Carrot Halwa Chocolates and Laddoos - my fusion Indian sweets

So it snowed here, like two days ago....non-stop and all night and my lil’Appu kept staring out the patio door saying ‘my shoe’. I was confused, I went over to him  trying to stop him from opening the patio door and he kept saying softly, ‘Appu shoe…snow...so cold’ and then I saw, his tiny lil’blue Crocs all getting slowly covered in the snow on our patio deck. I scooped up my little bundle, gave him a tight hug and kiss and told him we’ll get his shoes out in the morning and he happily obliged. They are so forgiving and for some reason I just felt a huge flashwave of love towards my lil’innocent bundle who thought his shoes would get too cold in the snow. Just felt like sharing the moment here :-)

Anyways, Thanksgiving and Christmas preps are going around in full swing all around me. Before I loose track let me share the Gajar Halwa Chocolates and some Carrot Halwa Coconut Laddoos that I made for Diwali this year. 

I already shared the Carrot Halwa or Gajar Ka Halwa recipe and since I had planned on making fusion sweets, I planned to use my gajar halwa as fillings inside chocolates and I used White chocolate and Milk Chocolate flavored Candy Melts for the same.
(Candy Melts almost behave like tempered chocolates and retain their shape and form even at room temp. If you do not have Candy Melts, use tempered and good quality chocolate)

I used my silicone heart and flower shaped ice-cube trays. I started with the White chocolates in the heart shaped tray and everything worked fine with the filling and shaping, however while un-molding some of my chocolates cracked up as the outer layer was too thin :-( 

my first batch

I was almost tempted to drop the whole plan and you can also see that the finish of the chocolates weren't too neat. But after few hours I was feeling more clam and I thought I'd give it one more try and went ahead and made few of the flower shaped chocolates with Milk Chocolate and they worked out fine. Thank goodness! 

I only made around 10 White chocolate Gajar Halwa Hearts and 8 Chocolate Gajar Halwa Flowers (not counting the broken pieces) 

For the remaining Gajar Halwa I just went ahead and scooped it out into mini bite sized balls using my melon baller and coated them in some dried coconut and placed them in mini liner cups for a fancy look and got a total of 14 Carrot halwa Coconut Laddoos ;-) 

And this was what it all finally looked like….Ta-Daaah!! ;-D  
(Here I haven't shown all the sweets I made, just the amount that would fit on the pate)

In my opinion White Chocolate paired really well with the Gajar Halwa, with its milky creaminess yet retaining the pronounced taste of the sweet carrot pudding. But I’m biased and prefer milk chocolate to white choc anyday, so I kinda liked that more.  

As I was simply experimenting here, I do not have a perfect count on how many chocolates this might yield or how many laddoos etc.  So my humble opinion is to just go with your instincts and the amount of gajar halwa you have  ;-)

Carrot Halwa Hearts

You’ll need

Wilton candy Melts (Vanilla Flavor) – ½ cup 

Carrot Halwa – ½ cup or as needed

Heart shaped Silicone mold

Directions

1. Melt the candy melts in microwave or using a double boiler making sure the vessel does not touch the water until creamy and smooth.

2. Use a teaspoon or pointed pastry brush to coat some chocolate all around the inside cavity of your molds. Make sure the centre is empty and free for the filling. Use a dough scraper or backside of a knife to scrape out any excess chocolate from the top of the molds and refrigerate for 5 minutes.
3. Fill the inside with gajar halwa (carrot pudding) leaving some space for the chocolate layer that will form the bottom of your chocolate and again refrigerate for 5 mins to firm up.
4. Make sure the candy melts are still melted and smooth, else microwave again. Add chocolate over the top of the carrot halwa and make sure it fills the entire top portion in the shape of your mold. Before the chocolate hardens, scrape out any excess chocolate making a smooth base. If too much chocolate comes off disclosing the carrot halwa , again apply some chocolate and scrape away any excess gently. Again refrigerate for 5 mins.

5. Once the chocolate hardens, gently press it out of the mold onto a serving plate and continue to refrigerate. 

Carrot Halwa Flowers

You’ll need

Wilton candy Melts (Light Cocoa or Dark Cocoa) – ½ cup 

Carrot Halwa – ½ cup or as needed

Flower shaped Silicone mold

Directions

Repeat the same steps as done above for the White Chocolate Carrot Halwa Hearts, but using Wilton’s Light Cocoa or Dark Cocoa flavors for a Chocolaty flavor.

Carrot Halwa Coconut Laddoos

You'll Need

Carrot Halwa 

Dried Coconut flakes - as needed 

Mini cupcake liners or decorative liners 

Ghee- to grease palms

Directions:

1. Grease your palm with some ghee. Use a melon baller / small icecream scoop /teaspoon to scoop out Gajar Halwa and roll them into balls.

2. Drop them into a bowl filled with coconut flakes and roll them over until the flakes are coated all over the Gajar Halwa.

3. Shake off any excess coconut flakes and place them onto mini cupcake liners before serving.

They looked really attractive and no one guessed the chocolates had gajar halwa inside them or that it was homemade unless I told them and everyone enjoyed it. Some of my friends really loved the Carrot Halwa Laddoos more and loved the way it was made.  It’s a fun and different way to serve our traditional Indian sweets don’t you think?

Try making some for your next friend’s gathering and surprise your guests. Even kids can help in making these, it’s so easy and ofcourse they might help in eating them all too…so watch out!! ;-)

-Manju