BADAM HALWA

Badam Halwa aka almond pudding is a rich and tasty Indian dessert prepared with almonds, milk, cardamom and saffron. Almonds, also called badam in India is the main ingredient in this recipe. If you do not have almond meal/flour, you can make it at home. Grind whole almonds with skin to make almond flour or if you want you can soak almonds overnight, peel them the next day and make puree(with milk) and use this in place of almond meal or flour.

This all-time favourite halwa recipe is, of course, a bit rich, so you cannot have more than a few spoons at a time. Do not worry, you can stash this safely into the freezer and have some everyday, especially in the winters.

For this rich and tasty badam halwa, you will need

Ingredients

• ¼ cup Clarified butter or Ghee
• 1 cup Almond meal/Almond flour
• ½ cup Full fat milk
• ½ cup Sugar
• 3 drops Food color (optional)
• 1 pinch Saffron (optional)
• Cashews and raisins, for garnishing
• 2 Cardamoms, powdered

Method

• In a deep heavy bottom pot, heat clarified butter or ghee, make sure it does not burn.
• To this add cashews and raisins and fry them. Set aside.
• Again, add almond flour to the pan and lightly fry it. Make sure it gives a good aroma and is not burnt. This will take only a few minutes.
• To the fried almond flour add milk. Stir constantly and cook over low flame until the mixture thickens.
• Add sugar, stir constantly and cook for another 8-10 minutes or until the butter starts oozing out.
• Turn off the heat and stir in food color and ground saffron. Add the roasted cahews and raisins to the halwa.
• Sprinkle powdered cardamom to the halwa and mix it. Let the badam halwa cool.
• Serve warm garnished with the almond slivers or store in an air-tight container.