Amidst the fiery gravies and soft pavs, there is much more to traditional Maharashtrian cuisine in Pune that deserves your full-fledged attention. The city serves as a melting point for diverse cultures and traditions. The drool-worthy food scene of the city is an amalgamation of divine flavors and unique cooking practices. In addition to its delicious savory delights, the desserts or sweet dishes of Pune deliver a lip-smacking experience that you must indulge in.
The delightful desserts in Pune offer a unique experience by serving as a lovely departure from spicy gravies, flatbreads, and rice-based dishes. From rice flour to yogurt, mango delights, and much more, sweets in Pune are a favorable blend of immense flavors.
What are the Most Famous Sweets of Pune?
When it comes to trying out famous sweets in Pune, you must be familiar with delicacies like modak, puran poli, shrikhand, and others. However, there are several more to your sweet platter that you would love to relish. The local Maharashtrian community in the city boasts a wide range of unique and authentic sweet dishes, especially during special occasions and festivals.
If you have a sweet tooth, here are some of our suggestions for the most famous sweets of Pune you must try out:
1. Puran Poli
It is a classic Maharashtrian festive staple that is always a delight to have when in Pune. This sweet delicacy is a type of flatbread that is stuffed with delicious sweet lentil filling known as ‘puran.’ There are several unique recipes for preparing this delicacy. Therefore, you might come across unique flavours of Puran Poli as you order this sweet from different sweet shops and eateries in Pune.
Some shops or households prefer preparing the filling out of jaggery, nuts, or flour. The sweet dish is lavishly made on special occasions or festivals, including Sankranti, Diwali, and Ganesh Chaturthi.
2. Sajachi Poli
Sajachi Poli is quite similar to Puran Poli, this sweet delicacy is also prepared with a sweet filling inside a dough preparation. The sweet dish is quite popular amongst the locals of Pune, especially across the Chitpavan Brahmin community in the city.
The delicacy is prepared by using leftover suji ka halwa or sheera. As such, this dish does not need much preparation. It is quite easy to put together. Still, it delivers a great taste for you to try out.
3. Ninaave
Popular among Maharashtrians in general, this fudge-like dessert is made quite often across households and sweet shops of the city. Ninaave is usually prepared during the holy month of Savan or Shravan, especially on the first day of Bhadrapad.
With besan or gram flour as its primary ingredient, this fudgy and doughy delight features the added crunch of crushed dry fruits. The presence of rich dry fruits in the preparation enhances the overall flavour of the sweet dish.
4. Shrikhand
It is a popular yogurt dessert that is usually served chilled. This sweet delicacy is quite popular across Gujarati households as well. It is a delicious creamy sweet that retains its rich, original flavors due to the presence of sugar. To enhance the overall flavors, the makers of the dish add cardamom powder, saffron, and nuts.
During summers, mango-flavoured shrikhand or aamkhand is quite famous across leading sweet shops of Pune. You would love the rich, creamy, and melt-in-your-mouth experience of having this dessert.
5. Modak
As we mention the famous sweets in Pune, there is no denying the overall popularity and demand of this highly sought-after sweet dish across the entire Maharashtra. It is a special sweet treat on special occasions or festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi. During festivals, you might feel guilty of having too much of this delicacy as its flavours are simply irresistible.
Modak is a sweet dumpling prepared out of rice flour dough. To enhance its flavour, the dumplings are filled with sweet stuffing, usually featuring grated coconut, khoya, and nuts. Across Pune and its sweet shops, you can come across multiple variations of this sweet dish featuring unique fillings to elevate your platter. You will be mesmerized to try out unique flavors, like chocolate modak, til modak, kesari modak, malai modak, and so more.
6. Gavhale Kheer
While this delicacy takes ample effort and time to be fully prepared, the results are utterly sweet and mouth-watering. Gavhale Kheer is typically a form of handmade pasta that is quite famous across Maharashtra. The pasta is prepared from scratch and eventually cooked in a delicious serving of kheer.
This sweet dish is usually served to Goddess Gauri as naivedya during Ganesh Chaturthi. While it might be fading away as an essential tradition in the city, some of the sweet shops and eateries still retain the preparation of this famous sweet.
7. Malvani Khaja
Malvani Khaja is a delightful coastal speciality that is highly favoured by both locals and tourists in Pune. The sweet dish is available as stick-like delights that are prepared out of gram flour and coated with the richness of jaggery. With a hint of sesame and ginger, these sweets are usually sold across streets and fairs across the entire state.
8. Amba Poli
Are you fond of mangoes? If you are visiting Pune during the summer months, you are likely to experience the richness of this mango-based sweet delight. Prepared out of fresh mango pulp, the dessert is spread to form a thin, paper-like, even layer known as Amba Poli .
This sweet dish is a highly sought-after delight during the summer months. The best part about having this delicacy is that you can relish on mangoes, even when they are out of season.
Conclusion
In addition to a myriad of savoury delights, there is no shortage of sweet options when you are in Pune. As you happen to be a sweet-lover, the city enhances your experience by offering access to a wide range of must-have sweets of the state. Indulge in a memorable experience as you get to taste its sweets right from the comfort of your home. All you have to do is to order online in Pune from Swiggy.
