until the syrup is absorbed and the rice looks dry and shiny. Chef's tip: keep the rice slightly undercooked when you first boil it and spread it on a plate to cool; firm, cool grains stay whole when they meet the hot jaggery.

50 minIndianRice & GrainsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

DresilSweet rice with butter and raisins

On the first morning of Losar, Tibetan and Sherpa households in the Himalaya and in Kathmandu greet the year with a bowl of dresil: rice tossed with melted butter, sugar, raisins and droma, the small sweet roots of a wild silverweed gathered on the high pastures. It is eaten with butter tea before visits begin, and a little is offered at the family shrine first. The rice is fluffy and glossy, gently sweet and buttery, with chewy bursts of fruit. The common mistake is cooking the sugar in with the rice, which makes it sticky and likely to catch; cook the rice plain, then fold everything in. It is ready when every grain is coated and separate and the raisins have plumped. Chef's tip: droma is hard to find outside Tibetan shops; chopped dried dates and a few toasted cashews give a similar sweet, earthy chew.

40 minNepaliRice & GrainsGluten free
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Vishu kattaCoconut milk rice squares

Around Thrissur and Palakkad the Vishu breakfast table is not complete without katta, rice cooked slowly in coconut milk until it can be spread on a plate, set and cut like a cake. Families eat the squares two ways: with a pour of dark jaggery syrup for sweetness, or with a hot, sour curry for those who prefer savoury on a festival morning. Set, it is soft, rich and faintly salty, with the scent of cumin. The common mistake is rushing it on a high flame; the coconut milk splits and the rice catches before it turns creamy. It is ready when the whole mass comes away from the sides of the pan and holds a ridge when you draw a spoon through it. Chef's tip: smooth the top with a piece of banana leaf or the back of a wet spoon, and cut the katta only once it is fully cool, or the squares will tear.

50 minIndianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Bhavnagari gathiyaCrunchy gram flour sticks

Bhavnagar is Gujarat's gathiya town, and its namkeen shops sell these thick, knobbly sticks by the kilo, warm in the morning with fried chillies and papaya sambharo, and boxed up for relatives abroad. They are thicker than any sev, with a rough, bubbly surface from being rubbed through a flat perforated gathiya jharo (or pressed through the largest disc of a sev press), and the dough is beaten with oil and soda so they stay light and crunchy rather than hard. Ajwain and coarse black pepper give them their warmth. The common mistake is a stiff dough: it will not pass through the holes and the gathiya come out dense. Chef's tip: beat the oil, water and soda together until white and frothy before adding the flour; that is what makes them airy.

40 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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KulerBajra ghee jaggery balls

On Nag Pancham, Gujarati women draw a snake in kumkum on the wall or visit a nag temple and offer kuler with milk and cotton: a raw sweet of fine bajra flour rubbed with ghee and jaggery, rolled into soft balls. Since the day is a cold-food day in many homes, nothing is cooked; the bajra simply soaks up the ghee. It is soft, earthy, sweet and slightly sandy. Common mistake: using coarse or stale bajra flour, which tastes bitter and gritty; use fresh, finely ground flour, and the mix is ready when a handful holds together when squeezed. If you prefer, you can lightly roast the flour first, though that is not the traditional way. Chef's tip: grate the jaggery very finely, or melt it with the ghee and cool slightly, so it blends evenly.

15 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Chushi pithaRice flour strands in milk

When the new rice is in and the date palms start giving their winter sap, Bangladeshi families make pitha for Nabanna and through the cold months, and chushi pitha is the one grandmothers roll by hand, an evening of small grain-shaped strands rubbed out between the palms. The strands are cooked in reduced milk with bay leaf and cardamom, then sweetened with fresh khejur gur, giving a pale caramel pudding with soft, slightly chewy pieces. The common mistake is adding the jaggery while the milk is still boiling: it can curdle it, so take the pan off the heat and let it cool for a few minutes first. The strands are done when they float, turn translucent at the edges and are soft right through. Chef's tip: let the rolled strands dry on a tray for 15 minutes before cooking; they hold their shape instead of dissolving into the milk.

75 minBangladeshiDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

AggalaRice flour and coconut balls

When the astrologers' auspicious hour for Aluth Avurudu, the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, arrives in April, Sri Lankan families light the hearth, boil kiribath and lay out a table of sweets, and small dark aggala balls are one of the easiest to make. Roasted rice flour and toasted coconut are bound with hot kithul treacle and a surprising amount of black pepper, which gives a warm bite after the sweetness. They are dense, soft and slightly crumbly. The common mistake is under-roasting the flour, which leaves a raw, pasty taste; roast it until it smells like biscuits and flows loosely off the spoon. The treacle is ready when it bubbles all over and thickens slightly. Chef's tip: shape them while the mixture is still warm, with lightly oiled palms, because they harden and crack as they cool.

35 minSri LankanDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

HolanRoasted green chickpeas

In late winter, around the time of Holi, village children in rural Punjab pull up bunches of green chickpea plants from the edge of the field and throw them onto a small fire of dry stalks. Once the pods blacken they rake them out and shell them hot, blowing on their fingers, and the bright green peas inside taste smoky, sweet and nutty. At home you can do the same in a heavy iron kadai. The mistake is leaving them on until the pods are fully burnt; by then the peas inside are dry and hard. Stop when the pods are blistered black in patches and the peas are just tender. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt and chilli with a squeeze of lemon on the shelled peas turns them into a quick chaat.

15 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vanela gathiyaSoft hand-rolled gram flour ropes

Walk into any farsan stall in Rajkot, Junagadh or Jamnagar before nine in the morning and you will see a man rolling vanela gathiya on a wooden plank with the heel of his hand, sliding each rope straight into the kadai. They are soft and puffy inside rather than crunchy, salty with ajwain and pepper, and are eaten hot with sweet-sour papaya sambharo, fried green chillies and kadhi chutney, with a glass of tea. The hard part is the rolling: the dough is very soft and needs a confident, quick push and drag. The common mistake is under-beating the dough, which leaves the gathiya flat and heavy. Chef's tip: keep a bowl of water with a spoon of oil beside you and wet the board and your palm before every rope.

45 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

NippattuPeanut rice crackers

Nippattu is the Karnataka tea-time cracker, sold in Iyengar bakeries from Bengaluru to Mysuru and fried at home for Gowri-Ganesha and Deepavali. Unlike the thin, delicate Tamil thattai, nippattu is thicker and chunkier, packed with crushed peanuts and roasted gram (hurigadale) so every bite crunches with nuts. It's spiced with chilli, hing and curry leaves and keeps for weeks. A common mistake is skipping the hot oil rubbed into the flour; without it the crackers turn hard instead of short and crisp. Chef's tip: prick each disc a few times with a fork so it fries flat and crisp right through instead of puffing.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Vaal nu shaakDried field beans with ajwain

During the eight days of Paryushan many Gujarati Jain families stop eating green, leafy and fresh vegetables, so the kitchen turns to dried pulses, and vaal (dried field beans) cooked soft with ajwain and hing is a regular on the thali. This recipe is fully Jain: no onion, no garlic, no fresh ginger and no root vegetables, with dry ginger powder for warmth and amchur instead of tomato for sourness. The beans are creamy and a little bitter-sweet, balanced by jaggery, and are eaten with rotli, rice and kadhi, finished before sunset in strict homes. Common mistake: using beans that have not soaked long enough; they stay hard and split unevenly. Cook them until one squashes easily between your thumb and finger, but not so long that they burst. Chef's tip: ajwain and hing make vaal much easier to digest, so do not skip the tempering; for a gluten-free dish use a gluten-free hing.

60 minIndianCurriesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

BatashaPuffy sugar drops

On Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year in mid-April, the fairs that spring up in Dhaka, across Bangladesh and in West Bengal sell batasha by the basket, and shopkeepers hand them out with sweets as they open their new account books for halkhata. Temples receive them as offerings, and children crunch them on the way home. They are simply sugar boiled hot, then foamed with a pinch of soda and dropped in coins that set airy, crisp and melt-in-the-mouth. The common mistake is pulling the syrup off too early: below the hard-ball stage the drops spread flat and stay sticky. The syrup is ready at about 125 °C, when a drop in cold water forms a firm ball that keeps its shape. Chef's tip: work fast once the soda goes in, because the syrup sets within a minute; ask someone to help you drop them.

25 minBangladeshiDessertsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Elo jheloFried dough strips in sugar syrup

Elo jhelo means something like 'messy-tangled', and it describes these knotted, twisted strips of fried dough that Bengali grandmothers make for Bijoya Dashami, when the goddess leaves and everyone shares sweets. The strips are cut, slit and pulled through themselves into a twist, fried slowly until crisp, then dipped in a one-string sugar syrup that sets to a thin, crackly glaze. They keep for weeks in a tin. Common mistake: dipping the strips in syrup that is too thin; it soaks in and makes them soggy. Cook the syrup until a drop pulled between finger and thumb forms one thread. Chef's tip: add a teaspoon of semolina to the dough; it makes elo jhelo crunchier and less likely to soften once glazed.

60 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Ambalappuzha paal payasamSlow-cooked rice milk pudding

The Krishna temple at Ambalappuzha in Alappuzha is famous for one offering: a paal payasam of rice, milk and sugar boiled in huge bronze vessels until it turns a soft pink. Kerala families make a smaller pot at home for Vishu and Onam, and it is the simplest payasam there is, with no nuts, raisins or spice in the temple style. The colour comes only from long, patient simmering, as the milk sugars slowly caramelise. The common mistake is adding the sugar too early; the rice stays firm and the milk sticks to the base, so wait until a grain crushes to nothing between your fingers. It is ready when it has reduced by about half, coats the spoon thickly and has turned from white to a light rosy beige. Chef's tip: keep it at a steady, lively simmer rather than a low murmur, and stir right across the base every few minutes; the movement is what gives the creamy texture.

150 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Set dosaThick spongy dosas

Set dosa is a Bengaluru darshini breakfast, ordered as a 'set' of three small, thick, pancake-soft dosas served with vegetable sagu and coconut chutney, often before the office rush or at a lazy Sunday table. Poha and a high share of rice make the batter rise into a holey, spongy dosa that's cooked on one side only. A common mistake is spreading it thin like a crisp dosa; pour it and just nudge it into a thick round so it stays soft. Chef's tip: cover the dosa for a minute while it cooks so the steam sets the top and the holes stay open.

45 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

KanikaSweet ghee rice

Kanika is one of the dishes of the Jagannath temple's mahaprasad in Puri, cooked in clay pots over wood fires and sold at the Ananda Bazaar to pilgrims, and Odia homes make it for Rath Yatra, when the deities ride their chariots through the town. It is a fragrant, glossy rice sweetened with sugar and perfumed with cinnamon, bay leaf and cloves in plenty of ghee, studded with fried cashews and raisins. It sits halfway between a pulao and a dessert and is eaten with dalma or a temple-style mahura. Common mistake: adding the sugar at the start, which hardens the grains; cook the rice almost through first, then add the sugar, and it is done when the syrup is absorbed and the ghee shines on the surface. Chef's tip: use a short-grain aromatic rice such as gobindobhog or the Odia arua rice for the true temple texture; basmati works but gives separate, longer grains.

45 minIndianRice & GrainsGluten free
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Dahi churaFlattened rice with curd and jaggery

Dahi chura belongs to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh: it is the traditional Makar Sankranti breakfast, but on summer nights in Patna and Gaya it is also the supper that needs no stove at all. Thick chura (flattened rice) is rinsed, mixed with creamy set curd and sweetened with jaggery, then eaten with a spicy potato sabzi or a pinch of pickle alongside. It is cool, mildly sweet and gently chewy. The usual mistake is soaking the chura in water, which leaves it soggy and dilutes the curd. Chef's tip: rinse the chura and let it drain for two minutes so the flakes swell from the water clinging to them, then add the curd.

5 minIndianRice & GrainsGluten free
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Ulundu kozhukattaiUrad dal-filled rice dumplings

On Vinayaka Chaturthi, Tamil kitchens make two kinds of kozhukattai side by side: sweet ones with coconut and jaggery, and these savoury ulundu kozhukattai, filled with a crumbly, peppery urad dal 'usili'. The thin rice-flour shell turns translucent when steamed, and the filling is soft, savoury and fragrant with curry leaves. The mistake is a wet filling: if the ground dal isn't steamed and then crumbled dry in the pan, it leaks and the shells split. Chef's tip: make the shells as thin as you can while still holding the filling; thick shells taste stodgy.

75 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

ChuruttuRice wafer cones with coconut filling

Churuttu, 'the roll', is a wedding sweet of the Syrian Christian families of central Kerala, around Kottayam, Pala and Changanassery, where aunts sit together for a day before the wedding shaping hundreds of these cones for the guests to take home. Paper-thin rice wafers are rolled into cones, filled with a sweet crumble of roasted rice flour, coconut and cardamom, sealed and dried until crisp. They shatter at the first bite and melt to a sweet, toasty dust. The mistake is a wet filling; damp coconut softens the cones within a day, so the filling must be roasted dry. Chef's tip: work with one wafer at a time and keep the rest under a damp cloth; they crack if they dry before rolling.

110 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Poda pithaBaked rice and urad cake

Raja is Odisha's three-day festival in mid-June when the earth is said to rest before the monsoon: farming stops, girls wear new clothes, swing on rope swings under the trees and eat pitha instead of cooking rice. Poda pitha, literally 'burnt cake', is the star. A fermented batter of rice and black gram is mixed with jaggery, coconut, pepper and cardamom and baked very slowly, traditionally in a pot buried in embers, until the outside is dark and crusty and the inside sets moist and springy. This is not chhena poda: there is no cheese, only rice and dal. Common mistake: cutting it hot; it needs to cool fully to set, and it is done when a skewer comes out clean and the top is deep brown. Allow an overnight soak and an 8–10 hour ferment before you start. Chef's tip: line the tin with banana leaf if you can get it; the leaf scorches and gives the cake its smoky, village flavour.

130 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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KodubaleSpicy rice flour rings

In Karnataka homes the Krishna Janmashtami spread of chakkuli, unde and avalakki always has a tin of kodubale beside it: little rings of rice flour, semolina and coconut ground with dried red chilli and cumin, rolled by hand and fried until they snap. They are spicy, nutty and very crunchy, and also go into Diwali and Gowri festival tins. Common mistake: making the ropes too thick, so the rings stay soft inside; roll them pencil-thin and fry on a medium heat until the sizzling dies down and they feel light. Chef's tip: grind the coconut with the chillies to a dry paste with no water; extra moisture makes the rings oily.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganSpicy
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Makhan mishriFresh butter with rock sugar

Stories from Mathura and Vrindavan tell of the child Krishna stealing butter from the pots of the cowherd women, so at midnight on Janmashtami the first offering in the temples and at home is a bowl of fresh white butter mixed with mishri, the rock-sugar crystals. The butter is churned from cream at home, so it is soft, cool and lightly tangy, and the sugar crunches against it. It is eaten as prasad in tiny spoonfuls, often with a tulsi leaf on top. Common mistake: churning warm cream, which turns greasy instead of breaking; the cream must be fridge-cold, and the butter is ready when yellow-white clumps separate cleanly from thin buttermilk. Chef's tip: rinse the butter in iced water two or three times and press it with a spoon; washing out the buttermilk keeps it fresh for a day.

15 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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SunthavadaDry ginger, coconut and sugar mix

At exactly noon on Ram Navami, when Maharashtrian temples and homes rock a decorated cradle to mark Rama's birth, each person is handed a spoonful of sunthavada: dry ginger powder, toasted dry coconut, poppy seeds and sugar pounded together into a fragrant, warming powder. The same mix is given at Janmashtami midnight. It is sweet, nutty and gently fiery from the ginger. Common mistake: burning the coconut; it should be toasted on a low heat only until it turns pale gold and smells sweet, then cooled before grinding so it does not turn oily. Chef's tip: grind in short pulses; long grinding releases the coconut oil and the powder clumps.

15 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Thavala vadaiMixed dal and rice fritters

Thavala vadai belongs to the old Brahmin kitchens of Thanjavur and Kumbakonam, where it is fried for the afternoon 'tiffin' or for guests on festival days. Four dals and a little rice are ground coarse with pepper, then studded with tiny coconut cubes, so each vadai is rough and pebbly outside and soft and nutty within. The usual mistake is grinding it as smooth as medu vada batter; thavala vadai wants a gritty, semolina-like texture, so keep the grinder on pulse. Chef's tip: shape them small and thick with a dent in the middle using your thumb, so the centre cooks through before the outside darkens.

50 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Bhuni chhalliRoasted corn on the cob

When the first rains cool Punjab in July, the smell of chhalli roasting over coal braziers drifts across every busy road, and the vendor fans the embers with a straw mat until the kernels pop and blacken. The cob is then rubbed with half a lemon dipped in salt and red chilli, so you get smoke, sour, salt and heat in one bite. Desi field corn is chewy and starchy rather than sweet, which is exactly why it chars so well. The common mistake is roasting on a low flame, which steams the kernels soft without colour; you want high, direct heat and constant turning. Chef's tip: keep a few husks on as a handle and dip the lemon in the masala fresh for every cob.

20 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Maa ladduRoasted gram flour laddus

Maa laddu (maladu) is the simplest of the Tamil Deepavali sweets, made in a quarter of an hour from pottukadalai, the roasted split gram sold in every Tamil grocery. Ground with sugar and bound with hot ghee, it melts on the tongue, nutty and cardamom-scented, and it's the laddu grandmothers teach children to roll. The mistake is pouring cold or too little ghee: the powder won't bind and the balls crumble, so add it smoking hot and in stages. Chef's tip: warm the pottukadalai in a dry pan for two minutes before grinding; it brings out the toasty flavour and grinds finer.

23 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Lauki ki kheerBottle gourd milk pudding

Lauki ki kheer is the light pudding many North Indian families make on Mahashivratri, Navratri and Ekadashi, when rice is off the menu: grated bottle gourd stands in for the grain, softens in ghee and then simmers in milk until it turns pale, creamy and almost translucent. It tastes delicate and milky, with cardamom and a crunch of nuts, and is eaten warm after the evening puja or chilled the next day. Taste a sliver of the raw gourd first; a bitter one can make you ill and must be thrown away. Common mistake: adding the sugar too early, which stops the gourd softening and can make the milk split; add it only once the milk has reduced by about a third and the lauki is tender. Chef's tip: squeeze the grated lauki lightly before cooking, but keep the juice and add it to the milk, so none of the flavour is lost.

45 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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ChooriCrumbled roti with ghee and sugar

In Punjabi villages choori is what a grandmother makes when a child comes home hungry before dinner: a warm roti or leftover paratha crumbled by hand into ghee and shakkar until it turns into soft, sweet, buttery crumbs. It is eaten with a glass of tea or milk in the late afternoon, and in many homes a bowl is set aside as an offering on Sankranti and at the gurdwara. The common mistake is using cold, leathery rotis straight from the box: the ghee won't soak in and the sugar stays gritty. Warm them on the tawa first until they are soft and just crisp at the edges. Chef's tip: a pinch of crushed fennel and some chopped almonds turn it into a little treat for guests.

15 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Nombu adaiSweet rice flour and cowpea cakes

Karadaiyan Nombu falls on the day the Tamil month of Maasi turns into Panguni, and married women in Tamil Nadu fast for their husbands' long life in memory of Savitri, who won her husband back from Yama. The fast is broken at an auspicious minute with these adai, offered with a lump of unmelted butter and tied on with a yellow thread. The rice flour is roasted, cooked into a dough with jaggery, coconut and boiled cowpeas, shaped into small discs with a hole in the middle and steamed. A savoury batch with green chilli, ginger and curry leaves is usually made alongside. Common mistake: using raw rice flour, which makes the adai sticky; roast it until it is warm and flows like sand, and the adai are done when they turn glossy and no longer stick to a wet finger. Chef's tip: for the savoury version, swap the jaggery for 2 chopped green chillies, a little grated ginger and a mustard-seed tempering.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Kurkuri bhindiCrispy fried okra strips

Kurkuri bhindi is the dhaba and wedding-buffet side that disappears first: thin, slivered okra tossed in a dry coat of besan, chilli and amchur and fried until it shatters. In Punjabi and Delhi homes it is served as a tea-time snack, scattered over dal-chawal or eaten by the handful while the rest of dinner cooks. The mistake almost everyone makes once is washing the okra and slicing it while still damp: the coating turns into gluey lumps and the strips go limp. Wash it an hour ahead and dry it completely. Chef's tip: toss the slivers with the spices first and add the flours only just before frying, so the okra cannot release liquid into the coating.

27 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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PaapeTwice-baked tea rusks

No Punjabi kitchen is without a tin of paape. They are dunked in the first cup of tea at dawn and again at four o'clock, carried to the fields, and offered to every guest who drops in. Bakeries across Punjab bake a sweet, light loaf, slice it and dry it slowly until it snaps, and this home version does exactly the same. The common mistake is slicing the loaf while it is still warm: it squashes, and the rusks dry out dense and gummy. Let it cool completely, ideally overnight. Chef's tip: dry the slices at a low temperature until the centre snaps cleanly; any softness in the middle and they go stale within days.

90 minIndianBaking
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Arisi upmaBroken rice and dal upma

Arisi upma is the old Tamil country breakfast and evening dinner, especially in Tirunelveli and Madurai homes, made from rice and toor dal coarsely broken at home and cooked in a heavy pot. The best part is the 'kaanthal', the crisp golden crust that forms on the bottom, which families fight over. The mistake is too much water, which gives a sticky porridge; use about two and a half times the volume of the broken rice. Chef's tip: once cooked, leave it on the lowest heat with a lid for ten minutes, undisturbed, to build that crust.

40 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
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KaradantuEdible gum and jaggery slab

Karadantu is the famous sweet of Gokak in Belagavi district, sold in sweet shops near the Gokak falls and carried home as a gift, and also made in north Karnataka homes for new mothers and in winter. Edible gum is fried in ghee until it puffs like popcorn, then bound with jaggery syrup, dry coconut, poppy seeds and plenty of dry fruit and pressed into slabs. It's dense, chewy-crisp and deeply caramel-tasting. A common mistake is frying the gum on high heat; it browns outside and stays hard and glassy inside. Chef's tip: fry the gum a few pieces at a time in warm ghee and wait for each to swell to three times its size before lifting.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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KachariyuBlack sesame and date sweet

In Saurashtra the oil mills (ghani) run day and night through the Uttarayan season, and the first sesame pressed is mixed with dates and jaggery and sold as kachariyu, a dark, sticky, crumbly sweet that tastes of toasted seeds and spice. Families make it at home too and eat a spoonful every winter morning, and a bowl is always out on kite-flying day. The sesame is crushed until it releases its own oil, so it is rich but not greasy. Common mistake: grinding the sesame to a smooth paste; pulse it only until it turns damp and clumps, which keeps the texture grainy. The seeds are toasted enough when they crackle and a few start to jump out of the pan. Chef's tip: add a little ganthoda (pipli root) powder if you can find it, the traditional warming spice in Kathiawadi kachariyu.

20 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Bellam gavvaluShell-shaped dough in jaggery syrup

In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Sankranti is a three-day harvest festival of muggulu (rangoli) in front of every door, haridasu singers in the lanes and tins of fried sweets, and gavvalu are among the first to be made. Small pieces of dough are rolled over a ridged gavvala board or the back of a fork so they curl into little shells (gavvalu means cowrie shells), fried crisp, then tossed in jaggery syrup until each one is glazed with a dry, sugary crust. Common mistake: syrup that is not cooked far enough; it must reach the hard-ball stage, when a drop in water rolls into a firm ball, or the shells turn sticky instead of crisp-coated. Chef's tip: keep tossing after adding the shells until the syrup turns opaque and dry; that is the moment to tip them out.

65 minIndianIndian SweetsVegan
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BooreluChana dal and jaggery dumplings

Boorelu, also called poornalu, are the sweet that Telugu homes fry for Sankranti, Varalakshmi Vratam and weddings, and that a bride's family traditionally sends to her in-laws by the basketful. A soft ball of cooked chana dal, jaggery, coconut and cardamom is dipped in a thick batter of urad dal and rice and fried until the shell is crisp and blistered while the filling stays fudgy. They are eaten warm, split open with a spoon of ghee for those who take dairy. The usual mistake is a filling that is too wet: it bursts through the batter in the oil and splatters, so cook the dal and jaggery until it holds a firm ball. Chef's tip: grind the batter thick like idli batter and add salt; the slight saltiness of the shell is what makes the sweet filling sing.

90 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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HaalbaiRice, coconut and jaggery fudge

Haalbai is a home sweet of Malnad and coastal Karnataka, from Shivamogga to Udupi, made for festivals like Ganesha Chaturthi and Deepavali or simply when there's fresh coconut in the house. Soaked rice is ground with coconut, then cooked with jaggery and cardamom until it thickens into a glossy mass that sets soft and slightly chewy, almost like a firm halwa. A common mistake is stopping too early; if it isn't cooked until it leaves the sides and a drop rolls into a ball, it never sets for cutting. Chef's tip: stir with a long wooden spoon and wear an oven glove, because the thick mix bubbles and spits towards the end.

55 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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SunnundaluRoasted urad dal laddus

Sunnundalu are the protein-rich laddus of Andhra Pradesh, made in every Telugu home for Sankranti and Diwali and given to new mothers and growing children for strength. Whole skinned urad dal is dry-roasted until it smells nutty, ground fine with jaggery, and bound with warm ghee into balls that are sandy at first bite and then melt. They are a tea-time sweet that keeps for weeks. The common mistake is under-roasting the dal; raw urad tastes beany and sticks to the teeth, so roast until golden right through. Chef's tip: shape the laddus while the ghee is still warm, pressing firmly; once the mix cools it will not hold together.

30 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Vishu kanjiRice and green gram porridge

In Kerala, Vishu starts before sunrise with the kani, when each member of the family is led with closed eyes to see a tray of rice, gold-yellow konna flowers, fruit, a mirror and a lamp, so the year begins with something lucky. Breakfast afterwards, in many central Kerala homes, is this kanji: rice and lightly roasted whole green gram cooked soft and finished with coconut milk, eaten with a dry chakka or pumpkin side and pappadam. It is mild, creamy and nourishing, nothing like a plain rice gruel. The common mistake is boiling the thick coconut milk, which splits it and turns the kanji grainy; it goes in at the end, off the boil. It is ready when the gram has burst and the rice falls apart when stirred. Chef's tip: a few crushed cumin seeds and a shallot fried in coconut oil spooned over each bowl make it taste festive.

45 minIndianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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UkkaraiSteamed dal and jaggery sweet

Ukkarai is the Chettinad Deepavali sweet that sits on the tray beside adhirasam: moong and chana dal are soaked, ground coarse, steamed like an idli, crumbled and fried in ghee, then tossed in jaggery syrup with coconut and cashews. The result is loose, granular and fudgy at once, tasting of roasted lentils, ghee and molasses. It is eaten warm with a spoon or pressed into small lumps. The common mistake is grinding the dal to a fine paste, which turns it into a gummy cake rather than crumbs; keep it as coarse as rava. Chef's tip: crumble the steamed dal while it is still warm and rub it through your fingers; cold dal sets hard and won't separate.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Kacha kela na vadaRaw banana fritters

In Jain homes in Ahmedabad, Palanpur and Mumbai's Gujarati neighbourhoods, raw green banana takes the place of potato, so these vada are the Jain answer to batata vada, made for paryushan-season tea and for guests. The bananas are boiled, mashed and spiced with dry ginger, green chilli, lemon and a little sugar, rolled into balls, dipped in gram flour batter and fried. They taste much like batata vada but are slightly firmer, sweeter and fruity. There is no onion, garlic, potato or fresh ginger in this version. The common mistake is overboiling the bananas until they are waterlogged; the filling then goes sticky and the vada split in the oil, so cook them only until a knife slides in. Chef's tip: mash the bananas while warm with a potato masher, not a blender, so the filling stays light.

45 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Chhanar murkiSugar-coated chhena cubes

In Bangladesh and West Bengal, Hindu families mark Bijoya Dashami at the end of Durga Puja by visiting neighbours with plates of sweets, and chhanar murki is one of the simplest to make at home. Fresh chhena is pressed firm, cut into tiny cubes and cooked in sugar syrup, which is then boiled down until it crystallises and clings to each cube as a white, crunchy coat; inside they stay soft and milky. Common mistake: using soft, wet chhena, which dissolves in the syrup. Press it under a weight until it is firm enough to slice cleanly. When the syrup turns cloudy and grainy, it is about to crystallise onto the cubes, so lower the heat and keep tossing. Chef's tip: toss the cubes off the heat for a full minute as the syrup dries; constant gentle movement gives an even, snowy coating instead of clumps.

85 minBangladeshiIndian SweetsGluten free
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Sattu ke ladduRoasted gram laddus

Kajli Teej in Bundi, Rajasthan, falls in the dark fortnight of Bhadrapad, when women fast for their husbands and break the fast in the evening by moonrise with sattu: roasted gram flour mixed with ghee, sugar and nuts and pressed into laddus or one large decorated cake called a sattu pinda. The laddus are nutty, soft, powdery and very filling. Common mistake: using plain besan instead of sattu, or under-roasting the sattu, which tastes raw; roast gently in ghee until it smells biscuity and the ghee starts to separate at the edges. Chef's tip: shape while the mix is warm but cool enough to hold, and press each laddu firmly in your palm so it does not crumble.

25 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Tekeli pithaSteamed coconut jaggery rice cake

In Assamese homes the nights before Magh Bihu are spent making pitha, and tekeli pitha is the one named after the pot it is cooked on: a cloth is tied over the mouth of a tekeli (a small clay water pot), and damp rice flour, coconut and jaggery are piled on top and steamed by the water boiling underneath. It comes off as a soft, crumbly cake, sweet in the middle and plain at the edges, eaten warm with tea on Bihu morning or packed into the bhogali spread. Any narrow-necked pot or saucepan works at home. Common mistake: using dry shop rice flour straight from the packet; it needs to be just damp enough to clump when pressed, or the cake falls apart, and it is done when the top looks matt and a skewer comes out clean, about 10–12 minutes. Chef's tip: soak and grind your own rice flour if you can; flour from soaked rice, dried for an hour, gives the softest pitha.

45 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Mor kaliButtermilk rice flour cake

Mor kali is a quick Tamil tiffin of the old style, made in Tirunelveli and Chennai Brahmin homes when there's sour buttermilk to use up. Rice flour is stirred into tempered buttermilk until it turns glossy and leaves the pan, then cut into squares, soft and wobbly with the salty, smoky crunch of fried mor milagai (curd chillies). The mistake is stopping too early: undercooked kali tastes raw and sticks to the teeth, so cook until it rolls into a ball that doesn't stick to a wet finger. Chef's tip: use buttermilk that is properly sour, a day or two old; fresh buttermilk tastes flat here.

25 minIndianSnacks & StartersGluten free
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Gond ke ladduEdible gum and flour laddus

When the January cold sets in around Lohri, Punjabi and Marwari kitchens make a tin of gond ke laddu, one of which is eaten each morning with hot milk to keep warm through winter. Edible gum (gond, from the acacia tree) is fried in ghee until it puffs into light crunchy nuggets, then crushed and mixed with ghee-roasted wheat flour, jaggery, dry ginger and plenty of nuts, so the laddus are rich, crumbly and crackle as you bite. Common mistake: frying the gum in oil that is too hot; it browns outside and stays glassy and chewy in the middle, so fry it on a medium heat until each piece swells to twice its size and turns opaque white. The flour is done when it smells nutty, turns golden and the ghee loosens at the edges. Chef's tip: roll the laddus while the mixture is still warm; once it cools it will not bind.

55 minIndianIndian Sweets
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ChalimidiRice flour and jaggery sweet

Chalimidi is a no-cook-flour sweet from Andhra and Telangana, offered to the goddess at Navaratri and Nagula Chavithi and handed out at naming ceremonies and baby showers. Soaked rice is dried, pounded into fresh flour and stirred into a thick jaggery syrup with coconut, so it sets into a soft, damp, slightly crumbly dough that is shaped into small balls. It tastes of molasses and cardamom and is eaten as it is, at room temperature. The most common mistake is undercooking the syrup: a thin syrup leaves the chalimidi sticky and pasty, so cook it to a firm soft-ball stage. Chef's tip: use freshly ground soaked rice, not shop rice flour; the slightly damp flour is what gives chalimidi its tender bite.

35 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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ThenkuzhalRice and urad flour spirals

Thenkuzhal is the plain, pale murukku of Tamil Nadu, especially in Chettinad and Thanjavur kitchens, pressed through a single-hole plate into neat spirals for Deepavali and Krishna Jayanthi. Unlike butter murukku, it relies on roasted urad flour and a spoon of hot oil for its crunch, with cumin and a little sesame for flavour, and it should be cream-coloured, smooth and light. It is eaten with coffee and kept in tins for weeks. The common mistake is a dough that is too stiff, which breaks while pressing and gives a rough, cracked surface; it should be soft enough to pipe smoothly. Chef's tip: press the spirals onto the back of an oiled slotted spoon or a square of parchment and slide them into the oil, so they keep their shape.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Khari bundiSalted gram flour pearls

Khari bundi is the salted boondi that Gujarati cooks keep in a jar for raita, bhel, dahi puri and Diwali farsan mixes, and that farsan shops in Ahmedabad sell by the kilo. A pourable gram flour batter is tapped through a perforated ladle into hot oil, where it puffs into crunchy little pearls, then tossed while warm with salt, red chilli and black pepper. The common mistake is getting the batter consistency wrong: too thick and the drops grow tails, too thin and they spread flat, so test a few drops before frying the whole lot. Chef's tip: hold the ladle about 10 cm above the oil and tap its edge, never press the batter through.

40 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Aval vilayichathuFlattened rice with jaggery and coconut

Aval vilayichathu is the quickest sweet in a Kerala kitchen, made in Palakkad and Thrissur homes for evening tea, for children back from school, or as an offering for Krishna on Janmashtami. Thick beaten rice is stirred into hot jaggery syrup with coconut, then finished with toasted sesame, roasted chana and coconut slivers so it turns chewy, dry and fragrant. A common mistake is adding the aval while the syrup is too thin; the flakes go mushy instead of glazing, so cook the jaggery and coconut until thick first. Chef's tip: use thick red aval if you can find it; it keeps a bite and has a gentle nutty taste.

25 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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SukhiyanGreen gram jaggery fritters

Sukhiyan is one of the old nalumani palaharam, the 'four o'clock' snacks of central Kerala, sold in glass cases in Kottayam and Ernakulam tea shops next to unniyappam and banana fritters. Whole green gram is cooked soft and mashed with melted jaggery, coconut and cardamom, then rolled into balls, dipped in a light batter and fried. The outside is thin and slightly crisp, the inside soft and earthy-sweet, lovely with strong black tea. A common mistake is a wet filling; if the jaggery mix is not cooked until it leaves the pan, the balls crack and leak in the oil. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt and a little turmeric in the batter give the classic golden colour and balance the sweetness.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVegan
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Sing ni chutneyPeanut yogurt chutney

On ekadashi, Shivratri and Navratri fasts, Gujarati homes serve farari pattice, sabudana vada and sweet potato chips with this thick, creamy peanut chutney, and it is just as good the rest of the year with thepla. Roasted peanuts are ground with green chilli, cumin and lemon, then loosened with yogurt into a nutty, tangy dip with a slow chilli warmth. For fasting it is seasoned with rock salt, and it has no onion, garlic or grain. The common mistake is grinding the peanuts with the yogurt from the start; they never break down properly. Chef's tip: grind the peanuts dry first, then add the yogurt and pulse just to mix.

10 minIndianChutneys & DipsGluten free
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Gato cravateBow-tie pastries

Gato cravate, 'tie cakes', are named for their shape: little strips of sweet dough slit down the middle and pulled through themselves into a twisted bow. In Mauritius they are fried by the tin in the week before Divali and packed with other sweets onto the plates that neighbours exchange on the night of the lamps; they also turn up at weddings and tea time. The pastry is lightly sweetened with sugar and vanilla, fried until blistered and crisp, then tossed in cinnamon sugar. Common mistake: rolling the dough thick, which gives a hard, bready bow; roll it as thin as a coin and fry until pale gold and the bubbling has nearly stopped, a sign the moisture has cooked out. Chef's tip: toss them in sugar while still warm so it sticks, and let them cool on a rack so they stay crisp.

50 minMauritianIndian Sweets
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Kai murukkuHand-twisted rice flour spirals

Manapparai near Tiruchirappalli is famous for kai murukku, hand-twisted spirals made by women who can loop the dough between thumb and finger faster than you can watch. They are fried for Deepavali, weddings and seemantham baskets, and the good ones shatter with a clean crunch and taste lightly of cumin and sesame. The usual mistake is using flour that isn't sifted and roasted dry, which leaves raw-tasting murukku that bubble and burst. Twisting takes practice, so start with a simple three-loop ring. Chef's tip: shape them on a damp cloth and fry from the cloth, so the rings don't stick or tear.

90 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Chakka varattiJackfruit jaggery preserve

Vishu arrives in April when Kerala's jackfruit trees are heavy, and homes turn the glut into chakka varatti, a dark, glossy jam stirred for well over an hour in a wide uruli. It is eaten by the spoon, spread on dosa, and kept in jars for the payasam and ada made at festivals through the year. The taste is deep and caramel-like, with the floral sweetness of ripe jackfruit. The common mistake is cooking it on a high heat to save time: jaggery burns quickly and turns the whole batch bitter. It is done when the ghee starts to separate and shine at the edges, the colour is a dark mahogany brown, and the mass rolls round the pan as one lump. Chef's tip: use only very ripe, fragrant jackfruit bulbs, and if your jackfruit is the firm varikka type, steam it first so it purées smoothly.

120 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Veppampoo rasamNeem flower rasam

Puthandu, the Tamil New Year in mid-April, falls when neem trees across Tamil Nadu are in flower, and the festive lunch has a little bitterness on purpose, to remind everyone that the year will bring both sweet and bitter. Veppampoo rasam does it gently: dried neem flowers are fried in ghee until crisp and stirred into a light tamarind rasam with pepper and cumin. It is thin, warming and sour, with a toasty bitter finish, and it is poured over rice or sipped from a tumbler. The common mistake is burning the flowers; they turn from golden to black in seconds and taste acrid, so have the rasam ready before you heat the ghee. The rasam is ready when it froths up to the top of the pan; take it off before it reaches a rolling boil. Chef's tip: fry a few extra flowers and scatter them over each serving for crunch.

30 minIndianSoupsGluten free
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MoodeSteamed idli in leaf cylinders

Moode is the festive idli of Mangaluru and Udupi, made for Krishna Janmashtami, Ganesh Chaturthi and big family breakfasts. The batter goes into tall cylinders woven from kedige (screwpine) leaves, which perfume the soft, spongy rice cake with a floral scent you can't get any other way; markets on the coast sell the woven moulds ready to fill. Slice it into thick rounds and serve with coconut chutney, sambar or a spicy chana gassi. The common mistake is filling the leaf moulds to the brim: the batter rises as it steams and spills out, leaving a dense cake. Fill them only two-thirds full. Chef's tip: if you can't find screwpine leaves, roll banana leaves into tight cones and tie them with string; the shape and steaming are the same, only the scent is milder.

60 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
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Kul er chutneyJujube chutney

Many Bengali families do not eat kul (Indian jujube, or ber) all winter until it has been offered to Goddess Saraswati, so on Saraswati Puja the first taste usually comes as this glossy chutney at the end of the khichuri bhog. Fresh or dried kul is simmered with jaggery, a tempering of panch phoron and dried red chilli in mustard oil, and finished with a touch of roasted spice powder, giving a sticky, sweet, sour and mildly hot relish. Dried kul gives a darker, chewier chutney; fresh kul is brighter and tangier. Common mistake: cooking it too thick on the stove; the chutney sets firmer as it cools, so stop when the syrup coats a spoon and runs off slowly. Chef's tip: prick each fresh kul with a fork before cooking so the syrup gets inside instead of the fruit bursting.

35 minIndianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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KummayamRoasted urad and moong halwa

Kummayam, also called aadi kummayam, is the sweet Chettinad homes make in the Tamil month of Aadi (July to August), when it is offered at the temple and shared with family. Urad dal, moong dal and rice are dry-roasted and ground into a flour, then cooked in thin jaggery syrup with ghee until it becomes a soft, glossy, dark halwa that pulls away from the pan. It tastes of roasted lentils and molasses and is eaten warm. The most common mistake is adding the flour to hot syrup in one go, which makes stubborn lumps; whisk it into cool syrup first, then cook. Chef's tip: add the ghee a spoonful at a time towards the end and stop when the halwa turns glossy and comes together in one mass.

40 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Koova payasamArrowroot pudding

In central Kerala, the morning of Thiruvathira begins with a bath before dawn and a bowl of koova, arrowroot starch that many families still pound and wash out from their own garden roots. Cooked with jaggery and coconut milk, it turns into a glossy, wobbly pudding that is light on the stomach for a day without rice. The texture should be silky and pourable while hot, thickening as it cools. Common mistake: tipping the powder straight into hot liquid, which gives lumps you can never whisk out; slake it in cold coconut milk first and stir all the time, and it is ready when it turns from cloudy white to clear and coats the back of a spoon. It is fasting-safe as written (arrowroot, jaggery, coconut and cardamom only), and Gujarati farari cooks use the same starch; check your own family's fasting rules if you add anything else. Chef's tip: melt and strain the jaggery separately and let it cool a little before adding, so the coconut milk does not split.

30 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Kalkandu vadaiSweet urad dal rock sugar vadai

Kalkandu vadai is the sweet cousin of medu vadai, made in Chettinad homes for festivals and for the trays that go to a bride's house. Soaked urad dal and a little rice are ground fluffy and mixed with crushed kalkandu (rock sugar) and coconut, then fried into small golden rounds that are crisp outside, soft inside, with pockets of melted crystal sugar. They are eaten warm with coffee. A common mistake is grinding the rock sugar in with the batter, which turns the batter runny; crush it coarsely and fold it in just before frying. Chef's tip: fry these on slightly lower heat than savoury vadai, because sugar browns fast and burns before the centre cooks.

50 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Seepu seedaiFried rice flour coconut curls

Seepu seedai is one of the small crunchy snacks Tamil families fry for Krishna Jayanthi, laid out on the puja plank with uppu seedai, murukku and butter. The dough is enriched with coconut milk and pressed through the 'comb' (seepu) disc, then each ridged strip is curled into a ring, giving a delicate, mildly sweet crunch. A common mistake is skipping the roasting of the rice flour: damp flour makes seedai that burst in the oil. Chef's tip: press several strips at once onto a plate, then curl them quickly before they dry and crack.

60 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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KamarkattuCoconut jaggery candy balls

Kamarkattu is the toffee of Tamil village shops, dark, chewy, caramel-scented balls of coconut and jaggery that cost a few paise in the days when children bought sweets one at a time. It's quick to make at home and keeps for a couple of weeks. The mistake is taking the jaggery too far: if the syrup hardens past the soft-ball stage, kamarkattu turns rock hard and pulls fillings. Chef's tip: test a drop in cold water; when it forms a soft ball you can squash, switch off and shape immediately.

30 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Paal paniyaramFried dumplings in sweet coconut milk

Paal paniyaram is the Chettinad wedding dessert served on the banana leaf at the end of a Karaikudi feast: small marble-sized dumplings of rice and urad are fried pale, dipped briefly in hot water to soften them, then left to soak in sweetened, cardamom-scented coconut milk. They are soft, spongy and cool, eaten with a spoon, chilled or at room temperature. A common mistake is frying until brown and crusty: the dumplings then refuse to soak up the milk. Fry them only until set and barely coloured. Chef's tip: the quick dip in hot water after frying washes off surface oil and opens them up to drink the coconut milk.

55 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Bharuchi khari singSalt-roasted peanuts

Bharuch on the Narmada is famous across Gujarat for khari sing, salted peanuts sold in paper packets at the station and on the highway, and carried home by every traveller. Whole peanuts are soaked in strong salt water, then roasted in a big iron pan of hot salt (or sand) until the skins crackle and dry to a thin, white, salty crust over a deeply roasted, crunchy nut. They are a travel snack, a tea-time nibble and a fasting-friendly protein. The common mistake is roasting too fast over high heat: the shells char outside while the nut stays chewy inside, so roast steadily over medium-low and taste a nut before you stop. Chef's tip: the roasting salt can be sieved, cooled and kept in a jar for the next batch.

35 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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ThandaiAlmond, fennel and rose milk

On Mahashivratri the ghats and temples of Varanasi fill with brass pots of thandai, a cooling milk ground with almonds, melon seeds, fennel, poppy seeds, black pepper and rose, poured as an offering to Shiva and then shared with everyone queuing for darshan. In the city's lanes it is sometimes made with bhang (cannabis); this version is made entirely without it and contains no alcohol, so the whole family can drink it. It tastes nutty, floral and gently peppery, and is thick enough to coat the glass. Most people who keep the Shivratri fast take it, since it holds only milk, nuts, seeds and spices, but check your own family's rules: some leave out poppy seeds, and poppy seeds are restricted in a few countries, so skip them if you need to. Common mistake: grinding the soaked nuts and seeds with too little water, which leaves a gritty paste; keep blending until it feels smooth between your fingertips, then strain. Chef's tip: make the paste the night before and keep it in the fridge; the flavour deepens and you only need to whisk it into cold milk on the day.

30 minIndianDrinksGluten free
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Methi laddooFenugreek and jaggery laddoos

Every Punjabi winter, mothers and grandmothers roast a big batch of methi laddoos and hand out one a day with morning tea or warm milk, for strength and to keep the cold out of the joints. Fenugreek gives a gentle bitterness that the jaggery, ghee and roasted wheat balance into something nutty and warming, with crunch from puffed gond and almonds. The mistake people make is roasting the atta on high heat: it browns outside, stays raw inside and the laddoos taste floury. Keep it low and patient until it smells of biscuits. Chef's tip: soak the fenugreek powder in milk overnight; it softens the bitterness so even children will eat them.

60 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Kavuni arisiBlack rice sweet

Kavuni arisi is the deep purple-black sweet that every Chettiar wedding feast in Karaikudi begins with, a nod to the trading families' old links with Burma, where the black rice came from. The rice is soaked overnight, cooked until soft but still chewy, then mixed with sugar, plenty of fresh grated coconut and a spoon of ghee, so it is nutty, gently sweet and pleasantly sticky. It is eaten warm or at room temperature in small portions. The usual mistake is cooking black rice like white rice; it needs a long soak and a long cook, or the grains stay hard at the centre. Chef's tip: mash a quarter of the cooked rice lightly with the back of a spoon before adding sugar, which makes it hold together the way it does in Chettinad.

55 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Kanchipuram idliSpiced temple idli

Kanchipuram idli is the temple prasadam of the Varadharaja Perumal temple, where it was traditionally steamed in tall bamboo baskets lined with mandarai leaves. It is coarser and richer than everyday idli, with cracked pepper, cumin, dry ginger and cashews fried in ghee folded through, and it's eaten for breakfast or festival tiffin with coconut chutney and sambar. The mistake is grinding the rice as fine as for plain idli; it should feel like fine semolina so the idli has a crumbly, open bite. Chef's tip: steam in tumblers or small bowls lined with banana leaf for the tall shape and a gentle leaf aroma.

60 minIndianBreakfast & BrunchGluten free
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Lakri mithaiSugar-coated spiced dough sticks

Diwali is a public holiday in Fiji, and Indo-Fijian families spend the week before it frying sweets by the tin to share with friends and neighbours; lakri, 'wooden sticks', is the one children reach for first. Short sticks of dough flavoured with ginger and cardamom are fried until hard and crisp, then tossed in a sugar syrup cooked until it seizes, so each stick is coated in a dry, frosty white crust. Common mistake: tossing too early or too late; cook the syrup to the soft-ball stage, when a drop in cold water forms a soft ball, then keep stirring the sticks off the heat until the syrup turns white and grainy and clings. Chef's tip: let the fried sticks cool completely before coating, so they stay crunchy under the sugar.

60 minPacific IslanderIndian Sweets
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Puli avalTamarind flattened rice

Puli aval is the quick cousin of tamarind rice from Tamil Nadu, cooked in Kumbakonam and Tirunelveli homes as an evening tiffin or a light supper when there's no rice left in the pot. Thick flattened rice is soaked in tamarind water, then tossed into a crackling tempering of mustard seeds, dals, red chilli and peanuts. It tastes tangy, a little sweet and nutty, with soft flakes and crunchy bits. The common mistake is drowning the aval in tamarind water so it turns to porridge; it only needs to be moistened, not soaked. Chef's tip: let the tempered aval sit, covered and off the heat, for 2 minutes before serving so the flakes soften evenly and drink in the tamarind.

13 minIndianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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ManoharamRice flour sticks in jaggery syrup

Manoharam is a Chettinad sweet made for weddings and the sweet trays of Deepavali, often shaped into a tall cone for the bridal seer. Short, crisp sticks of rice and moong flour are pressed and fried, then tossed in a jaggery syrup cooked to the hard-ball stage, so the syrup sets around them into a crunchy, molasses-sweet cluster. It is eaten in small pieces with coffee and keeps for weeks. The usual mistake is undercooked syrup, which never sets and leaves the sticks soggy; test it in cold water until it snaps. Chef's tip: have the fried sticks warm and ready in a wide greased bowl before the syrup reaches the right stage, as it starts setting within a minute.

75 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Gato moutailleFried dough ropes in cardamom syrup

On Divali evening in Mauritius, Hindu households set out clay lamps and then walk plates of sweets round to their neighbours, Hindu, Muslim, Creole and Chinese alike; gato moutaille, gato cravate and gato zinzli are almost always on the plate. Moutaille (from the Bhojpuri mithai) are short ropes of soft dough twisted into knots or spirals, fried until crisp and soaked in a cardamom syrup so the outside is sticky and the inside stays slightly chewy. Common mistake: syrup that is too thick, which crystallises into a white crust; cook it only to one-string consistency, when a drop pulled between finger and thumb makes a single thread. Chef's tip: dip the moutaille while they are hot and the syrup is warm, then lift them out after a minute so they stay crisp.

60 minMauritianIndian Sweets
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Congress kadlekaiSpiced roasted peanuts

Congress kadlekai is a fixture of Bengaluru's Iyengar bakeries and the Basavanagudi Kadlekai Parishe, the peanut fair held each November. Roasted peanuts are split in half, which is said to be where the name comes from, and tossed in a little hot oil with curry leaves, hing and chilli so the spices cling to the flat sides. It's salty, crunchy and very hard to stop eating with evening coffee. A common mistake is frying the peanuts in the tempering: they're already roasted and burn quickly, so add them off the heat. Chef's tip: rub the warm roasted peanuts in a cloth and blow away the skins; skinless halves take the masala much better.

20 minIndianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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TambittuRoasted rice flour jaggery laddus

Nagara Panchami in Karnataka is a festival of sisters and brothers as much as of snakes: women offer milk to the stone naga images under peepal trees, and the sweets made at home are tambittu, laddus of roasted rice flour, roasted gram, coconut and sesame bound with jaggery syrup and ghee. They are crumbly-soft and earthy, and a few are also offered at Varamahalakshmi. Common mistake: binding with thin syrup, which leaves the laddus wet and collapsing; boil the jaggery only to a soft-ball stage, when a drop in cold water forms a soft ball you can pick up. Chef's tip: roast the rice flour until it just smells toasty and is barely cream-coloured; too dark and the laddus taste bitter.

35 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Pazham nirachathuCoconut-stuffed fried plantains

Every Malabar iftar spread has a plate of pazham nirachathu: ripe plantains slit open, packed with grated coconut, sugar and cardamom fried with ghee and cashews, then dipped in a thin flour batter and shallow-fried. The outside turns crisp and lacy, the plantain goes soft and caramel-sweet and the coconut stays moist. Chef's tip: slit the plantain without cutting through the far side or the ends, so the filling stays inside the pocket.

30 minIndianSnacks & Starters
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KinkélibaKinkéliba leaf tea with mint

Kinkéliba is an herbal tea brewed from the dried leaves of a West African shrub, and in Senegal it is the drink families reach for at the moment of breaking the fast in Ramadan, served hot with bread or dates. The brew is amber, gently bitter and woody, softened with sugar and lifted with fresh mint. Many households also drink it at breakfast all year. Chef's tip: simmer it gently rather than boiling it hard; a fierce boil brings out too much bitterness.

15 minSenegaleseDrinksVeganGluten free
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RužiceWalnut pastry roses in syrup

Ružice, meaning 'little roses', are baked for Bajram in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Eid holidays when trays of syrup-soaked sweets are set out for every guest. Thin sheets of pastry are brushed with butter, scattered with walnuts and rolled up, then sliced so each piece opens like a rose in the oven. The baked roses drink up a cold lemon syrup and turn sticky, crisp on top and soft underneath. Chef's tip: pour cold syrup over hot pastry (or hot over cold), never both the same temperature, or the roses go soggy.

90 minBalkanDesserts
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Tire Sainte-CatherinePulled molasses taffy

On 25 November, Quebec celebrates St Catherine, patron of unmarried women, with tire Sainte-Catherine, a pulled molasses taffy. The custom goes back to Marguerite Bourgeoys, who is said to have made taffy in the 1600s to draw children to her school in Ville-Marie, and today schools and families still 'pull the tire' together. Hot molasses and sugar syrup is cooled, then pulled with buttered hands until it turns golden and satiny, twisted into ropes and cut into pieces. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: pull it as soon as it is cool enough to handle, as it sets fast; work in pairs.

55 minCanadianDessertsGluten free
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BorstplaatSugar fondant sweets

Borstplaat is the sweet of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands: small, melt-in-the-mouth discs or hearts of boiled sugar and cream or milk with a little butter, flavoured with coffee, vanilla or strawberry. Children find them in their shoes on the morning of 5 December alongside pepernoten and a chocolate letter. They need only a few ingredients and a little care, and are gluten free. Chef's tip: stir the cooled syrup until it turns cloudy and starts to thicken, then pour at once; that stirring forms the fine crystals that make borstplaat creamy.

35 minDutchDessertsGluten free
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KhajlaFried pastry rounds in sweet milk

In the old lanes of Lahore and Karachi's Burns Road, sweet shops fry khajla through the night in Ramadan so families can buy it fresh for sehri, the meal eaten before dawn. Each round is a stack of paper-thin layers of ghee-rubbed dough that shatter when you press them, and it is crumbled into a bowl of hot sweetened milk, often with fine pheni, to give slow energy for the fasting day. Chef's tip: keep the oil only medium-hot; khajla must fry slowly so every inner layer turns crisp before the outside browns.

100 minPakistaniDesserts
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Miel de chiverreSquash strand preserve

Chiverre is a large, pale squash with stringy flesh that Costa Rican families save for Semana Santa. The strands are cooked for hours with tapa de dulce (cane sugar), cinnamon and cloves until they turn into a golden, chewy, sweet preserve called miel de chiverre, eaten on its own or used to fill the Holy Week empanadas and tortas. Spaghetti squash, though milder, is the closest substitute. It is vegan. Chef's tip: soak the squash strands in cold water for a few hours and drain well, which removes the bitterness.

180 minCentral AmericanDessertsVeganGluten free
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KipingLeaf-shaped rice wafers

Every 15 May, the town of Lucban in Quezon province celebrates San Isidro Labrador, patron of farmers, with the Pahiyas festival, when houses are covered in rice, vegetables and kiping: bright, translucent wafers of ground rice dough pressed onto leaves so they take the leaf's shape and veins, then dried. After the procession, the kiping are taken down and grilled or fried and eaten crisp, sometimes with sugar. This home version presses the dough thinly onto baking paper with a leaf-shaped cutter and the back of a clean banana leaf for texture. It is vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: spread the dough as thin as you can, almost see-through, so it dries crisp.

60 minFilipinoSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Almíbar nicaragüenseFruit preserve in panela syrup

In Nicaragua, Semana Santa means almíbar: a big pot of mango, papaya, jocote (hog plum) and grosella (gooseberry) simmered for hours in a dark panela syrup with cinnamon, cloves and allspice. Families make it ahead and share it with neighbours, who return the bowl full of their own. It is served cool in small bowls, sometimes with a slice of cheese. Jocotes and grosellas are hard to find abroad; firm plums and cape gooseberries are good stand-ins. It is vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: add the fruit in order of firmness so everything finishes tender but whole.

180 minCentral AmericanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Manisan kolang-kalingSugar palm fruit in pandan syrup

Kolang-kaling are the chewy, translucent seeds of the sugar palm, and in Indonesia they are a sure sign of Ramadan, piled in buckets at markets and simmered in syrup to go into iftar drinks, kolak and es buah. They have a soft, jelly-like bite and soak up whatever colour and flavour they are cooked in: green for pandan, red for rose syrup. Chef's tip: simmer them slowly and leave them in the syrup overnight; rushing gives pale fruit with a watery middle.

60 minIndonesianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Etrog marmaladeCitron preserve

After Sukkot ends, many Israeli families keep the fragrant etrog (citron) used during the festival and turn it into marmalade, so its scent lasts into the winter. The thick pith is bitter, so the sliced fruit is soaked overnight and blanched in fresh water before it is simmered with sugar into a golden, bitter-sweet preserve, lovely on challah or with soft cheese. If your etrog was treated with sprays because it was grown only for ritual use, buy an unwaxed one sold for eating. The common mistake is skipping the soaking and changes of water, which leaves the marmalade harsh. Chef's tip: add a lemon for pectin and brightness, since etrogs are dry and set softly on their own.

1515 minIsraeliChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Pesaha paalCoconut milk and jaggery drink

Pesaha paal ('Passover milk') is the sweet dip served with Pesaha appam at the Maundy Thursday supper in Kerala's Syrian Christian homes. Coconut milk is simmered with melted jaggery, a little roasted rice flour to thicken it, cardamom and dried ginger until it becomes a warm, silky drink. The family dips pieces of the blessed appam into it after the evening prayers. It is vegan and gluten free, and ready in half an hour. Chef's tip: strain the jaggery syrup before adding the coconut milk, as jaggery often carries grit.

30 minIndianDrinksVeganGluten free
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Bread halwaFried bread halwa

At Tamil Muslim weddings and Eid feasts in Chennai and Madurai, the biryani is followed by a spoonful of bread halwa, sticky, golden and glistening with ghee. Cubes of white bread are fried until crisp, then cooked down with milk, sugar and cardamom until they melt into a soft, jammy halwa studded with cashews. Chef's tip: day-old bread fries crisper and soaks up the milk more evenly than fresh.

40 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Kuih makmurGhee and peanut cookies

Kuih makmur is one of the oldest Malay Hari Raya cookies, its name meaning 'prosperity', and its tiny ridged domes are baked by the tray-load before Aidilfitri to fill the cookie jars for open houses. Soft, crumbly ghee pastry wraps a filling of roasted ground peanuts and sugar, and the cookies are rolled in icing sugar while still warm, so they melt in the mouth. Chef's tip: bake them pale; makmur should stay white, and browned cookies taste of scorched ghee.

60 minMalaysianBaking
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SnobrødBonfire stick bread

On Sankt Hans Aften, Danish Midsummer Eve on 23 June, people gather round huge bonfires on beaches and in gardens, sing the Midsummer song and burn a straw witch, and the children twist ropes of dough round sticks and bake snobrød over the embers. The bread comes out crisp and smoky outside and soft inside, ready to fill with jam, or butter for those who eat dairy. It is just as much fun at any garden fire or campfire. Chef's tip: hold the bread over glowing embers, not flames, and keep turning; flames blacken the outside long before the inside is done.

30 minScandinavianBreads & ParathasVegan
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Olivette di Sant'AgataAlmond paste olives

Olivette are tiny green 'olives' of almond paste rolled in sugar, sold in Catania for the feast of St Agatha in early February. A legend tells that as the young saint was led to her trial she stopped to tie her shoe, and a wild olive tree sprang up on the spot and fed her. The sweets are made from ground almonds, sugar and a little water, coloured green and shaped in the palm. They are gluten free and dairy free, and children love to help shape them. Use a natural green such as matcha or spinach powder if you prefer. Chef's tip: knead the paste only until smooth, as overworking draws out the almond oil and it turns greasy.

40 minItalianDessertsGluten free
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SkābputraSoured barley porridge drink

Skābputra, 'sour porridge', is one of the oldest Latvian foods, and at Jāņi, Midsummer on 23–24 June, it is served cold alongside caraway cheese, pīrāgi and wreaths of flowers. Pearl barley is cooked soft, then soured with buttermilk or kefir for a day or two until it is tangy and fresh-tasting, and it is thinned with milk into a thick, cooling drink sipped or eaten with a spoon on hot summer days. This home version uses bought live buttermilk to start the souring safely. Chef's tip: use clean jars and utensils, and taste it each day; once it is pleasantly sour, chill it so it stops souring.

60 minBalticDrinks
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Chana dal halwa

At Punjabi weddings in Lahore and Faisalabad in the cold months, the dessert table often carries a big tray of chana dal halwa beside the gajar halwa. Soaked split chickpeas are ground and fried slowly in ghee until they smell of roasted nuts and turn deep golden, then cooked with milk, sugar and cardamom into a rich, grainy halwa that keeps for days. It takes patience and a strong arm. Chef's tip: keep the heat low and scrape the bottom constantly; the dal catches fast once it starts to brown.

90 minPakistaniIndian SweetsGluten free
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MämmiRye and malt Easter pudding

Mämmi is Finland's Easter dessert, a dark, almost black pudding of rye flour and malted rye, sweetened slowly by the malt's own enzymes and by a little molasses, then baked for hours in birch-bark boxes or small dishes. It looks unusual but tastes mild, malty and gently sweet, and is eaten cold with cream and sugar on Easter Sunday. It is vegan, and it was once eaten through Lent. You need powdered rye malt from a baking supplier or Nordic shop. Chef's tip: keep the porridge warm (around 60 °C) for two hours before baking so the malt can sweeten it; skip this and mämmi tastes bitter.

330 minScandinavianDessertsVegan
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LemangBamboo-cooked coconut sticky rice

On the eve of Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Malay villages across the peninsula fill with smoke as families cook lemang: glutinous rice and coconut milk packed into banana-leaf-lined bamboo poles and turned slowly beside an open fire for hours. The rice comes out rich, salty and faintly smoky, sliced into thick rounds and eaten with rendang or serunding on Raya morning. Few homes have bamboo and a fire pit, so this recipe gives a home oven method in a banana-leaf-lined tin, with the bamboo way described too. Chef's tip: let the cooked lemang cool before slicing, as warm rice is too soft to cut cleanly.

270 minMalaysianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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PepitadaToasted melon seed milk

Greek and Turkish Jews end the Yom Kippur fast with a glass of pepitada, a pale, gentle 'milk' made from melon seeds that were saved, washed and dried through the summer. The seeds are toasted, ground, soaked overnight in water wrapped in muslin, then squeezed to give a mild, nutty drink sweetened with a little sugar and scented with rose or orange-blossom water. It is soothing on an empty stomach after a day without food or water. The common mistake is toasting the seeds too dark, which makes the drink bitter. Chef's tip: start the night before; the long soak is what draws out the creamy flavour.

750 minIsraeliDrinksVeganGluten free
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Aloo bukhara chutneyDried plum chutney

Wherever a Pakistani wedding serves biryani and qorma, a little bowl of glossy aloo bukhara chutney sits alongside to cut the richness. Dried sour plums are softened, then cooked with sugar, a touch of vinegar, ginger, chilli and warm spices into a jammy, sweet-sour relish, dark and shining. It keeps for weeks and is made in big jars before the shaadi. Chef's tip: stop cooking while it still looks a little loose; it thickens a lot as it cools.

35 minPakistaniChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Sabeel sharbatRose milk with basil seeds

In the first ten days of Muharram, and above all on Ashura, volunteers in Pakistani towns set up sabeel stalls at the roadside and pour free cups of cold sweet milk for anyone passing, in memory of the thirst of Imam Husain's family at Karbala. The drink is pale pink, lightly rose-scented and dotted with swollen basil seeds, and it is made in huge steel pots at the stalls; this is the home-sized jug. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds in water first, never straight in the milk, or they stay hard and clump.

10 minPakistaniDrinksGluten free
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CaldarrosteRoasted chestnuts

From October to St Martin's Day on 11 November, Italian towns hold chestnut festivals, the sagre delle castagne, and the smoke of caldarroste drifts from street braziers where chestnuts are shaken in long-handled pans with holes. At home they are roasted in the same way on the hob or in the oven and eaten hot from a paper cone, sweet, floury and smoky, with a glass of new wine for adults or warm milk for children. Chef's tip: wrap the hot chestnuts in a damp tea towel for 5 minutes; the steam loosens the inner skin so they peel cleanly.

35 minItalianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Pan co' santiWalnut and raisin loaf

In Siena and the Tuscan countryside, pan co' santi ('bread with the saints') is baked for All Saints' Day on 1 November, when the new walnuts and the late grapes come in. It is a dark, lightly sweet bread dough rich with olive oil, walnuts, raisins and a surprising amount of black pepper, which gives a warm bite. It is eaten with the new wine by adults, or with roasted chestnuts. It is vegan. Chef's tip: fry the raisins and walnuts briefly in the olive oil before adding them, as Sienese bakers do; it brings out their flavour.

80 minItalianBakingVegan
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KesraSemolina pan bread

Kesra is the flat semolina bread of Algerian homes, and in Ramadan a fresh round sits on almost every iftar table, cooked on a clay tajine and torn into pieces to dip into hot chorba frik. This unleavened version is a thin, crumbly-edged galette, golden in patches and slightly chewy in the middle, with a nutty taste from the olive oil. It is made in minutes before sunset so it reaches the table still warm. Chef's tip: work the dough only until it holds together; kneading it like a yeast bread makes kesra tough instead of tender.

40 minAlgerianBreads & ParathasVegan
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Emping melinjoMelinjo nut crackers

Emping are pale, crisp crackers from Banten and Java, made by cracking melinjo nuts, flattening them with a hammer and drying them; at Lebaran a bowl of fried emping sits beside the opor ayam and ketupat. They taste lightly bitter and nutty, and a sweet-spicy coating is popular for the snack jars. Most cooks buy dried raw emping and fry them at home, which is what this recipe does, with the hand-pressing method for anyone who finds fresh nuts. Chef's tip: fry only a handful at a time and lift them out the moment they puff; emping go from perfect to burnt in seconds.

60 minIndonesianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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KinnathappamSteamed rice and coconut milk squares

Kinnathappam is named after the kinnam, the round steel plate it sets in, and it is one of the soft, wobbly sweets Mappila cooks in Malabar make for iftar and Eid. Rice flour, coconut milk and sugar are stirred into a smooth batter, steamed until just set and cut into glossy diamonds that taste of coconut and cardamom. Chef's tip: strain the batter before steaming; any lumps of rice flour show as white specks in the finished squares.

55 minIndianDessertsGluten free
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AlewaPulled sugar sweets

Alewa is the chewy pulled sugar sweet of Hausa northern Nigeria, cooked from just sugar, water and a squeeze of lime, then stretched by hand until it turns pale and satiny. Pocketfuls are given to children on Sallah, the Eid al-Fitr holiday, as they go from house to house in new clothes. The taste is clean caramel with a little sharpness from the lime. An adult should do the hot pulling. Chef's tip: oil your hands and the worktop well and pull while the sugar is still hot enough to bend; once it cools it sets hard and won't stretch.

45 minNigerianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Chirov plavRice pilaf with dried fruit

Chirov plav, rice pilaf with dried fruit ('chir'), is the Armenian Easter dish: after the long Lenten fast, families gather on Easter Sunday to eat this glossy, buttery pilaf, often served beside fried or baked fish and red-dyed eggs. The rice is cooked separately so every grain stays loose, then layered with dried apricots, raisins and prunes warmed in butter, with a golden crust (tahdig-style) at the bottom. Chef's tip: rinse the rice until the water runs clear, and parboil it in plenty of salted water, as that keeps the grains separate.

65 minArmenianRice & GrainsGluten free
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FunkasoFermented wheat pancakes

Funkaso is a Hausa pancake from northern Nigeria, made from a wheat batter left to ferment until bubbly and fried into soft, spongy rounds with crisp edges. Families cook stacks of it for the pre-dawn sahur and the evening meal during Ramadan, and again on Sallah morning for visitors. It is eaten simply, sprinkled with sugar, or dipped in a hot pepper sauce, with hot kunun or tea. Chef's tip: the batter should be as thick as double cream; too runny and the pancakes spread thin and lose their spongy middle.

480 minNigerianBreakfast & BrunchVegan
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Torrone dei mortiChocolate hazelnut bar

In Naples, the weeks around All Souls' Day on 2 November are 'torrone time': pastry shops pile up the torrone dei morti, a soft bar of white or dark chocolate filled with a creamy hazelnut or chocolate centre and studded with whole toasted hazelnuts, which friends bring as a gift when visiting. Despite its name it contains no nougat. This homemade version layers dark chocolate around a white-chocolate and hazelnut-paste filling. It is gluten free; some versions add liqueur, this one doesn't. Chef's tip: let the chocolate shell set fully in the fridge before filling, so it doesn't melt through.

40 minItalianDessertsGluten free
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Shir berenjRose water rice pudding

Shir berenj, 'milk rice', is one of the gentle sweets of the Iranian Nowruz season, made at home to share with visiting relatives and often given as nazri on special days. Short-grain rice is softened in water first, then cooked slowly in milk until the grains melt into a thick, creamy pudding scented with rose water. It is chilled and served plain, with the sweetness added at the table from a drizzle of grape molasses, date syrup or jam. The common mistake is adding all the milk at once over a high heat, which scorches the bottom and leaves the grains firm. Chef's tip: stir with a wooden spoon in a figure of eight, which reaches the corners where rice likes to stick.

70 minPersianDessertsGluten free
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BurasaCoconut rice cakes in banana leaf

Burasa is the Lebaran rice cake of the Bugis and Makassar people of South Sulawesi: rice half-cooked in salted coconut milk, wrapped in banana leaves, tied in pairs and boiled for hours until it sets firm and rich. On Eid morning it is sliced and eaten with coto Makassar, opor or a spicy beef dish, and it travels well for visits to relatives. Chef's tip: wrap the parcels only half full and tie them firmly, because the rice swells and a full parcel bursts open in the pot.

240 minIndonesianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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PflaumenmusOven-baked plum butter

When the late damson plums (Zwetschgen) ripen in September, German kitchens fill trays with them for Pflaumenmus, and jars of it stand on the decorated altar at Erntedank, the harvest thanksgiving in early October. Unlike jam, it uses little sugar and no pectin: the halved plums are baked slowly, uncovered, until they collapse and darken into a thick, almost black spread that tastes of plums and spice rather than sugar. Spread it on rye bread with butter, fill Dampfnudeln with it or stir a spoonful into quark. Chef's tip: bake it in the widest roasting tin you have, because the more surface, the faster the water steams off.

330 minGermanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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MässmoggeHazelnut-filled striped sweets

Every autumn the Basler Herbstmesse, Switzerland's oldest fair, fills the old town with rides and stalls, and the smell of boiling sugar from the stands selling Mässmogge, glossy striped sweets in bright colours with a soft chocolate-hazelnut centre. They are made by pulling hot sugar until it turns satiny, wrapping it round a rope of filling and snipping it into little pillows. It takes practice and a sugar thermometer, and adults should do all the hot work; children can help once the sweets are cool. Chef's tip: work on an oiled silicone mat near a low oven, so the sugar stays pliable for longer.

75 minSwissDessertsGluten free
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SulaimaniSpiced lemon black tea

In Kozhikode, sulaimani is the clear amber tea poured after a heavy biryani, and in Ramadan it is the glass that follows the dates at iftar. A little loose black tea is brewed with cardamom, clove and cinnamon, then sweetened and sharpened with fresh lime so it is light, warming and gently fragrant. Chef's tip: steep the tea for only two minutes; sulaimani should be bright and clear, never strong and bitter.

10 minIndianDrinksVeganGluten free
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ApfelkrautApple syrup

In the Rhineland, apples from the autumn harvest are pressed and boiled for hours in copper cauldrons into Apfelkraut, a dark, glossy, sweet-sour syrup that is spread on Schwarzbrot with butter and quark, and that families bring to the Erntedank harvest thanksgiving in October. It needs no added sugar at all: the apples' own sugar and pectin concentrate until the juice is as thick as treacle and tastes like baked apple and caramel. Eat it on rye bread, with potato pancakes (Reibekuchen) or in a sauce for Sauerbraten. Chef's tip: use a mix of sweet and tart apples; the tart ones give the tang and the pectin that makes it set.

450 minGermanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Kulche khetayeeCardamom pistachio shortbread

When guests come to an Afghan home over Nowruz or the days of Eid, they are poured green tea and offered a plate of kulche khetayee, crumbly round shortbreads that dissolve on the tongue. In Kabul the dough is made with clarified butter or oil, icing sugar and cardamom, and each biscuit is topped with a pinch of ground pistachio before baking very gently so they stay pale. The common mistake is baking too hot: the biscuits should be cream-coloured, not golden, or they lose their melting texture. Chef's tip: let them cool fully on the tray, because they are too fragile to move while warm.

50 minAfghanBaking
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Rosero quiteñoChilled spiced fruit and corn drink

Rosero is a festive drink of Quito in Ecuador, made for Corpus Christi in June, when the city once filled with processions and dancers. It is thick and refreshing: whole hominy (mote) and a thin purée of naranjilla (lulo) and pineapple, sweetened with sugar, spiced with cinnamon, cloves and allspice, and perfumed with orange-blossom water and rose petals, then served chilled in tall glasses with diced fruit. Frozen naranjilla pulp is sold in Latin shops. It is vegan. Chef's tip: simmer the pineapple peel with the spices for the syrup, as Quiteño cooks do; it adds a lot of flavour.

70 minAndeanDrinksVeganGluten free
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MuffolettaFennel seed rolls with cheese

On 2 November, the Day of the Dead in Sicily, Palermo families eat muffoletta: soft, round rolls scented with fennel seed, split warm and dressed 'cunzata' with olive oil, oregano, salt, pepper, anchovy or caciocavallo cheese. The custom recalls when the dead were said to bring gifts to children, and bakers make them only around this time. The bread itself is egg-free and dairy-free; dress it with just oil and oregano for a vegan version. Sicilian caciocavallo and pecorino are usually made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you. Chef's tip: dress the rolls while still warm so they drink in the oil.

180 minItalianBreads & ParathasVegan
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ZhavoronkiLark-shaped buns

On 22 March (9 March in the old calendar), the Orthodox feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste falls during Lent, and in Russian villages it was the day the larks were said to return. Children were given zhavoronki, little bread larks, and ran outside to toss them in the air and call the spring. The dough is a lightly sweet yeast dough, and because it is Lent it was made without eggs or butter, so this version is vegan. Raisins or peppercorns make the eyes. Chef's tip: tie a simple knot from a dough rope for each bird and snip the tail; it is quicker than sculpting and keeps the shape.

60 minRussianBakingVegan
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QuittengeleeQuince jelly

Quinces are too hard and sour to eat raw, so in Germany they are turned into Quittengelee, one of the jewel-coloured jars set out with the pumpkins and sheaves of wheat for Erntedank, the October harvest thanksgiving. The fruit is simmered whole in pieces, the juice drips through a cloth overnight, and then it is boiled with sugar until it sets into a clear jelly the colour of rosé, with a perfume like pear, honey and roses. Eat it on bread rolls, with cheese, or melted as a glaze for apple tart. Chef's tip: quince skin and cores are full of natural pectin, so cook them in with the flesh rather than peeling.

180 minGermanChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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Plastic chutneyRaw papaya chutney

Plastic chutney gets its funny name from the way the thin slices of raw papaya turn clear and glassy, like cellophane, as they cook in syrup. It is the chutney of every Bengali wedding feast and of the Durga Puja bhog, served in a small heap at the end of the meal, sweet, sharp with lime, and dotted with raisins. No onion or garlic goes near it. Common mistake: cutting the papaya too thick or cooking it on high heat; thick slices stay opaque and chewy, while a fast boil caramelises the syrup before the papaya turns clear. The chutney is ready when every slice is see-through and the syrup coats a spoon. Chef's tip: soak the sliced papaya in water with a pinch of baking soda for 15 minutes, then rinse; this helps the slices stay crisp-tender and turn translucent evenly.

40 minIndianChutneys & DipsVeganGluten free
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FasaliLayered butter pastry with honey

Fasali is a festive breakfast in Azerbaijan, made on Novruz mornings and other holidays when the house is full: a thin dough is brushed with melted butter, folded again and again into many layers, then cooked slowly in a covered pan until crisp outside and flaky within. It comes to the table cut in wedges with honey, syrup or a glass of sweet tea. The common mistake is cooking over a high heat, which burns the outside before the inner layers have cooked through. Chef's tip: chill the folded parcel for 10 minutes between folds and the butter stays in clean layers.

70 minAzerbaijaniBaking
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Kue satuMung bean flour sweets

Kue satu are the little pale sweets that fill glass jars on Javanese and Sumatran tables when families open their doors for Lebaran visits at the end of Ramadan. Mung-bean flour is dry-toasted until it smells nutty, mixed with icing sugar and a whisper of pandan, then pressed into carved wooden moulds of flowers and leaves and left to dry until crumbly. They melt on the tongue with a sweet, beany, vanilla-like flavour and are offered with tea to every guest. Chef's tip: toast the flour until it is a shade darker and smells like popcorn, because raw-tasting flour is the most common reason kue satu taste flat.

60 minIndonesianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Es timun suriIced cucumber melon drink

Timun suri, a large cucumber-melon, appears in Indonesian markets only during Ramadan, piled high at roadside stalls for families to buy before iftar. Scraped into strands and floated in iced syrup with basil seeds and lime, it makes es timun suri, one of the most refreshing ways to break the fast. It tastes gently sweet, melony and cool. Cantaloupe or galia melon is a good stand-in outside Indonesia. Chef's tip: soak the basil seeds fully before adding them, as dry seeds clump into hard lumps in cold syrup.

20 minIndonesianDrinksVeganGluten free
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LepetSticky rice and peanut logs

Lepet is the companion of ketupat on a Javanese Lebaran morning: glutinous rice and peanuts mixed with grated coconut, rolled in spiralled young coconut leaves and boiled for hours into dense, savoury logs. In Javanese tradition the sticky rice is a reminder to forgive and hold together after Ramadan, so it is shared with neighbours and family. It tastes nutty, salty and rich and is eaten with opor or simply on its own. Banana leaves and string work well where coconut leaves are hard to find. Chef's tip: roll each log loosely, about three-quarters full, so the swelling rice turns soft rather than hard and chalky.

285 minIndonesianRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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TaloaMaize flatbread with ham and cheese

During the Fêtes de Bayonne in July, when the whole town dresses in white with red scarves, stalls in the Pays Basque sell taloa: thick flatbreads of maize and wheat flour cooked on a hot griddle and folded around fillings. The classic is with jambon de Bayonne (a cured pork ham), with sheep's cheese or with ventrèche (cured pork belly), and it's eaten hot in the street. Cheese alone makes a good vegetarian version. Chef's tip: cook the taloa on a dry, very hot pan; it should blister and puff in patches like a tortilla.

30 minFrenchBreads & Parathas
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Umphokoqo with amasiCrumbly maize pap with soured milk

Umphokoqo is the dry, crumbly pap of the Eastern Cape, beloved at Xhosa family gatherings and often brought out on Heritage Day as a taste of home. Instead of the stiff pap stirred into a smooth mound, the maize meal is steamed in a little water and broken up with a fork until it falls into fine, fluffy crumbs. It is served cold or at room temperature, with chilled amasi (thick soured milk) poured over, sour, cool and filling, or warm beside braai meat and chakalaka. Chef's tip: don't stir in circles like ordinary pap; cut and fluff with a fork so it stays crumbly.

40 minSouth AfricanRice & GrainsGluten free
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Chichi frégiChickpea flour fritters in sugar

On the seafront at L'Estaque, the old fishing quarter of Marseille, and at summer fêtes all along the coast, kiosks fry chichi frégi: long, ridged fritters of wheat and chickpea flour, rolled hot in sugar and eaten in a paper cone. The dough is a yeasted, egg-free batter piped straight into the oil, crisp outside and soft inside, with a faint nutty taste from the chickpea flour and a hint of orange flower. Chef's tip: keep the oil at 175 °C; cooler and the fritters soak up fat, hotter and they burn before the middle cooks.

105 minFrenchSnacks & StartersVegan
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Pane di San GiuseppeSculpted festival breads

For St Joseph's Day on 19 March, families in western Sicily (Salemi, Trapani, Marsala) build 'tavolate' or altars to the saint, laden with ornate, sculpted breads: beards for Joseph, a staff, flowers, birds, fish and the hand of God. The breads are later given to the poor and to guests. The dough is a firm, plain semolina bread, so it holds fine detail, brushed with egg and scattered with sesame. Shape a few simple ones first; they are as much decoration as food. It is vegan, glazed with water rather than the egg some bakers use. Chef's tip: keep the dough firm and rest it so it doesn't spring back; soft dough loses its shapes in the oven.

120 minItalianBakingVegan
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Leche de burraMilk, corn and sugar sweet

On 7 December, Nicaraguans celebrate La Purísima and La Gritería, when people go from house to house singing 'Who causes so much joy? Mary's Conception!' to altars set up for the Virgin, and the hosts hand out gifts: oranges, sugar cane, gofio and leche de burra. It is a firm, fudgy sweet of milk, sugar and a little cornmeal cooked until thick, then set in a tray, sometimes swirled with pink or brown, and cut into squares. Despite the name ('donkey's milk') it is made with cow's milk. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: stir constantly in the last 15 minutes, as milk sweets catch quickly.

70 minCentral AmericanDessertsGluten free
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KaguyjyWhite corn pudding

On the night of 23–24 June, Paraguayans celebrate San Juan with bonfires, games like walking over hot coals and the 'paso de fuego', and a table of traditional foods, and kaguyjy (also mazamorra) is one of them. It is a soft, creamy pudding of cracked white corn (locro) simmered slowly in water and then milk with sugar or honey, sometimes with orange peel. It is eaten warm or cold. It is gluten free. Chef's tip: soak the corn overnight and cook it until each kernel is tender before adding the milk, or it never turns creamy.

130 minParaguayanDessertsGluten free
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Slavski kolačDecorated ceremonial bread

The slava is a uniquely Serbian Orthodox custom: each family honours its own patron saint on that saint's feast day, passed from father to son, with a lit candle, boiled wheat (žito) and the slavski kolač, a round, decorated bread. The priest blesses it; the family turns it, cuts a cross into its base, pours a little wine into the cuts, and breaks it together. It is decorated with dough crosses, the seal 'IC XC NI KA', doves, wheat ears and grapes. It is a plain, vegan bread. Chef's tip: keep the decorations' dough a little stiffer than the loaf, so they hold their shape.

110 minBalkanBakingVegan
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Biscotti di San MartinoRicotta-filled fennel biscuits

St Martin's Day, 11 November, is when Sicilians traditionally open the new wine, and in Palermo it is marked with biscotti di San Martino: round, hard, fennel-scented yeast biscuits shaped like little turbans. Eaten plain, they are dunked in sweet Moscato; the pastry-shop version is split, soaked in a sweet syrup and filled with ricotta cream and candied fruit. This recipe soaks them in an orange syrup, so it is alcohol-free; adults can use Moscato or Marsala. Choose a vegetarian ricotta if needed. Chef's tip: bake them twice, the second time low, so they dry right through and keep for weeks.

80 minItalianBaking
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VornGreen gram and coconut milk sweet

On 8 September, Mangalorean Catholics celebrate Monti Fest, the feast of Mary's Nativity, which is also a harvest festival: new ears of grain are blessed at church and shared at home, and the family eats a vegetarian feast of new-season vegetables. Vorn, a pudding of split green gram (moong) cooked with coconut milk, jaggery and cardamom, is the sweet that ends it. It is like a gentle payasam, vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: dry-roast the moong dal until fragrant before cooking it, which gives vorn its nutty flavour.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Persian halvaSaffron rose flour halva

Iranian halva is not the sesame sweet of the Levant but a dense paste of flour toasted slowly in butter and cooked with a saffron and rose-water syrup. It is spread on plates and patterned with a spoon for Ramadan iftars, for mourning gatherings and as nazri, food made and shared with neighbours to fulfil a vow in Muharram. It tastes deeply nutty, floral and not too sweet. Chef's tip: patience with the flour is everything; toast it until it is the colour of peanut butter, never rushing on a high heat.

40 minPersianDesserts
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Ginataang mais (sweet corn coconut porridge)

Across the Philippines, ginataang mais turns up on the quiet, meatless days of Holy Week, when many families keep Good Friday as a day of fasting and abstinence and want something warm and simple to share in the afternoon. Glutinous rice swells in coconut milk until the pot turns thick and glossy, and sweet corn kernels pop through it with little bursts of sweetness. It is eaten warm from small bowls, sometimes with a swirl of extra coconut cream or crunchy toasted pinipig, and is just as good cold from the fridge the next day. Chef's tip: save the sugar until the rice is fully soft; added too early it slows the grains and they stay chalky in the middle.

40 minFilipinoDessertsVeganGluten free
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Pustakari (Newari khuwa and jaggery toffee)

Pustakari is the toffee of the Newar community in the Kathmandu Valley, sold in small squares in the old bazaars of Asan and Bhaktapur and made at home for festivals such as Tihar and Yomari Punhi, and on winter afternoons. Jaggery is cooked to a syrup, then khuwa and ghee are stirred in and cooked until the mixture turns into a thick, glossy, deep brown mass that sets into a chewy toffee. It tastes of caramel and milk, a little like fudge but with more chew. Serve a few pieces with tea or as a small sweet after a meal. It is naturally egg-free: the jaggery syrup, cooked to the firm-ball stage, sets the khuwa, so no other binder is needed. Chef's tip: watch the temperature of the syrup; cooking it past 125°C is the common mistake that makes the toffee hard enough to hurt your teeth.

70 minNepaliIndian SweetsGluten free
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Mứt tắc (candied kumquats)

In the south, potted kumquat trees heavy with fruit stand at the door for Tết, because their round gold fruit promises plenty; mứt tắc brings that same luck to the candy tray. Each fruit is slit, gently pressed to push out the seeds and juice, firmed briefly in clear water made with food-grade slaked lime (vôi ăn), then candied until glossy and amber, with a chewy skin and a pleasant bitter-sweet edge. A no-lime method is given too. Serve with strong tea, or drop a fruit into hot water with honey for a soothing drink. Chef's tip: blanch the fruit twice in fresh water before candying; it tames the bitterness without losing the perfume.

240 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Khailmag (cream and raisin sweet)

Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year, means 'White Month', and white dairy foods stand for purity, plenty and a clean start to the year, so homes across the country set out cream, curds and sweets beside the steaming buuz. Khailmag is one of the most luxurious: clotted cream (or Mongolian öröm, the thick skin skimmed from boiled milk) is cooked with butter-toasted flour, sugar and raisins until it turns into a golden, fudgy porridge. It is very rich, so serve small spoonfuls with salty milk tea, or alongside ul boov biscuits and boortsog. There is no alcohol in it. Chef's tip: toast the flour slowly until it smells nutty; that toasting gives khailmag its caramel flavour.

30 minMongolianDesserts
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Jaja uli (Balinese pounded sticky rice cake)

Jaja uli is one of the rice cakes that Balinese families make in the days before Galungan, when the island celebrates the victory of dharma over adharma and the ancestors come home; it is stacked into the towering banten offerings and then shared and eaten. Glutinous rice is steamed, soaked in hot salted coconut milk, steamed again and then pounded until the grains break down into a dense, smooth, chewy block with a gentle coconut flavour. Slice it thickly and pour over warm palm sugar syrup, or toast the slices in a dry pan until crisp at the edges. A tall cup of tea or coffee is the perfect partner. Chef's tip: pound while the rice is still hot; once it cools, the grains won't knit together.

90 minIndonesianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Petushok na palochke (Russian rooster lollipops)

For generations of Russian children the 'little rooster on a stick' meant the fair: sellers at markets, Maslenitsa celebrations and seaside promenades held up bunches of the amber cockerels, and many families still own an old two-part metal mould and cast their own at home. The lollipop is hard and glassy, with a pale caramel colour and a clean, slightly tangy taste of cooked sugar, sometimes with a splash of fruit juice for colour. Serve them as a party treat or wrap them as small gifts. They are naturally egg-free: the only thing that sets them is sugar boiled to the hard-crack stage, while a little lemon juice stops it crystallising so the candy stays clear. Chef's tip: oil the mould lightly but thoroughly, then wipe away any pools; the common mistake is skipping this, and the cockerels then stick and snap at the tail when you open the mould.

45 minRussianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Marzipankartoffeln (German marzipan potatoes)

In Germany the run-up to Christmas is when these appear, piled in paper bags at the markets and in bowls on the Advent table; Lübeck, the city most famous for marzipan, makes them by the tonne. They are simply small balls of marzipan dusted in cocoa until they look like freshly dug new potatoes, sometimes with a few pricked 'eyes'. The inside is soft, sweet and fragrant with almond and a hint of rosewater; the cocoa coat is bitter and dry, which keeps the sweetness in check. Serve them with coffee, tuck them into a cookie tin or wrap them as small gifts. Shop marzipan sometimes contains egg white, so this one is made from scratch: a sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage binds the ground almonds into a smooth, pliable paste, doing the job egg white does in some commercial pastes, and the result is naturally egg-free. Chef's tip: the common mistake is kneading the warm paste too long, which squeezes oil out of the almonds and makes it greasy; knead only until it comes together, then let it cool.

30 minGermanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Coussin de Lyon (green almond-paste cushions with chocolate ganache)

Lyon's sweet emblem recalls the city's plague vow of 1643, when the aldermen carried a candle and gold coins on a silk cushion to the chapel of Fourvière. Chocolatiers turned that cushion into a confection in the 1960s and it is now the gift Lyonnais bring at Christmas and New Year, or for a host on a Sunday visit. A soft, almond-sweet shell of pale green paste, marked with a darker green stripe, hides a melting dark chocolate ganache scented with orange. Serve two or three with coffee after dinner. The classic ganache is laced with orange liqueur; here fresh orange juice and zest give the flavour without alcohol. Shop marzipan is not always egg-free, so this almond paste is bound with sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage, which coats the ground almonds and sets them firm as it cools. Chef's tip: chill the ganache until it holds a line before shaping; the common mistake is using it soft, so it squeezes out of the seams.

85 minFrenchDessertsGluten free
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Knäck (Swedish Christmas toffee)

No Swedish julbord is complete without knäck. Families make it in the weeks before Christmas Eve, often with children filling the little paper cases, and it sits on the table beside saffron buns, gingersnaps and ischoklad. Equal parts of cream, golden syrup and sugar boil down into a deep caramel that sets glossy and firm, then gives way to a pleasant chew; chopped almonds add crunch. It is lovely with strong coffee or glögg made from berry juice. Knäck has never contained egg: the cream is boiled until its milk sugars caramelise and the mixture reaches the hard-ball stage, so the sugar itself sets the toffee. Some cooks stir in breadcrumbs; they are left out here so the toffee stays gluten free. Chef's tip: test the toffee by dropping a little into cold water rather than trusting the clock alone; the common mistake is stopping too early, which leaves knäck that sticks to your teeth and to its paper.

55 minScandinavianDessertsGluten free
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Kẹo dừa (Bến Tre coconut candy)

Bến Tre, in the Mekong Delta, is coconut country, and its workshops turn out mountains of kẹo dừa, the chewy coconut candy that Vietnamese families put on the Tết tray and bring home as a souvenir from the south. Thick coconut milk is boiled with sugar and rice malt syrup until it becomes a soft, pale caramel that tastes of toasted coconut and a little salt. Each piece is cut into a small bar and wrapped in a sheet of paper-thin edible rice paper, which melts on the tongue. Offer them with green tea, or at the end of a family meal. The candy is naturally egg-free: the long boil reduces the coconut milk until its own fat and solids, with the malt syrup, set it to a chew. Chef's tip: use a wide heavy pan and stir right across the base without stopping; the common mistake is walking away, which scorches the coconut solids and leaves brown specks and a bitter edge.

60 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Zitui yan (Qingming swallow buns)

In Shanxi, families steam zitui yan for Cold Food Day and Qingming, the spring days of tomb-sweeping and remembering the dead. The buns are named after Jie Zitui, a loyal courtier of ancient Jin whose death in a mountain fire is said to be why no fires are lit on Cold Food Day, and they are shaped like swallows because the birds return in spring and carry wishes for new life. Children used to string them on willow twigs and hang them by the door. The dough is plain, slightly sweet and pillowy, with a chewy red date pressed into each bird. Serve them warm with tea, or cold the next day as the festival intends, alongside pickles and boiled eggs. Chef's tip: snip the tail and wing feathers with small scissors just before the second rise, so the cuts open into neat feathers as the buns puff.

150 minChineseBreads & ParathasVegan
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Geplak (Bantul coconut sugar candy)

Drive south from Yogyakarta to Bantul and you pass shop after shop selling geplak, the brightly coloured coconut candy that Javanese travellers buy by the basket as oleh-oleh, a gift for the people back home. Freshly grated coconut is cooked in sugar syrup until it dries and begins to crystallise, then a spoonful of toasted rice flour pulls it together into a firm, sandy-textured sweet. It is very sweet and coconutty with a gentle pandan scent, and it crumbles softly when you bite it. Serve small pieces with strong Javanese coffee or tea. Geplak is naturally egg-free: the recrystallising sugar and the toasted rice flour are what bind the coconut and let it hold its shape. Chef's tip: cook over a medium heat rather than high; the common mistake is rushing, which browns the coconut and dulls those pastel colours.

80 minIndonesianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Hanami dango (three-colour dumplings)

When the cherry trees bloom in late March and April, families and colleagues spread blankets under the branches for hanami, and these skewers of pink, white and green dumplings are the sweet that goes with them. The colours tell the story of the season: pink buds on top, white for the fading snow, and green for the summer leaves still to come. They are lightly sweet and pleasantly chewy, with a faint grassiness from the matcha, and need no sauce; just bring a flask of green tea. Mochi is very sticky: cut the dumplings into small pieces for young children and older people, and make sure they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: add the water a spoonful at a time and stop when the dough feels like a soft earlobe, since rice flours vary a lot in how much they drink.

40 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Puhul dosi (Sri Lankan candied ash pumpkin)

Puhul dosi is one of the sweets that crowd the Sri Lankan Avurudu table in April, when Sinhala and Tamil households mark the New Year with kokis, kavum and trays of homemade confectionery for visiting neighbours. Cubes of ash pumpkin, the pale winter melon with a waxy skin, are soaked overnight in lime water, then simmered in a cardamom and clove syrup until the syrup turns back to sugar and frosts each piece. The result is a thin, crunchy shell around a translucent, juicy middle that tastes faintly of spice. Serve a few pieces with plain tea or as part of a sweet platter. It is naturally egg-free: the calcium in the lime water firms the outer layer of the pumpkin so it keeps its shape, and crystallised sugar does the rest of the setting. Chef's tip: rinse the cubes in at least four changes of water after the soak; the common mistake is rushing this, which leaves a chalky, bitter aftertaste.

705 minSri LankanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Kalamae (Thai coconut caramel sticky rice sweet)

Kalamae is the Songkran sweet of Central Thailand: in villages, neighbours take turns at a huge wok for hours, and the finished trays go to monks and elders at the New Year, the long shared stirring standing for a community pulling together and the sweetness for a sweet year ahead. Glutinous rice flour, coconut milk and palm sugar slowly turn from milky beige to a deep mahogany paste that is chewy, a little smoky and rich with coconut. Cut it into small squares and serve with jasmine tea, or wrap the pieces in banana leaf to give away. A home batch takes about two and a half hours at the stove, so put on some music and keep a wooden spoon moving. Chef's tip: use the widest heavy pan you own; more surface means faster thickening and less risk of scorching.

180 minThaiDessertsVeganGluten free
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PaimeSteamed cornmeal and pumpkin parcels

Paime (or pime) is a Trinidad and Tobago Christmas sweet, a cousin of the Venezuelan hallaca brought by the parang tradition, when singers go from house to house at Christmas and are fed at every stop. Cornmeal, grated pumpkin and fresh coconut are mixed with sugar, butter, raisins and warm spices, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed until firm. Paime are eaten warm or cold, and keep for days in the fridge. Chef's tip: soften the banana leaves over a flame or in hot water first, so they fold without splitting.

100 minTrinidadianDessertsGluten free
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Panutsa (Batangas peanut and cane-sugar candy)

In Batangas and Laguna, south of Manila, panutsa is the rustic peanut candy made from roasted peanuts and dark, unrefined cane sugar, traditionally poured into halved coconut shells to set into domes. It is sold at roadside stalls and town markets and eaten as a snack with the strong local barako coffee, often in the morning or mid-afternoon. It is hard and crunchy, with a deep molasses flavour and lots of nuts. Break it into pieces to serve, or grate it over rice cakes as a sweetener. Panutsa is naturally egg-free: the cane sugar, boiled to the soft-crack stage, sets hard as it cools and holds the peanuts in place. Chef's tip: have the moulds oiled and ready before the syrup goes on. The common mistake is pulling the syrup too early, which gives a sticky, bendy candy that never sets properly.

30 minFilipinoDessertsVeganGluten free
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Khao niao daeng (Thai red sticky rice)

Khao niao daeng, "red sticky rice", is made in Central Thailand in the days before Songkran and carried to the temple as an offering, its sticky grains a wish that family ties hold fast through the year. The rice is steamed first, then folded into a long-reduced coconut and palm sugar caramel until it turns a glossy red-brown and every grain is sweet, chewy and fragrant. Pressed into a tray, it slices neatly and keeps for a few days, so it is a good make-ahead sweet for a crowd. Serve squares with a sprinkle of toasted sesame and a cup of tea. Chef's tip: reduce the caramel until it is thick and bubbling slowly before the rice goes in, or the rice turns mushy instead of chewy.

90 minThaiDessertsVeganGluten free
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Hishi mochi (diamond rice cakes)

Hishi mochi sit on the tiered doll display for Hinamatsuri, Girls' Day on 3 March, and their colours are a little poem about early spring: green for new grass pushing through, white for the last snow, pink for peach blossom (some families also read them as health, purity and protection from evil). The diamond shape is said to echo the water chestnut and a wish for growth and many children. This home version is made from glutinous rice flour set in a square tin, so the cake is soft, bouncy and only gently sweet, with a grassy hint from matcha. Serve small pieces with green tea, or beside chirashizushi and clam soup at the festival table. Mochi is very sticky: cut it small for young children and older people, and see that they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: press each layer on while the one below is still warm and tacky, so the three bond into one cake.

120 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Tupig (grilled sticky rice rolls)

In Pangasinan and the Ilocos provinces, smoky tupig is the snack of Undas, the first days of November when families clean and decorate graves, keep vigil through the night and share food in the cemetery to remember their dead. Sticky rice, coconut milk, shreds of young coconut and dark brown sugar are rolled in banana leaf and grilled until the leaf blackens and the inside turns chewy, caramel-dark and fragrant with smoke. They travel well in a basket, so they are handed round to relatives and visitors, still warm, with coffee or hot ginger tea. Chef's tip: no charcoal? A heavy griddle pan over a medium heat gives a good char on the leaves; just turn the rolls more often.

75 minFilipinoDessertsVeganGluten free
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Ma lao (puffed rice sticks)

Ma lao are a Lunar New Year sweet from Yilan on Taiwan's northeast coast, stacked on family altars as offerings and handed to guests through the holiday. The sticks swell to many times their size in the oil, a picture of a family and fortune growing bigger in the new year, and their sticky coating stands for staying close together. They are light and crunchy, almost hollow, with a sweet malt glaze and a nutty crust of toasted sesame or crisp puffed rice. Serve on the New Year candy tray with tea. Chef's tip: start frying in barely warm oil and raise the heat slowly; that gentle start is what makes the sticks puff.

180 minTaiwaneseSnacks & StartersVegan
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Fukumame (roasted lucky soybeans)

On Setsubun, the eve of spring in early February, households all over Japan fling roasted soybeans out of the door shouting "Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!" (demons out, luck in), then each person eats one bean for every year of their age, plus one for the year ahead. The beans are called fukumame, "fortune beans", and roasting them matters: a raw bean could sprout, and a demon's bean must not take root. Home-roasted ones are nutty, toasty and properly crunchy, far better than the packet kind, and they are good with green tea or scattered over a salad. Whole roasted beans are a choking hazard, so do not give them to children under five; grind theirs to a powder and sprinkle it on rice or yoghurt instead. Chef's tip: let a test bean cool for a minute before you judge it, because hot beans always feel softer than they will be.

30 minJapaneseSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Qiaoguo (Qixi fried pastries)Sesame sugar fried dough knots

Qiaoguo, 'skill fruits', are fried for Qixi on the seventh night of the seventh lunar month in Zhejiang and Jiangsu. The festival celebrates the Weaver Girl and the Cowherd, the star-crossed lovers who meet once a year, and girls once set out these pastries and asked the Weaver Girl to make them clever with their hands; the neat twists and cut-out shapes show off that skill. They are crunchy, lightly sweet and toasty with sesame, like a delicate biscuit. Serve a plate under the evening sky with tea, melon and fruit. Chef's tip: roll the dough thin, about 2 mm; thicker pieces stay hard in the middle instead of crisp.

60 minChineseBakingVegan
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BeraweckaDried fruit and nut Christmas loaf

In Alsace, berawecka (the name means 'pear loaf') is baked in early December and sliced thinly through Advent, often handed to neighbours and godchildren. It is mostly fruit: dried pears, figs, prunes, raisins and walnuts held together with just enough bread dough, spiced with cinnamon, star anise and clove. Alsatian families soak the fruit in kirsch; this version uses strong black tea, which keeps the loaf moist and alcohol-free, and you can add 3 tbsp kirsch to the soak for adults if you like. It is vegan, keeps for weeks wrapped in foil, and is lovely buttered with a cup of tea. Chef's tip: cut the pears and figs the same size as the raisins, so every slice holds a mosaic of fruit instead of big lumps that tear the loaf.

100 minFrenchBakingVegan
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Poolaki (Isfahan saffron sugar discs)Saffron caramel discs

Poolaki are the glassy, coin-thin sugar discs of Isfahan, sold in tins in the bazaar near Naqsh-e Jahan square and served with tea in Iranian homes, especially at Nowruz and when guests drop by. Instead of stirring sugar into the glass, you hold a disc on your tongue and sip strong black tea through it. They snap cleanly, then melt into a light caramel scented with saffron, sometimes with cardamom or a scatter of pistachio. They are naturally egg-free: sugar syrup cooked to the hard-crack stage sets as clear as glass the moment it is spread thin, and a little vinegar stops it from turning grainy. Chef's tip: do not stir once the syrup boils; swirl the pan instead and wash down the sides with a wet pastry brush. The common mistake is stirring, which makes the syrup crystallise and turn cloudy.

25 minPersianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Malban (Egyptian rose and nut jelly sweets)

Malban is the Egyptian cousin of Turkish delight, sold by weight in Cairo sweet shops all year but piled highest for Ramadan nights and the Mawlid sweets of the Prophet's birthday. A syrup of sugar and lemon is cooked with cornflour for the best part of an hour into a thick, clear jelly, scented with rose water and a little mastic and studded with pistachios or hazelnuts. Cut into cubes and rolled in icing sugar, it is soft, springy and chewy, sweet and floral. Serve it with mint tea or Turkish-style coffee. It is naturally egg-free: cornflour, cooked slowly in the syrup, sets it into a firm jelly, with no other setting agent. Chef's tip: whisk the cornflour mixture into the syrup in a thin stream and keep stirring. The common mistake is stopping too early, which gives a soft jelly that weeps and won't hold a cube.

320 minEgyptianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Szaloncukor (Hungarian Christmas tree candy)

Every Hungarian Christmas tree carries szaloncukor: sweets wrapped in shiny foil and fringed paper, hung from the branches in December and quietly eaten, one by one, by everyone in the house until Epiphany. The classic is soft white fondant, but the centres vary: tart fruit jelly, coconut, marzipan or nut. Here there are two fillings, raspberry jelly and coconut fondant, both coated in dark chocolate, so each bite gives a snap of chocolate and then a tender, melting middle. They are lovely with coffee or as a small gift. These are egg-free with no animal setting agent: the fondant is just sugar syrup cooked to the soft-ball stage and worked until it crystallises into a smooth, white paste, so no egg white is needed, and the jelly is set with agar-agar, which gives clean cubes that hold their shape at room temperature. Chef's tip: let the syrup cool to about 45°C before working it; the common mistake is starting while it is still hot, which grows coarse crystals and a gritty fondant.

180 minHungarianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Sanzi (fried dough threads)

Sanzi are lacy coils of fried dough threads, made across Jiangsu and Shandong and by Hui and Uyghur cooks in Xinjiang. They belong to Hanshi, Cold Food Day, just before Qingming, when old custom forbade lighting the stove, so families fried them in advance to eat cold; the shatteringly crisp coils keep well for days and stand for the care taken to prepare for the remembrance. The dough is lightly salted and the strands snap like thin crackers, with a nutty note from sesame. Break them over congee or soy milk, or eat them on their own with tea. Chef's tip: rest the oiled ropes properly; relaxed dough stretches to thread-thin without snapping.

120 minChineseSnacks & StartersVegan
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Abekawa mochi (kinako mochi)Mochi with roasted soybean flour

Abekawa mochi comes from the banks of the Abe River in Shizuoka, where teahouses served it to travellers on the old Tōkaidō road, and today families all over Japan make it with leftover New Year mochi and at kagami-biraki on 11 January, when the offering cakes are broken open and shared for good health. Kinako, roasted soybean flour, gives a nutty, toasty sweetness, and its golden colour is said to look like gold dust, a wish for wealth in the year ahead. The mochi underneath is pillowy and stretchy. Serve with hot green tea, with a little black sugar syrup (kuromitsu) poured over if you like. Chef's tip: dunk the cooked mochi in hot water just before rolling, so the kinako sticks in an even, velvety coat.

15 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Peppermint crisp tert (South African mint-chocolate fridge tart)

Few desserts say South African Sunday lunch, braai afternoon or church bring-and-share quite like this fridge tart, found on tables from Cape Town to Limpopo and at nearly every Christmas spread. Plain tea biscuits are layered with a thick caramel whipped into cream, then buried under grated mint chocolate with a crunchy centre. Overnight the biscuits soften into something close to sponge, the caramel cream turns silky and the mint gives a cool, crackly finish. Serve it cold, in squares, with strong coffee or rooibos. The tart is egg-free by nature: condensed milk, cooked down into caramel, gives body and binds the cream so it holds its shape when sliced, and chilling does the setting. Many shop biscuits are egg-free, but check the packet and buy eggless tea biscuits. Chef's tip: let the caramel cool until barely warm before it meets the cream; folding in hot caramel is the common mistake that melts the cream into a runny puddle.

260 minSouth AfricanDesserts
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Halawa tahiniya (Egyptian tahini halva)

In Egypt halawa tahiniya is a breakfast and suhoor food more than a dessert: it is eaten in Ramadan before dawn, on Coptic fasting days when animal foods are avoided, and spread in warm aish baladi bread at any time of year. Tahini is mixed with sugar syrup at the firm-ball stage, and the syrup crystallises through the sesame paste to give the halva its fibrous, crumbly strands. It tastes nutty, sweet and toasty, and pairs well with sweet tea. Factory halva often uses soapwort root, whose foam whips the syrup and gives longer strands; this home version offers it as an option, and never uses egg white. It is naturally egg-free: the hot syrup, crystallising as it is folded into the tahini, is what sets it. Chef's tip: stir only until the mixture turns matte and starts to look stringy. The common mistake is over-mixing, which makes the oil separate and the halva greasy.

150 minEgyptianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Azuki-gayu (red bean rice porridge)

On Koshōgatsu, the 'little New Year' of 15 January, households across Japan eat a bowl of azuki-gayu in the morning; the red of the adzuki beans has long been thought to drive away evil and illness for the year ahead. It is a plain, comforting dish: rice cooked slowly until the grains burst, stained soft pink by the bean cooking water, with the beans themselves floury and tender. It is lightly salted rather than sweet, as it is traditionally eaten. Serve with umeboshi, a sprinkle of sesame salt or a few toasted mochi pieces dropped in at the end. Chef's tip: throw away the first boiling water of the beans to lose their bitterness, but keep the second; that is where the pink colour comes from.

75 minJapaneseBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
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Pâte de coingsQuince paste

On Christmas Eve in Provence the gros souper ends with the treize desserts, thirteen small sweets set out together and left on the table until 27 December. Pâte de coings, a firm, glowing amber quince paste cut into squares and rolled in sugar, is nearly always among them, beside nougat, dried fruit and fougasse. It is simply quince pulp and sugar cooked down slowly until it pulls away from the pan, so it is vegan and gluten free, and it keeps for months. Serve it in small cubes, or with a sharp cheese. Chef's tip: cook the quinces whole with their skins and cores, which hold most of the natural pectin, and only sieve them afterwards.

150 minFrenchDessertsVeganGluten free
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Grillázs (Hungarian walnut brittle)

Grillázs belongs to Hungarian celebrations: it is sold at Christmas fairs and on saints' day markets, and at village weddings a towering grillázs castle or basket is often the centrepiece, broken up and shared at the end of the night. Walnuts are traditional, almonds are the fancier choice. The caramel is cooked to a deep amber, so it tastes rich and slightly bitter-sweet and shatters cleanly, with the toasted nuts giving a softer crunch. Serve shards with coffee, crumble it over ice cream, or press warm sheets over an oiled bowl to make a basket for fruit or sweets. It is naturally egg-free: melted, caramelised sugar sets glass-hard as it cools and holds the nuts together, with a few drops of lemon juice to keep it smooth. Chef's tip: warm the walnuts in the oven before they go in; the common mistake is adding cold nuts, which chill the caramel so it seizes and turns grainy before you can spread it.

40 minHungarianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Tsukimi dango (moon-viewing dumplings)

On the night of the harvest moon in September or early October, families across Japan set a tray of plain white dumplings by the window with a vase of pampas grass, as thanks for the harvest and an offering to the full moon. The round white dango stand for the moon itself, and the traditional count is fifteen, for the fifteenth night of the eighth lunar month, stacked nine, four and two. This Kanto-style dough is steamed and then kneaded, which gives a smoother, firmer bite than boiled dango, with a clean rice flavour that loves a dusting of kinako or a spoonful of sweet red bean paste once the moon-viewing is over. Mochi is very sticky: cut the dumplings small for young children and older people, and see that they chew well and eat sitting down. Chef's tip: knead the steamed dough while it is still hot, wrapped in a damp cloth, until it turns satiny.

40 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Dong li (Dongbei frozen pears)

In Dongbei, China's far north-east, winter temperatures fall so low that pears left outside freeze rock hard and turn glossy black, and a bowl of dong li thawing in cold water is part of every Spring Festival. They are eaten after the rich New Year's Eve dumplings and meats: cold, very sweet and full of juice, said to soothe a throat dry from heated rooms and to bring a clear, fresh start to the year. Freezing breaks down the flesh so it becomes soft and almost slushy, with a flavour like pear sorbet. You can recreate them in a home freezer; serve them as they are in small bowls, with spoons and napkins. Chef's tip: thaw them in cold water, never warm; the cold water pulls the frost out slowly and leaves an ice shell that cracks away cleanly.

30 minChineseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Cotignac d'Orléans (clear quince jelly)

Orléans has made cotignac since the Middle Ages and offered it to visiting kings, and the town still sells it in small round wooden boxes, to be eaten by scraping the jelly out with the edge of the lid. It is a winter sweet, made when the autumn quinces come in and given at Christmas and New Year. The jelly is clear and ruby-red, firm enough to cut but tender on the tongue, with a scented, slightly tart quince flavour. Serve it after dinner with coffee, or with a mild cheese. Nothing but fruit and sugar sets it, so it is naturally egg-free: quinces are among the richest fruits in pectin, and boiling their juice with sugar to the setting point is all it takes. Small ramekins or silicone moulds lined with baking paper stand in for the wooden boxes. Chef's tip: let the cooked quince drip through the cloth without pressing; the common mistake is squeezing it, which clouds the jelly.

290 minFrenchDessertsVeganGluten free
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Boiled water caltrops (zhu lingjiao)Boiled water chestnuts in shell

Boiled water caltrops are a Mid-Autumn snack in Jiangnan and Guangdong, piled on the table beside mooncakes and pomelo while the family waits for the moon. The dark, two-horned nuts are harvested in autumn, and their name, ling, sounds like the word for clever, so children are told to eat them to grow bright; some families also say the shape looks like a bat, a symbol of good fortune. Inside the shell the white flesh is floury and sweet, much like a chestnut. Serve them warm in a big bowl with tea and the rest of the moon-watching snacks. Chef's tip: buy them fresh in autumn from Chinese grocers and always cook them through; never eat water caltrops raw, as they grow in ponds and can carry parasites.

40 minChineseSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Śliwki w czekoladzie (chocolate-coated prunes with walnuts)

Boxes of chocolate prunes are a classic Polish gift: brought to grandmothers at Christmas, set out on the Wigilia table among the twelve dishes, and passed round on name days. Plump smoked or soft prunes from the south of the country are best. Each one hides a walnut half, so you get chewy, slightly tart fruit, a crunchy bitter nut and a snap of dark chocolate in one bite. Serve them with coffee or tea after a big meal. Nothing here ever needed egg: the prune itself holds the nut, and chocolate sets around it as it cools. Older recipes soak the prunes in spirits; here they are alcohol-free, plumped in warm orange juice instead, which also brightens the flavour. Use a dark chocolate made without milk and the sweets are vegan. Chef's tip: dry the soaked prunes very well before dipping; the common mistake is leaving them damp, and even a few drops of juice will make melted chocolate seize and turn grainy.

55 minPolishDessertsVeganGluten free
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Mứt bí (candied winter melon)

Pale as rice paper and crunchy at the edge, mứt bí is one of the cheapest and best-loved sweets on the Tết candy tray all over Vietnam; its white colour stands for a clean, bright start to the year. The melon is first firmed in clear lime water made with food-grade slaked lime (vôi ăn, calcium hydroxide, sold for pickling), which sets the outside so the batons stay crisp while the sugar soaks in. If you would rather not use lime, a quick blanch and longer drying gives a softer but still delicious result. Serve with green tea, or with candied ginger and coconut. Chef's tip: choose an old, heavy winter melon with a dusty white skin; young ones are watery and collapse in the syrup.

240 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Gotgam-ssam (walnut-stuffed dried persimmon rounds)

Sangju in North Gyeongsang is Korea's dried-persimmon capital, and in Andong and across the region gotgam-ssam is a sweet for Seollal and Chuseok tables and for welcoming guests in winter. Soft dried persimmons are opened out flat, rolled tightly around a row of walnut halves and sliced, so each round shows a pattern like a flower. They are chewy and honeyed from the fruit, with crunchy, slightly bitter walnuts in the middle. Serve them with sujeonggwa, the cinnamon-ginger punch, or with a cup of roasted barley tea. It is naturally egg-free: the sticky dried fruit is its own glue, and a short chill firms the roll so it slices neatly. Chef's tip: wrap the roll tightly in cling film and chill it before slicing; the common mistake is slicing it straight away, which squashes the rounds and lets the walnuts fall out.

19 minKoreanDessertsVeganGluten free
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PinacaRice flour, jaggery and coconut cakes

Pinaca is one of the oldest Goan Christmas sweets in the kuswar tray, made in the weeks before Christmas from three things: rice flour roasted until golden and nutty, jaggery and freshly grated coconut. They are pressed into small cakes or squares and have a soft, crumbly, toffee-like bite. They are vegan and gluten free. Chef's tip: take your time roasting the rice flour, as it is the roasting that gives pinaca its flavour, but stir constantly because it burns at the edges.

60 minIndianIndian SweetsVeganGluten free
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Rakugan (pressed dry sweets for tea)

Rakugan are higashi, the dry sweets served before thin matcha at a tea ceremony, and the castle towns of Kanazawa and Matsue, both with a long tea tradition, are famous for them. Fine sugar and roasted rice flour are pressed into carved wooden moulds to make cherry blossoms in spring, maple leaves in autumn and plum flowers in winter; they also appear on Obon altars as offerings. They feel firm in the hand but dissolve on the tongue into a delicate, clean sweetness, which balances the bitterness of the tea. Serve two or three per person with matcha or sencha. They are naturally egg-free: a few drops of water make the fine sugar just damp enough to stick, the roasted rice flour holds the shape, and drying sets it hard. Chef's tip: add water a few drops at a time and stop when the sugar feels like damp sand; the common mistake is too much water, which glues the mixture into the mould.

200 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Mebos (Karoo salted apricot sweets)

Mebos belongs to the dry Karoo and the orchards of the Western Cape, where summer apricots were salted, sun-dried and pounded into a paste that lasted the year. Today it is a car-trip and school-holiday treat, bought from farm stalls and passed around with afternoon tea. The flavour is bright and tart, then sweet, with a little salt that makes the apricot taste even stronger; the texture is dense and chewy, like a soft fruit leather. Eat it on its own, with a cup of rooibos, or chopped over plain yoghurt. This version starts from dried apricots, so it can be made at any time of year. It is naturally egg-free: the apricots' own pectin and fibre, thickened with sugar in the pan, hold the paste together with no other binder. Chef's tip: measure the salt; the common mistake is adding it by feel, which turns a sweet-sour sweet into a salty one.

120 minSouth AfricanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Shanzha gao (hawthorn fruit cake)

When the hawthorn trees of Hebei and Shandong drop their red berries in late autumn, cooks across northern China, and especially in Beijing, boil them down into shanzha gao, a firm fruit cake cut into ruby slices. It is a winter sweet, eaten after rich meals because people say it helps digestion, and it sits beside candied hawthorn skewers at the New Year fairs. The texture is like a firm fruit jelly that cuts cleanly, and the flavour is bright and sour-sweet, like a cross between crab apple and cranberry. Serve thin slices with jasmine tea, or cubes on a fruit plate. It is naturally egg-free and needs no setting agent at all: hawthorn is so rich in pectin that the cooked purée sets firm as it cools. Chef's tip: the common mistake is stopping too soon, so keep stirring until a spoon drawn across the pan leaves a clear trail that does not close up.

130 minChineseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Berlingots de Carpentras (striped Provençal hard candies)

Carpentras, the market town below Mont Ventoux, has made berlingots since the nineteenth century, using the fruit syrups left over from its candied-fruit trade. The little four-sided pyramids are clear and glassy with fine white stripes, and they are sold year round at the Friday market and in paper cones for the Christmas sweet table. They crunch cleanly and dissolve slowly, here with a cool mint flavour; a fruit syrup can take its place. Offer them after a meal with coffee or herbal tea. Hard candy is naturally egg-free: the sugar, cooked to the hard-crack stage, sets glass-hard by itself, and glucose syrup keeps it clear instead of grainy. You will need heatproof gloves, oiled scissors and a warm place to keep the sugar soft while you shape it. Chef's tip: make these on a dry day; the common mistake is cooking sugar in a steamy kitchen, which leaves the berlingots sticky within hours.

85 minFrenchDessertsVeganGluten free
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Bánh in (pressed rice-flour cakes)

Bánh in, literally 'printed cakes', come from Huế and central Vietnam, where they are stacked on the Tết altar for the ancestors and later shared with guests; the moulds stamp flowers or the characters for luck and longevity into each cake. The dough is just toasted glutinous rice flour bound with fragrant syrup, so the cakes are crumbly-soft, melt in the mouth and taste nutty, with a smooth mung bean heart. Serve them with jasmine or artichoke tea. Any wooden or plastic mooncake mould of about 40 g works. Chef's tip: let the pressed cakes rest overnight in a closed tin; they firm up and the flavour of the toasted flour deepens.

60 minVietnameseDessertsVegan
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Mứt sen (candied lotus seeds)

No Tết candy tray in Hanoi or Huế looks complete without a mound of mứt sen, the ivory lotus seeds that stand for purity and, because a lotus pod holds so many seeds, for a family blessed with many descendants. Done well, each seed is soft and floury inside, almost like chestnut, under a dry, sparkling shell of sugar. Guests nibble them with a pot of hot green or lotus tea while they swap New Year wishes. Fresh seeds are best; dried ones from Asian grocers work if soaked overnight first. Chef's tip: pull out every green germ in the centre, because a single bitter heart spoils the sweet mouthful.

90 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Mont let saung (Burmese sago in coconut milk and jaggery)

During Thingyan, the Burmese water festival that ends the old year in mid-April, stalls across Myanmar hand out free food and cold drinks as a way of making merit, and mont let saung is one of the best loved. Chewy, glassy sago pearls (or short white rice-flour threads in some towns) sit on crushed ice, soaked in dark jaggery syrup and lightly salted coconut milk, with toasted sesame on top. It is cool, sweet and gently smoky from the jaggery, exactly what you want after a day of being splashed with water. Serve it in glasses or bowls as soon as it is assembled. Chef's tip: a pinch of salt in the coconut milk is what makes the jaggery taste rounder, so don't skip it.

45 minBurmeseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Kuri gohan (chestnut rice)

Kuri gohan is one of the great dishes of the Japanese autumn, made all over the country when fresh chestnuts arrive in September, and it is often eaten around the harvest moon, when chestnuts are offered beside dumplings and taro (the later moon-viewing in October is even nicknamed the "chestnut moon"). Sweet, fluffy chunks of chestnut sit in salty, slightly sticky rice scented with kombu, and the dish is all about the season's bounty. It traditionally uses a spoonful of sake; this is optional, and plain water works perfectly well for an alcohol-free version. Serve with miso soup, pickles and grilled fish, sprinkled with black sesame salt. Chef's tip: soak the chestnuts in hot water for 30 minutes before peeling; the shells soften and the furry inner skin lifts away far more easily.

75 minJapaneseRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
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Chitose ame (thousand-year candy)

Chitose ame, "thousand-year candy", are the long red and white sugar sticks that children carry home from the shrine at Shichi-Go-San in November, in Tokyo and now right across Japan. The length of the stick is a wish for a long life, and red and white are the colours of celebration. Pulling the cooling sugar fills it with air, turning it from clear to a silky, opaque white with a soft, almost milky crunch. Boiling sugar reaches more than 150 °C, so wear heatproof gloves, work on a heatproof silicone mat, and keep children well away until the candy has cooled; they can admire the finished sticks. Hard sweets are a choking risk for small children, so break off small pieces for them and stay with them while they eat. Chef's tip: oil your gloves lightly and keep pulling until the candy turns satiny and starts to resist; that is when it sets into sticks.

60 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Arrowhead chips (nga gu chips)

Arrowhead (nga gu, or ngaku) is a small aquatic tuber that only shows up in Malaysian markets in the weeks before Chinese New Year, and frying it into chips is a family job. Its curved sprout looks like a shoot rising from the root, so it stands for growth and many descendants in the year ahead. Sliced thin and fried, the chips are crisp and nutty like potato crisps, with a gentle bitterness that keeps you reaching for more. Put them out in jars with peanuts and love letters for visitors. Chef's tip: soak the slices and dry them very well; wet slices make the oil spit and fry up chewy instead of crisp.

40 minMalaysianSnacks & StartersVeganGluten free
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Konpeito (Japanese sugar stars)

Konpeito came to Japan with Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century and became a treasured gift; Kyoto confectioners still make them the old way, rolling them in a tilted, heated pan for two weeks or more. Today the tiny pastel stars are given as wedding and birth favours, slipped into tins of emergency hardtack biscuits, and nibbled with green tea. They crunch like a sugar cube and taste purely of sugar, sometimes with a hint of fruit. This home version uses a wok over the lowest heat and a few patient hours, which gives smaller, knobbly stars rather than the perfect shop ones. They are naturally egg-free: they are made of nothing but sugar, and the setting comes from thin layers of syrup crystallising one after another. Chef's tip: add the syrup a teaspoon at a time and keep the crystals rolling until dry. The common mistake is pouring in too much, which glues everything into one clump.

240 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Kluay tak (Thai dried bananas, oven method)

In Bang Krathum, a district of Phitsanulok in lower northern Thailand, small nam wa bananas are peeled and laid out under the sun in glass-roofed drying boxes for several days, then pressed flat to make kluay tak. The district is famous for them, and bags are bought as a gift on the road home and nibbled with tea or coffee in the afternoon. They are dense and chewy like a soft toffee, dark amber, with a deep caramel and honey flavour that comes only from the fruit. As sun-drying takes days and needs steady heat, this version uses a very low oven overnight, then a rest in a jar so the moisture evens out. They are naturally egg-free and need nothing to bind them: the banana's own sugars concentrate and hold it together. Chef's tip: keep the oven low and prop the door open with a wooden spoon; the common mistake is a hot oven, which cooks and blackens the outside while the centre stays wet.

1340 minThaiDessertsVeganGluten free
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Croccante (southern Italian almond brittle)

Croccante is the sweet of southern Italian feast days: from Naples to Calabria and Apulia it is sold from stalls at the patron saint's festa, set out at Christmas and at Carnival, and in some towns shaped into little baskets for weddings. Whole almonds are toasted and folded into caramel, then pressed thin on marble with the cut side of a lemon, which stops it sticking and leaves a faint citrus scent. It is crisp and glassy with a deep, nutty, slightly bitter caramel. Break it into shards to eat with coffee, or crush it over ice cream. It is naturally egg-free: only caramelised sugar holds the almonds, setting hard as glass as it cools. Chef's tip: keep the almonds warm when they go in; the common mistake is adding cold nuts, which makes the caramel seize into lumps.

30 minItalianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Frutta martorana (Sicilian painted almond-paste fruit)

Palermo's pastry shops fill their windows with frutta martorana in late October, ready for All Souls' Day on 2 November, when Sicilian children wake to find sweets and toys said to be left by the family's dead. The name comes from the nuns of the Martorana convent, who were said to have decorated their bare orchard with almond-paste fruit. Each little fig, prickly pear or orange is so perfectly painted it looks real, and the paste inside is smooth, dense and very sweet, with a pure almond flavour. Serve a few with coffee or a glass of cold almond milk. The paste is egg-free almond paste, made the Sicilian way: ground almonds are stirred into sugar syrup boiled to the soft-ball stage, and the syrup binds them as it cools, unlike some shop marzipan, which is not always egg-free. Chef's tip: let the shapes dry before painting; the common mistake is painting damp paste, so the colours bleed.

180 minItalianDessertsVeganGluten free
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SchlorzifladenDried pear tart

Schlorzifladen comes from the Toggenburg valley in the canton of St Gallen in eastern Switzerland, where dried pears (schlorzi) were a winter staple. The thin, crisp tart is filled with a thick, dark purée of cooked dried pears spiced with cinnamon, and baked for Christmas and village feast days. Some versions have a rice or cream layer on top; this is the simple pear one. Pear brandy is sometimes added, but this version uses lemon juice instead and is alcohol-free. Chef's tip: cook the pear purée until it is stiff enough to hold a spoon upright, or it soaks the pastry.

120 minSwissBaking
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Polkagris (Gränna peppermint candy sticks)

Gränna, a small town on the shore of Lake Vättern, has been pulling polkagris since the 1850s, and visitors still stand at shop windows watching the sugar being stretched and twisted on marble tables. The sticks are sold all year but are a favourite in summer, when the town fills with tourists, and again at Christmas. Pulled properly, the white part turns satiny and slightly airy, so the candy is crisp on the outside and almost chalky-soft as it melts, with a clean, cooling peppermint flavour and a thin red spiral. Eat them as they are, crush them over ice cream or hang them on the tree. Polkagris is naturally egg-free: nothing but sugar boiled to the hard-crack stage holds it together, and the pulling, not any added protein, gives the pale, opaque texture. Chef's tip: work in a dry kitchen with oiled gloves and have every tool ready before the sugar reaches temperature; the common mistake is letting the mass cool too far before pulling, at which point it cracks instead of stretching.

50 minScandinavianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Huasheng tang (peanut brittle)

Huasheng tang is a fixture on the Taiwanese New Year candy tray, set out for every visitor who comes to wish the family a happy new year. Peanuts are called 'long-life nuts' in Chinese, so the brittle carries a wish for long life and, with so many nuts in each piece, for many children and a full house. Taiwanese brittle is thinner and less sweet than many, packed with crackly roasted peanuts held together by malt sugar. Serve with oolong tea alongside dried fruit and melon seeds. Chef's tip: cut the slab while it is still warm and pliable; once cold it shatters.

40 minTaiwaneseDessertsVegan
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Sucre à la crèmeBrown sugar fudge

In Quebec, sucre à la crème is the sweet that comes out at Christmas: a soft, melting brown-sugar fudge made from brown sugar, cream and butter, cut into squares and shared at the réveillon after midnight Mass and through the Fêtes. Every grandmother's recipe differs a little; this one is the classic stovetop method, gluten free and ready in under an hour. Chef's tip: beat the cooled mixture until it loses its gloss and starts to thicken, then pour it at once; that beating is what makes it creamy rather than toffee-like.

40 minCanadianDessertsGluten free
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Yeot-gangjeong (nut and sesame bars in rice syrup)

Yeot-gangjeong is a traditional Korean hangwa made all over the country, especially in the weeks before Seollal and Chuseok, when trays of these bars are given as gifts and set out for visitors. Toasted nuts, sesame seeds and puffed rice are folded into hot rice syrup, pressed flat and cut into bars that are crunchy, nutty and only gently sweet, with a faint malty flavour from the syrup. Serve them with green tea or sikhye, the sweet rice drink, or pack them for a lunchbox. They are naturally egg-free: rice syrup, heated until it bubbles, acts as the glue and sets firm as it cools. Chef's tip: cut the slab while it is still warm. The common mistake is waiting until it is cold, when the bars shatter instead of slicing cleanly.

25 minKoreanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Podsolnechnaya khalva (sunflower seed halva)

In Russia and Ukraine, where sunflowers cover the southern steppe, halva means sunflower halva rather than the sesame kind: grey-brown, crumbly slabs sold by weight at markets and eaten with tea at any time of day, especially through the long winter. It tastes deeply of toasted seeds, with a sandy, flaky texture that breaks into strands and melts on the tongue. Serve it in small pieces with black tea, crumble it over porridge, or eat it with fresh apple slices. Factory halva is lightened with a foam of soapwort root, and some old recipes use whipped egg white; this home version needs neither. Sugar syrup cooked to the firm-ball stage is beaten straight into warm, finely ground seeds, and as the syrup cools it crystallises and binds the oily seed paste into a sliceable block, naturally egg-free. Chef's tip: grind the seeds until they just start to clump and look oily, not into smooth butter; the common mistake is over-grinding, which gives a dense, fudgy slab instead of crumbly halva.

230 minRussianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Kẹo mè xửng (Huế sesame peanut chews)

No one leaves the old imperial city of Huế without a box of kẹo mè xửng, the soft sesame chew sold on Đông Ba market stalls and handed out at Tết and on family visits. Rice malt syrup and sugar are cooked with a little tapioca starch into a glossy, stretchy mass, chopped peanuts are folded in, and the slab is pressed between layers of toasted sesame. It chews like a soft toffee, nutty and gently sweet, and the sesame gives every square a roasted fragrance. Serve squares with hot lotus or green tea after dinner. The candy is naturally egg-free: tapioca starch gives it its springy chew and the malt syrup binds it, so nothing else is needed. Chef's tip: oil your knife and cut while the slab is just warm. The common mistake is adding the starch slurry without stirring hard, which leaves white lumps through the candy.

75 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Chè kho (mung bean fudge pudding)

On New Year's Eve and the last days of Tết, Hanoi families place a plate of chè kho on the ancestors' altar: a smooth, golden mung bean fudge whose sweetness asks for a gentle, prosperous year. 'Kho' means cooked down dry, and that is the whole technique, stirring the bean purée with sugar until it becomes a thick, glossy paste that can be cut. It tastes nutty and delicately floral from grapefruit-blossom water, with a crunch of sesame on top. Serve small slices with lotus or green tea. Chef's tip: use a heavy non-stick pan and a wooden spoon, and never leave it; the paste catches in seconds once it thickens.

75 minVietnameseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Goan milk creamMilk and cashew sweet

Milk cream is a pale, fudgy Goan Christmas sweet, set in pretty little moulds of flowers, stars and Christmas trees and laid on the kuswar platter beside neureos, bebinca and kulkuls. Whole milk is cooked down with sugar and ground cashews (and sometimes semolina) until it turns into a smooth paste, a little like Indian peda but softer. It is gluten free and very rich, so pieces are small. Chef's tip: dust the moulds with sugar, not flour, so the sweets pop out cleanly with crisp detail.

90 minIndianIndian SweetsGluten free
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Pastillas de leche (Bulacan milk candy)

San Miguel in Bulacan, north of Manila, has made pastillas de leche from the rich milk of carabao, the water buffalo, for generations, and the town celebrates it every May with a festival. The candies are slow-cooked from little more than milk and sugar, rolled into fingers, coated in sugar and wrapped in coloured paper, often with fringed, cut-paper wrappers for fiestas and Christmas. They taste like a soft, milky fudge that melts on the tongue. Hand them round with coffee or tuck them into gift boxes. Carabao milk is hard to find, so this version uses whole cow's milk boosted with a little milk powder for the same richness. It is naturally egg-free: the milk solids, reduced with sugar, set into a firm paste on their own. Chef's tip: keep the heat at medium-low and scrape the base often. The common mistake is turning the heat up to save time, which scorches the milk and makes the paste grainy.

95 minFilipinoDessertsGluten free
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Manjar blanco del ValleMilk and rice sweet

In the Valle del Cauca around Cali, Christmas means stirring manjar blanco: whole milk, sugar and a little ground rice cooked down for hours, traditionally in a big copper pan (paila) over a wood fire, until it turns into a thick, pale-caramel paste. It is served in totumo gourd bowls with buñuelos and natilla, or with a slice of fresh cheese. It is gluten free and keeps a week in the fridge. Chef's tip: soak and blend the rice to a fine paste first, which gives manjar blanco its smooth body without lumps.

225 minColombianDessertsGluten free
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Nerikiri (hand-shaped bean paste flowers)

Nerikiri are the jewel-like sweets of the tea ceremony in Kyoto and Tokyo, shaped by hand into the flower, leaf or fruit of the season: cherry blossom in April, hydrangea in June, chrysanthemum in autumn. Each is served alone on a small plate before thick matcha, cut with a pick. The dough is white bean paste kneaded with gyuhi, a soft paste of glutinous rice flour and sugar, and it feels like fine modelling clay, smooth and gently sweet, wrapped around a centre of red bean paste. They are naturally egg-free: the gyuhi gives the bean paste stretch and holds the carved shapes, so no other binder is needed. This simple five-petal flower is a good first shape. Chef's tip: dry the white bean paste well before adding the gyuhi; the common mistake is a soft, wet dough that slumps and loses its petals within minutes.

90 minJapaneseDessertsVeganGluten free
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Bananada (Brazilian banana paste bars)

Bananada comes from the banana country of Minas Gerais and the Vale do Ribeira in São Paulo state, where roadside stalls stack it in wrapped bars beside rapadura and goiabada. Children find it in lunchboxes and it turns up on the sweet tables of the June festivals. Cooked slowly, ripe bananas and sugar darken to a reddish brown and set into a dense, chewy paste with a caramel and baked-banana flavour, finished with a sugary crust. Serve the bars with coffee or a piece of fresh cheese. It is naturally egg-free: the starch and pectin in the bananas, concentrated with sugar over a long, slow cook, set the paste firm enough to slice. Very ripe bananas give the sweetest, darkest result. Chef's tip: keep going until you can see the base of the pan for a second when you drag the spoon through; the common mistake is stopping early, which gives a soft jam that won't cut.

125 minBrazilianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Quinotos en almíbar (Argentine kumquats in syrup)

In Buenos Aires and the river provinces of the Litoral, kumquat trees ripen in the middle of winter, between June and August, and the fruit goes straight into jars of syrup. Grandmothers' pantries held quinotos for the whole year, brought out for birthdays and long Sunday lunches. Each little fruit turns glossy orange and translucent, with a soft, bittersweet skin and a sharp, juicy centre. Spoon them over vanilla ice cream, serve them with a slice of fresh cheese in the style of postre vigilante, or eat them straight from the jar. Many bar menus offer them steeped in spirits; this version keeps only the syrup. Naturally egg-free, the quinotos rely on sugar syrup to preserve them, while pectin from the peel gives the syrup a light, jammy body. Chef's tip: blanch the fruit three times from cold water; the common mistake is skipping this, which leaves the skins tough and bitter.

120 minArgentinianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Alfeñique (Toluca Day of the Dead sugar-paste figures)

Each October the arcades of Toluca, in the State of Mexico, fill with the Feria del Alfeñique: stalls of little skulls, lambs, coffins, baskets and fruit, all modelled from sugar paste and painted bright colours for the Day of the Dead altars of 1 and 2 November. Children buy a skull with their own name on it; families place them on the ofrenda beside marigolds, candles and pan de muerto. The paste is snow-white, smooth and brittle once dry, with a clean sugar and lime taste. The old Toluca paste is egg-free, kneaded with chautle, a gum from an orchid bulb; here gum tragacanth plays that part, making the paste stretchy enough to model and helping it dry hard. The decorating icing is egg-free too, made from icing sugar, lime juice and a pinch of the same gum. Chef's tip: work the syrup while it is warm and keep the paste wrapped; the common mistake is letting it sit uncovered, so it dries out and cracks as you shape it.

180 minMexicanDessertsVeganGluten free
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Doce de figo verde (Minas green figs in clove syrup)

On the farms of Minas Gerais, figs picked hard and green at the start of summer are turned into one of the state's proudest doces, made in big copper pans and set out at Christmas, at Festa Junina and after a long Sunday lunch. The whole figs come out dark olive-green, glossy and tender right through, in a thick syrup fragrant with cloves. They are eaten with a slice of fresh queijo minas, the salty cheese making the sweetness sing, or on their own with a small coffee. Like most Brazilian fruit preserves it is naturally egg-free: the long simmer in sugar syrup preserves and firms the fruit, and the figs' own pectin thickens the syrup. The work is in the repeated blanching, which draws out the bitter milky sap. Chef's tip: wear gloves while scraping the figs, because the sap irritates skin, and keep the syrup at a bare simmer; the common mistake is boiling hard, which bursts the figs and toughens their skins.

240 minBrazilianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Dulce de papayuelaMountain papaya in spiced syrup

Papayuela is the small, fragrant mountain papaya that grows in the cool highlands of Boyacá in Colombia. Cooked slowly in panela syrup with cloves and cinnamon, it becomes a glossy, amber dulce that Boyacá families set out during Holy Week and again at Christmas, often with a slice of fresh white cheese or cuajada. It is vegan and gluten free. Firm, slightly underripe ordinary papaya, or babaco, makes a good stand-in. Chef's tip: blanch the fruit briefly first, then drain it; this removes the bitter latex and lets it soak up the syrup.

90 minColombianDessertsVeganGluten free
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Hong tang ciba (brown sugar glutinous rice cakes)

Pounded glutinous rice cakes are a Spring Festival essential in Sichuan and Chongqing, where 'ci' sounds like a wish for the family to stay close, as stuck together as the rice itself. Fried and drowned in brown sugar syrup, they turn into hong tang ciba, a dessert that closes many reunion dinners and hotpot nights. Outside they are puffed and crackly, inside soft and stretchy, and the dark syrup and nutty soybean flour make every bite taste like toffee. This home version steams a glutinous rice flour dough instead of pounding whole grains, which gives the same chew in far less time. Serve straight from the pan while still crisp. Chef's tip: let the steamed slab cool and firm up completely before cutting; warm dough smears and bursts in the oil.

50 minChineseDessertsVeganGluten free
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KokadCoconut, jaggery and semolina squares

Kokad is one of the sweets in the Goan Christmas kuswar, the tray of homemade sweets Catholic families swap with neighbours in the days around 25 December. Freshly grated coconut is cooked with jaggery, semolina and ghee until it pulls together into a dark, fudgy mass, then pressed into a tray, scored into diamonds and topped with cashews. It is chewy, caramel-sweet and fragrant with cardamom. Chef's tip: roast the semolina in ghee first, until it smells nutty, as raw semolina makes kokad pasty.

75 minIndianIndian Sweets
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Jiaodong hua bobo (festive flower buns)

On the Jiaodong peninsula in Shandong, the days before the Spring Festival are spent shaping hua bobo: large steamed wheat buns twisted into fish, flowers and lucky knots and dotted with red jujubes. A fish bun stands for surplus in the year ahead, the dates for sweetness and a prosperous red, and a tall bun stacked high for a family that keeps rising. The crumb is dense, springy and faintly sweet, a world away from fluffy bao, because the dough is worked stiff and kneaded long. Set them on the reunion table, give them to neighbours, then slice and re-steam the rest with soups and braises through the holiday. Chef's tip: keep the dough firm, more like modelling clay than bread dough, or the shapes slump in the steamer.

240 minChineseBreads & ParathasVegan
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