Craft Your Own Onam Sweet Gift Box For Friends

DIY your own Onam festive desserts gift box if you love the little magic of festivals and bringing joy to your loved ones. Any kind of Onam special sweet tends to be a little wet; take the instance of payasam, but a handful are relatively dry and quite snacky, coming in little balls or parcels of fun. We picked some of the best Onam sweets from Kerala that don’t entail liquids and are mostly dry, perfect for gifting to guests, hand-delivering locally for that personal touch.

Introduction to Onam Sweet Gift Boxes

Cultural Significance

Onam and serving desserts are almost synonymous. The massive feast called Onam Sadhya always ends with desserts. Besides adding sweetness to the auspicious festival, these traditional desserts also carry cultural significance in Kerala. Adding great symbolic value, sweets are shared to celebrate the harvest of the year. Made with natural ingredients like coconut, jaggery, milk, and more, these Onam sweets for friends represent health, wealth, and prosperity.

Rava Ladoo

(Serves 6)

Ingredients:

• 625 gm semolina
• 170 gm desiccated coconut
• 340 gm ghee
• 800 gm sugar
• 115 ml milk
• 30 cashews
• 30 raisins
• 8 cardamom
• 8 cloves, powdered

Instructions:

1. Heat ghee in a nonstick pan, around 80 grams of it, and let it melt. Then add the rava or semolina into it. Roast until it turns light brown. Put it into a mixer grinder and let it cool.

2. In the same pan, add a little more ghee and fry the cashews and raisins separately, and set them aside.

3. Check if the rava has cooled down, and add the desiccated coconut, cardamom, and cloves, then grind to a fine powder.

4. Add this fine powder to the milk. Then pour ghee into it and mix to get a semi-solid mixture.

5. Once it reaches a consistency where it can hold form, make ladoos from it.

6. Press a cashew and raisin into each ladoo and arrange on a tray.

7. Let them sit for 15-20 minutes to firm up.

Unni Appam

(Makes 30 Unni Appams)

Ingredients:

• 200 gm raw rice
• 2 tsp urad dal
• 4 cardamom pods
• 20 gm fresh shredded coconut
• 100 gm jaggery
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• A pinch of salt
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 tsp ghee
• 2 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions:

1. Wash and soak the raw rice and urad dal first. Then soak both with the smashed cardamom pods in water for a few hours.

2. Drain the rice-dal mix and transfer to a blender; add the shredded coconut, jaggery, ginger powder, and a pinch of salt. Add the bananas, followed by 1 cup water, and grind until smooth.

3. To the paste-like mixture, add ghee, black sesame seeds, and baking soda. Mix to form a smooth and uniform batter.

4. You’ll need a Paniyaram pan for this recipe. Heat it until hot and grease each cavity with ghee.

5. Use a ladle to pour the batter into each hole, cover, and cook on low heat.

6. Let the batter cook, and once it seems like the bottom is golden brown, turn using a thin stick until the other side is golden brown too.

Kozhukatta

(Makes 8 pieces)

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 85 gm coconut, grated
• 100 gm jaggery, grated
• 1 tsp ghee
• 2 cardamom pods

For the Dough:

• 120 gm rice flour, roasted
• 400 ml water
• 1/2 tsp ghee
• Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Heat jaggery with enough water in a saucepan to form a liquid.

2. Strain to remove solid bits and then add grated coconut and ghee and cook until the water evaporates. Add the crushed cardamom pod, and remove from the heat. Set aside.

3. Let’s start the dough. Take a small pot, boil water with salt and ghee, lower the flame, and add the rice flour. Stir to remove any lumps, then remove from heat to cool down.

4. Knead the warm mixture to form a soft and elastic dough. Pull out small balls to make eight balls. Then fashion them into basic cups, add the filling, and roll them back into a ball.

5. Ready a steamer, and once heated, place the Kozhukattas on the steamer plate for 15-20 minutes. Keep on medium flame. The Kozhukattas will have a sheen to them; once done, serve them warm.

Ney Appam

(Makes 24 Appams)

Ingredients:

• 315 gm raw rice
• 300 gm jaggery
• 30 gm rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• A pinch of cardamom powder
• 2 tbsp coconut, grated

Instructions:

1. Start by preparing the jaggery syrup by heating jaggery with water in a saucepan for a few minutes until the jaggery dissolves.

2. Strain the syrup to remove any impurities and return the strained syrup to heat and cook for a few more minutes until it thickens.

3. While the syrup cools, soak the rice in water for at least three hours.

4. After soaking, drain the water and grind the rice with little water to make a paste.

5. Combine the jaggery syrup with the rice paste to create a flowy and slightly runny batter.

6. Add cardamom powder, grated coconut, and cooking soda and mix well.

7. When ready to cook, heat a paniyaram pan and grease each cavity with ghee.

8. Pour a ladleful of batter into each hole of the heated pan.

9. Cover and cook for about a minute. When the bottom side is cooked, carefully flip each appam to cook the other side. Add more ghee or oil if needed. Cook until both sides are golden brown.

10. Remove the nei appams from the pan and serve them hot.

Tips for Packaging Your Onam Sweet Gift Box

Creative Packaging Ideas

If you are wondering how to pack festive sweets for Onam, the options range from handmade paper bags and paper boxes to hampers made with sustainable eco-friendly fabrics, bamboo, and canes. One may also explore ideas like fabrics with Pookalam floral prints, banana leaf-inspired liners, and reusable coconut shell.

Conclusion

This year, make sure the age-old tradition of enjoying festive sweets for Onam is continued, and the grand feast ends with the known, familiar Onam Sadhya menu sweet dishes with all your friends, families, and well-wishers.