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Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
6 Min
06/01/2026
Pongal celebrations in Tamil Nadu include tried and tested sweets, perfect for centuries and much loved across the state. Each of these traditional sweets carries heritage and fond memories. From the crispy adhirasam to the comforting payasam, these sweets mark the harvest season with flavours passed down through generations. Knowing these desserts, as the locals do, is your ticket to getting up close and personal with Pongal’s festivities and its sweet treats.
When the harvest season arrives in Tamil Nadu, homes fill with the aroma of jaggery, ghee, and freshly cooked rice as Pongal celebrations begin. More than just a festival, Pongal is a heartfelt thanksgiving to nature, the sun god, and the land that sustains life. At the centre of these celebrations are traditional sweets whose recipes have been lovingly preserved across generations. From the rich and sweet sakkarai pongal to the crisp yet chewy adhirasam and comforting bowls of payasam, each sweet tells a story of abundance, devotion, and regional identity.
Adhirasam dates back to the Chola dynasty between the 9th and 13th centuries, where it appeared in royal feasts and temple offerings. To make these glossy discs that are crispy outside and chewy inside, rice is presoaked for hours, ground into a flour, and then rested. Jaggery is melted into a syrup, then mixed with the rice flour and sesame. Then the dough is shaped into flat discs and fried at the exact temperature so they puff slightly without absorbing excess oil. The name comes from Tamil words arisi (rice) and am (jaggery), and it is generally offered to deities as prasadam in temples.
Sakkarai pongal is the centrepiece of Pongal celebrations, made with freshly harvested rice, moong dal, jaggery, ghee, cardamom, cashews, and raisins. The rice and dal are cooked in the same pot until completely soft, then mixed with melted jaggery syrup. Generous amounts of ghee are stirred into the dish multiple times, and cashews and raisins are fried in ghee and added towards the end. In Tamil Nadu, this dish is served as prasadam along with dishes like puliyodarai, lemon rice, sundal, and curd rice in temples. This sweet symbolises prosperity and abundance, and the pot must boil over to usher in abundance for the coming year.
You might know these sweet treats as modak, associated with Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations, but in Tamil Nadu, they are known as kozhukattai. The shell uses rice flour mixed with hot water and ghee, kneaded while still warm into crack-free dough. The filling usually is a combination of grated coconut with jaggery syrup, cooked until it thickens but retains some moisture. Instead of the signature spiral shape associated with modak, kozhukattai is round but prepared in a similar way to the modak. Some versions add poppy seeds or sesame to the filling.
Known as boli or poli in Tamil, this sweet flatbread is made specifically on Bhogi, the day before the main Pongal festival. This sweet flat bread is stuffed with a sweetened lentil (Bengal gram), jaggery and coconut filling. As for the dough, it needs to rest, soaked in oil for at least an hour, preferably longer, for softer polis. Each portion of dough is flattened, wrapped around the sweet filling, then rolled out thin before cooking on a griddle with ghee. Aside from Tamil Nadu, where you will see puran poli during Pongal, this sweet dish is also enjoyed in the states of Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra.
Paal payasam is a common sweet dish among the different Pongal dishes, which is made with only four ingredients – rice, milk, ghee and sugar. For paal payasam, rice gets sautéed in ghee until fragrant and browned, and then simmered in milk on low heat for an extended period. The sugar adds sweetness, cardamom makes it fragrant and ghee-fried cashews finish it.
There is another variety of payasam that you might find in Pongal celebrations – moong dal payasam, which is called pasi paruppu payasam in Tamil. Though there are many types of sweet pudding, this one is integral to every Tamil household where the festival is celebrated. The moong dal is roasted first, releasing its nutty aroma, then cooked until soft. Jaggery makes it sweet and earthy, while the coconut milk makes it richer.
Ellu urundai are sesame seed balls made for Pongal and other harvest festivals. The process starts with soaking black sesame seeds overnight, then drying them in sunlight before dry roasting until they pop. It’s made in different ways, one where the seeds are whole, and the whole sesame ball is hard and crunchy or the kind where the sesame seeds are pounded along with the jaggery and rolled into spheres when still warm. Some versions add roasted peanuts or grated coconut to the mix. Everything is ground with jaggery powder, while still warm, and the mixture is shaped into balls immediately before they cool down.
Pongal sweets reflect Tamil Nadu’s deep connection to agriculture, faith, and family. From the ceremonial importance of sakkarai pongal to the age-old preparation of adhirasam and the comforting simplicity of payasam, and more, each sweet carries a story shaped by generations. These dishes mark the harvest with gratitude, symbolise abundance, and bring families together through shared rituals and flavours.
