With Deepavali just around the corner you may be wondering what to bake for Diwali this year. Perhaps you will be inspired by some of the contents of Amma’s Diwali Parcels. Though Diwali treats essentially consist of sweetmeats, Amma made a variety of sweet treats ranging from sweetmeats and biscuits to savory Samoosa’s and Bajia.
I recall how excited Amma used to be about baking for Diwali. She would often plan a week or two in advance. I was between the ages 10-16 years old at the time- enlisted by Amma to write the shopping list of all ingredients needed for Diwali Baking. Amma would make between 10 or 11 different treats to fill Diwali Parcels for the neighbours. Back then (early 1990’s) the budget for Amma’s Diwali shopping was between R 20- R 30.
Amma used to bake each item then store it them in ‘biscuit tins’…an assortment of collectible metal biscuit tins – which Amma had collected over the years- each decorated with various motifs. These treasures were stored on the pelmet above our dining room windows and usually came down only for mass baking during Diwali. Amma would identify each treat by the motif on the tin. I recall a few of them-there was a red tin with black and white horizontal stripes, it had a black lid with a bunch of 5 red roses on it – this tin was reserved for the Hungrian Tarts.
Amma’s Diwali Parcels were usually a paper plate covered with a colored serviette spread with one or two of each of her treats. Finishing details usually included colored cellophane wrap which looked much like wedding trays or a simple white plastic or cellophane wrap to seal off her Diwali Parcels. These were usually delivered to neighbours by my younger sister and I on Diwali day.
What to Bake for Diwali: Amma’s Diwali Treats
Some of the treats Amma made for Diwali usually included:
1. Samoosa’s
2. Hungarian Tart
3. Gulam Jamun
4. Snowballs
5. Romany Creams
6. Butter biscuits
7. Crunchies
8. Burfee
9. Chana Magaj
10. Coconut Ice
11. Poli
12. Date Rolls
13. Bajia
14. Custard Biscuits
Diwali Baking Shopping List
If your Diwali ensemble resembles Amma’s Diwali parcel then the following shopping list will also be of use to you:
- Almonds
- Baking powder
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Brown Sugar
- Butter
- Cardamom
- Cellophane Tape
- Cellophane wrapping
- Cherries
- Chillies
- Cinnamon
- Cocoa powder
- Condensed Milk
- Cooking Chocolate
- Coriander
- Cream of tartar
- Dates
- Decorative beads
- Desiccated Coconut
- Eggs
- Evaporated Milk
- Flour
- Food colouring
- Fresh Cream
- Gram Flour
- Klim/ powdered Milk
- Milk
- Minced meat
- Oats
- Onions
- Paper plates
- Raisins
- Rose Water
- Salt
- Semolina
- Serviettes
- Shallots
- Smarties
- Syrup
- White Sugar
Diwali Recipes
Stay tuned for all of Amma’s Diwali Recipes over the course of the next two weeks. If you would like a particular recipe then feel free to fill out the recipe request form. If you have tried any of the recipes on the blog…you are also welcome to leave a review of the recipe.
