Delicious Sweets for Gifting - Homemade, No-Maida and Wrapped with Love
Written by jheelum basu | November 27, 2025
Making sweet gifts for the loved ones, neither needs a reason nor a season. Whether it is the festive spirit in the air or not, making delicious sweets for gifting is very common in India. While options are endless, very few things can beat the sense of comfort that comes with homemade sweets wrapped in love.
While the store-bought sweets often do the job, what about the unhealthy ingredients used in them? The traditional Indian mithai recipes often include maida (refined flour). Considering the rise in health-conscious diet preferences these days, one doesn’t really need maida.
To make sweets guilt-free and healthy, several modern no-naida easy recipes are there. These no-maida recipes still bring the same joy, only without any compromise on health. From almond barfi and besan laddoo to rabdi and kheer, no-maida options are there in the list of delicious sweets for gifting.
Gifting Sweets: A Classic Way To Show Love
From almond halwa and chocolate shondesh to dates and nuts laddo and millet cookies, the popularity of sweets and desserts brings countless options to the table. To further sweeten up the relationship, appreciate the loved ones with these sweet gifts.
1. Almond Halwa
Almond Halwa’s creamy, velvety texture and warm, nutty flavor make it a perfect treat for gifting the loved ones. To make this healthy dessert, take some almond flour, chopped almonds, granulated sugar, hot water, saffron, and cardamom.
In under 30 minutes, this delicious dessert can be prepared following a few simple steps. Just mix the sugar in the hot water, add cardamom, saffron, and almond flour, and pressure cook. Pressure cooking makes the sugar, water mixture thicken. The almond flour rehydrates very quickly in this method to achieve the desired texture of the halwa. Along with the almonds, one can always add dry fruits to further elevate the creamy texture of the halwa.
2. No-Maida Millet Chocolate Cookies
Everyone loves chocolate cookies with crunchy edges and a chewy center. However, often the high flour and sugar content makes people feel guilty after eating a few of them. To help the loved ones get rid of the guilt, try gifting these no-maida millet chocolate cookies, where health meets taste like never before.
To make this healthy alternative, take millet flour, ghee or butter, powdered jaggery, and baking powder in a bowl and prepare a cookie dough. Bake them in a pre-heated oven for 20 minutes and pack them in a gift box.
3. No-Maida Carrot Halwa Cake
Carrot Halwa has been ruling Indian sweet lovers’ hearts for ages. Now, in this era of dessert evolution, why not give this traditional recipe a healthy fusion spin? Here, the carrot halwa is used as a topping on a vegan sponge carrot cake.
For the cake, shredded carrots are cooked a little bit with cardamom, lime zest, and maple syrup. The cooked carrots are then added to the no-maida vegan cake batter before the mixture is all set for baking.
The carrot halwa topping is prepared with shredded carrot, nut milk, vegan butter, almond flour, and maple syrup. Once the cake is ready, it is topped with a generous amount of carrot halwa. To add more flavor, garnish it with some dry fruits.
4. Vegan Chocolate Shondesh
A soft, melt-in-mouth, and sweet Shondesh is a quintessential Bengali sweet to gift. The milk-based sweet treats, made by the confectioners in Bengal, perfectly capture the essence of ‘Bangaliyaana’ (Bengaliness).
The traditional recipe includes regular milk, cottage cheese, and sugar. However, in this alternate vegan recipe, plant-based milk and jaggery replace regular milk and refined sugar. The added chocolatey goodness for all the sweet-craving taste buds. Whenever it comes to gifting sweets, simply prepare a batch of these vegan chocolate shondesh. Pack them in a box, and the job is done.
5. Dates And Nut Ladoo
With no maida at all, this healthy mithai is simply made with chopped nuts and seeds, all merged with the natural sweetness of dates. To make these sweets full of natural ingredients, start by chopping nuts (almonds, walnuts, and cashews) and lightly roasting them in some ghee. Next, add finely chopped dates and mix all the ingredients well on medium heat. Let it cool slightly, and then shape the mixture into small balls and garnish them with shredded coconut for extra flavor and texture.
Conclusion:
While gifting options are endless when it comes to desserts, very few things can beat the comfort that comes with homemade delicacies. With these little treats wrapped in love, make sweets a guilt-free escape for the loved ones. Whether vegan or not, these recipes cater to everyone.