bread Archives - MyEdibleCravings

Happy Fathers day!!! For every son and daughter out there, Dad is their hero and role model and I am no different. I love my dad. As always, like any other special days, I wanted to make something sweet that personifies my dad. I also wanted it to be something that I haven’t made so far. So after some deliberation and searching, I made Bread Halwa. I have had bread halwa before, my mom’s (yummy!) and from this restaurant (Ananda’s) near (Rajapalayam) my home town in India which is famous for its Bread halwa.

Halwa is a popular Indian sweet which literally means sweetness. There are so many varieties of Halwa, like, Wheat halwa (the original), muscut halwa, semolina halwa, carrot halwa, bread halwa, beetroot halwa, Asoka halwa etc. Halwa is the only sweet that I love to have hot (but not the bread halwa, though :)) Back home, there is this town in my state called Tirunelveli which is famous for its halwa (especially from one particular shop called Iruttukadai). Also, there is another restaurant (Nanban Mess) in Kuttralam, a popular tourist town in Tamilnadu famous for its waterfalls, that makes one of the most delicious halwa out there. Having a bath at the waterfalls and then breakfast and halwa at that restaurant is a ritual which we never forget to follow while there. I simply love it 🙂

Generally, I don’t like fried food or any dish that involves frying. That was one of the main reasons why I did not try making bread halwa for a long time. All the recipes that I came across involved frying the bread. But when I came across a recipe that did not involve frying I tried it at once and the result was extremely tasty :D. The Bread Halwa recipe I have posted here is extremely easy to make and it takes no time at all, infact you can make it in less than 15 minutes tops. Care should be taken while cooking as you don’t want to overcook the halwa else it will get harder because of the bread used. Try out this Bread Halwa and you won’t be disappointed, I guarantee!

Bread Halwa

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients

White Bread slices – 6 (I used pepperidge sandwich bread)
Ghee – ¼ cup
Milk – 1 cup
Sugar – 1 cup
Rose water – ¼ tsp
Pistachios, chopped – for garnishing

Instructions

Boil milk and allow it to cool.
Cut the soft crust on all four sides of the bread.
Roughly chop the bread slices and soak them in milk. Mash the bread with clean hand without any lumps.
Heat a thick nonstick pan and add ⅛ cup ghee and add the mashed bread.
Cook in medium flame and stir constantly for few minutes until it doesn’t stick on the sides.
Add sugar in low to medium flame and mix well. Add the remaining ghee at this stage. Stir constantly until the halwa consistency. It only takes a couple of minutes.
Switch off the flame and serve hot or cold garnishing with pistachios. Enjoy! 🙂

Notes

1.Always make this bread halwa in low to medium flame.
2.This dish will be cooked real quick. So do not overcook otherwise you won’t get the desired consistency.
3.I used US measurements for this recipe.

Recently, my sister in law visited us from Canada and we had a blast. During her stay at our home, I tried a north indian dessert item called the Shahi Tukda. Shahi Tukda roughly translates to ’Royal pieces’ (Shahi – royal, Tukda – pieces). I came across this recipe in my never ending search for interesting recipes. Shahi Tukda is a very sweet dish and best served when cold. There is a common misconception that Shahi Tukda and the popular Telangana dish, Double Ka Meetha are the same, but they are not.
Shahi Tukda’s main ingredients are bread and raabdi. Raabdi is a syrup like substance that you would have seen in Rasamalai (yes, it is that same beige colored syrup in which the malai’ are dipped in). Shahi Tukda is easy to make and it involves fried bread dipped in thin sugar syrup and then pouring raabdi over it. Keep in mind that frying the bread in ghee tastes way better than frying it in oil. For a little bit healthier version of this dish, you can pan fry the bread (I know, what is healthy in deep frying or pan frying and with too much sugar- but hey, you do have to give in to your indulgence once in a while to enjoy life :)).

Shahi Tukda is a perfect dessert for those who love sweets a lot. It is very rich in flavor and taste. Do try this north indian ‘king’s’ dessert in your kitchen and let me know your comments and thoughts.

Shahi Tukda

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For sugar syrup:

½ cup sugar
½ cup water

For rabdi :

1 litre whole milk
⅓ cup sugar
A pinch of saffron strands
¼ tsp cardamom powder
½ tsp almonds, chopped
½ tsp pistachios, chopped

Other ingredients:

Ghee to deep fry
6 white bread slices
½ tsp almonds, chopped for garnishing
½ tsp pistachios, chopped for garnishing
Few saffron strands for garnishing

Instructions

Mix water and sugar in a sauce pan. Heat it to make thin sugar syrup (one string consistency).
While the sugar syrup is getting ready, boil the whole milk in a flat bottomed non stick pan. Once the milk is boiled, simmer it and stir occasionally until the milk reaches ⅓rd of its consistency. Add sugar, saffron and cardamom powder and mix well. Simmer for another 5 minutes and rabdi will be ready.
Heat ghee in a pan and first cut the corners (brown parts) of the bread slices and then cut the bread cubes diagonally. When the ghee is hot, deep fry the bread slices until they turn golden brown. Place the deep fried breads in a plate lined with clean tissue.
Pour some rabdi on a serving plate. Dip the bread slices one by one into the sugar syrup (do not soak) and place them on the same serving plate. Pour rabdi again on top of the bread pieces. Garnish with chopped nuts and few strands of saffron.
Serve it warm or cold (refrigerated shahi tukda taste excellent).