I am participating in Indian Cooking Challenge after a long break. For this month, we were challenged to cook a traditional sweet, badam halwa. It is a rich halwa loaded with ghee. I used unsalted butter. Almonds or badam are soaked overnight, peeled, ground to paste, cooked in ghee, sweetened with sugar and flavored with cardamom powder. I followed the recipe as given and felt I could have cut back a little on ghee. Mr.U thought it was a too sweet but it was fine for my sweet tooth.
Servings: 1 – 1 ½
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup Almonds ~ Badam
- 4 tbsp. Ghee (I used unsalted butter. Check note below)
- 4 tbsp. Sugar or to taste
- Pinch of Cardamom Powder
- ¼ – ½ cup Water
Preparation:
- Soak almonds in water overnight. Peel, wash the almonds and grind to a fine paste. I forgot to soak almonds overnight and instead soaked in hot water for 2 hours in a covered pan. Then peeled the almonds, put them in freezer for 30 – 45 minutes and then ground to paste. This tip, to soak in hot water, freeze and then grind to paste was shared by Kalyani and it worked just perfect.
- After peeling the almonds, grind them to fine paste using very little water. I used about 1 ½ – 2 tbsp. of water but if possible, use less water.
- Heat ghee or unsalted butter in a nonstick pan and roast almond paste stirring it constantly until it is roasted and changes color. This will take about 10 minutes. I roasted it on medium to medium high flame for 3-4 minutes and then reduce the flame to medium low. If the paste burns reduce the flame to low and roast it stirring constantly.
- Once the almond paste is roasted, gradually add water and bring it to halwa consistency.
- Add cardamom powder, sugar and mix well. Halwa will become diluted as sugar melts.
- Cook on low flame until halwa thickens and ghee/butter begins to float.
Note:
- Less ghee can be used. Ghee was floating on the halwa. Usually traditional sweets do tend have lot of ghee in it but I felt I could have cut back on ghee.
This day in 2010: Varo for Indian Cooking Challenge
This day in 2012: Shaped Dinner Rolls
kurinji says
beautiful clicks and delicious halwa…
kanchi says
Yummy
Srivalli says
The pictures are looking so divine Usha…so glad you joined us after so long..
Suchitra says
Hi Usha, what the advantage behind soaking in hot water and freezing th e almonds? Btw pic looks excellent!!!!
MySpicyKitchen says
Soaking in warm water is a shortcut. I forgot to soak almonds the night before. Soaking in hot water speeds up the soaking. As for freezing, to be honest I do not know. I was told that if I soak in hot water to speed up the soaking, I also need to freeze it for sometime before grinding to get a nice almond paste. I just followed that tip.
Suja says
Wow.. That’s a nice presentation..
nayana says
Healthy halwa looks very yummy
Pavani says
I loved making this badam hlawa. It was so rich and delicious. Love your traditional look to the picture with the props.