Walk into any Indian sweet shop and the counter is really two counters in disguise: one built on reduced milk, the other on flour. Knowing which is which makes the whole tray of barfi, ladoo, jalebi and gulab jamun much easier to navigate.
The milk-based family: barfi, gulab jamun and more
Barfi takes its name from the Persian word "barf," meaning snow, a nod to its pale, dense, fudge-like block. It's made by reducing full-fat milk down to khoya (also spelled khoa), a solid milk base, then setting it with sugar and flavouring it with pistachio, cashew, cardamom or saffron.
- Gulab jamun — deep-fried dumplings of milk solids, soaked in a rose- and cardamom-scented sugar syrup; the name combines the Persian "gulab" (rose) with "jamun," a dark Indian berry the dumplings resemble once soaked
- Rasgulla — a Bengali cousin made from chhena (a fresh curdled cheese) rather than khoya, and boiled rather than fried, giving it a lighter, spongier bite
- Peda — a simpler, drier khoya sweet, often flattened into discs and pressed with a thumbprint
The flour-based family: ladoo and jalebi
Ladoo is built from besan (gram/chickpea flour) or boondi — tiny fried droplets of gram-flour batter — bound with ghee and sugar syrup and rolled into balls. Motichoor ladoo, made from especially fine boondi, is one of the most popular versions given as gifts.
Jalebi has a longer international history: it traces back to the Persian "zalabiya," and reached South Asia centuries ago, where it became a fixture of both Hindu festivals like Diwali and Ramadan iftar tables. The crisp, syrup-soaked spirals are made from a fermented batter piped directly into hot oil.
When mithai gets eaten
Mithai is less an everyday treat than a ritual food: boxes are exchanged at Diwali, distributed at weddings and births, and given at Raksha Bandhan. Most mithai is vegetarian, since the milk-based varieties use dairy rather than gelatine, though the ghee and milk content means they aren't typically vegan.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between milk-based and flour-based mithai?
Milk-based mithai such as barfi and gulab jamun are made from khoya (milk slowly reduced to a solid), giving a dense, fudgy texture, while flour-based mithai such as ladoo and jalebi use besan (gram flour) or maida (plain flour) as their base.
What does mithai mean?
Mithai is the umbrella Hindi and Urdu word for traditional South Asian sweets, derived from the Sanskrit mishthanna, and is used across India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Why is jalebi orange and spiral-shaped?
Jalebi is made by piping a fermented batter into hot oil in overlapping spirals, then soaking the crisp coils in saffron- or food-colour-tinted sugar syrup, which gives it both its shape and its bright orange-amber colour.