These tandoor baked desserts prove the clay oven isn't just for naan and kebabs — its high, radiant heat works surprisingly well for sweet dishes too, as long as the technique is adjusted for sugar's tendency to burn faster than dough or meat. Three clay oven dessert recipes are covered here, each using the tandoor's heat differently.
Sheermal is the closest of the three to what you already know from this collection — an enriched, saffron-scented naan baked at a slightly lower temperature so it turns golden rather than charred. Roasted stone fruit uses the wall's fast, direct heat the same way a steak or kebab would. And the apple crumble is the outlier — a covered-dish bake that uses the tandoor more like a conventional oven than a wall-baking surface. Between the three, this covers most of what a tandoor can actually do for a sweet tandoori dishes menu.
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Oven and Accessories for These Tandoor Baked Desserts
All three desserts below were developed on the oven and accessories listed here — including a lid, which turns a wall-baking tandoor into something closer to a conventional oven for the crumble.
The oven used across this roundup. 24x24x37 inches, charcoal and wood fired, NSF/ANSI 4 certified.
Referenced in the apple crumble idea — traps heat inside the tandoor for a covered-dish bake, closer to how a conventional oven works.
Used for pressing sheermal onto the wall, same as any naan in this collection.
Recommended throughout, especially when placing or removing the covered crumble dish.
This is a charcoal and wood-fired model, so gas certification doesn't apply — it carries NSF/ANSI 4 sanitation certification, and financing is available on any model.
Sheermal (Saffron Sweet Naan)
One of the oldest sweet tandoori dishes on record, sheermal is naan's enriched, saffron-scented cousin — baked at a lower temperature than a savoury naan so it turns golden rather than charred, since sugar burns well before dough finishes cooking through.
- 2 cups maida
- 1 tsp instant yeast
- 3 tbsp sugar
- ¼ cup warm milk, with a pinch of saffron steeped in
- ¼ cup plain yoghurt
- 3 tbsp melted ghee
- Warm water, as needed
- Steep saffron in warm milk.
- Make an enriched dough with the saffron milk, sugar, yeast, yoghurt, and ghee. Rest until doubled.
- Divide, roll into thick ovals, and lightly dock the surface.
- Wall-bake 3 to 4 minutes at a lower 500–550°F, until golden, not charred.
Tandoori Roasted Stone Fruit
The tandoor's fast, direct heat caramelizes fruit sugars in minutes, the same principle behind any fast-charred protein in this collection, just applied to peaches or plums instead of meat.
- 4 ripe peaches or plums, halved and pitted
- 2 tbsp honey
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tbsp melted butter
- Halve and pit the fruit.
- Whisk honey, cardamom, and melted butter together.
- Brush the cut side of the fruit with the honey mixture.
- Char cut-side toward the wall for 2 to 3 minutes, until caramelized.
Tandoor-Baked Apple Crumble
The outlier of the three — this uses the tandoor more like a conventional oven than a direct wall-baking surface. A lid traps heat around a covered dish set inside the chamber, letting the crumble bake through gently rather than charring on contact with the wall.
- 4 apples, peeled and sliced
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup flour
- 3 tbsp cold butter, cubed
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- Toss sliced apples with sugar and cinnamon in an oven-safe dish.
- Rub oats, flour, cold butter, and brown sugar together into a coarse crumble.
- Top the apples with the crumble.
- Set the dish inside the tandoor with the lid on, bake 15 to 18 minutes until golden and bubbling.
Why Sugar Needs a Different Approach Than Savoury Tandoor Cooking
Every savoury recipe in this collection relies on the tandoor's extreme heat — 600 to 900 Degree F — to char proteins and dough quickly. Sugar behaves very differently at that temperature: it caramelizes and then burns in a much narrower window than protein chars, which is why every one of these tandoor baked desserts either runs at a lower temperature, a shorter time, or with a barrier — the lid, in the crumble's case — between the heat source and the sugar itself.
Sheermal's lower bake temperature, the roasted fruit's very short cook time, and the crumble's covered, lower-and-slower approach are all solving the same underlying problem in different ways: getting real heat into a sweet dish without crossing from caramelized into burnt, which happens faster with sugar than with almost anything else this tandoori cooking collection covers.
Frequently Asked Questions — Tandoor Baked Desserts
Can a tandoor really be used for dessert, not just savoury food?
Why does sheermal bake at a lower temperature than regular naan?
What's the lid for in the apple crumble recipe?
How do I keep roasted fruit from burning on the wall?
Can I make these tandoor baked desserts in a gas tandoor instead of charcoal?
Which of these three desserts is easiest for a first attempt?
Which Tandoor Morni oven is best suited to trying these dessert recipes?
Catering Tandoor Ovens for Tandoor Baked Desserts
All three desserts above were developed on a catering-scale oven — the main difference between the ovens below is wall surface and fuel type, not bake quality.
24x24x37 inches. The oven used across this roundup.
20x28 inches. Dual certified for gas safety and sanitation.
24x24x37 inches. A square footprint alternative in the same charcoal line.