The desserts of Andhra Pradesh definitely trump its main course cuisine comprising mouth-watering tangy and spicy dishes. You will find everything from paper-thin crisp rolls and deep-fried sugary bits to cream-filled patties and sticky fruit-based puddings in Andhra Pradesh. Here are some popular sweets you must dig into on your next visit to Andhra Pradesh.
Delicate, crispy wafer-like layers are filled with a mixture of sugar and ghee. The wafer is made from a batter of rice flour, ghee, and water and cooked over an upturned pot. The mixture is drizzled over the heated surface, removed once cooked, and further roasted over an open flame until crispy. The filling of ghee and sugar is then smeared on the wafer, which is rolled up and served.
A clotted cream forms the centre of this exquisite dish. The outer layer is made from a mixture of maida (flour), sugar, ghee, and cardamom. This is shaped into discs, deep fried until golden brown, and then filled with the cream.
This delectable snack originated in the city of Kakinada and is similar to another confection, Andhra kaja. Created from a mixture of maida (refined wheat flour), sugar, ghee (clarified butter), and cardamom, patted down into discs and deep fried until golden brown, these are finally soaked in sugar syrup. The sweet and sticky textured preparation, with its crisp exterior and soft and chewy middle, is much sought-after during festivities.
This sweet and tangy layered concoction is made from mangoes indigenous to Andhra Pradesh. The mango is peeled, deseeded, and then cooked with sugar and jaggery to make a thick, sweet, sticky syrup. The syrup is allowed to firm up on a flat surface, cut into shiny yellow diamond-shaped snacks or turned into roundels. Mamidi Thandra is a popular treat during the summer months.
Laddu, or small roundels of sweetened grain or lentil flour, are an eternal favourite in the Indian dessert pantheon. The sunnundalu is made from urad dal (lentils), flour, sugar, and ghee. All are slow-roasted over a low flame till fragrant and then rolled into delicious, long-lasting roundels bursting with flavour.