Badam Halwa (Almond Fudgy sweet)
A traditional rich recipe made out of almond paste (soaked almonds ground into a paste with/without milk), sugar, and clarified butter. Those are the basic ingredients. Saffron and cardomom powder are optionally added for flavor and color. Something similar in the western culture would be marzipan, a candy made out of almond paste, sugar, and sometimes eggs. Yeah. Not really similar. Just kidding.
Servings Prep Time
1.5cups 15minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30-45minutes 2hours to soak and peel the almonds
Servings Prep Time
1.5cups 15minutes
Cook Time Passive Time
30-45minutes 2hours to soak and peel the almonds
Ingredients
  • 1cup almonds
  • 1cup sugar
  • 3-4tbsp ghee/clarified butter
  • few strandsof saffron soaked in milk
  • 1cup milk
Instructions
  1. Soak the almonds for an hour or two in hot water. Peel them. Alternate: You may also soak overnight in regular water. To peel, simple hold the almond between your thumb and forefinger, and squeeze, the almond should pop out
  2. Gather the ingredients.
  3. Use the milk to grind the almonds to a paste. Slightly coarse consistency yields a lovely texture to the halwa. If you don’t like it, you may also make it into a fine paste.
  4. Heat a heavy bottom kadai. I used my le creuset enamel coated dutch oven, and nothing sticks to it. Add the sugar, and almond paste, and stir on a low-medium heat.
  5. When the liquid condenses into a mass, add the ghee a little bit at a time, and continue to stir. Also, add the saffron soaked in milk when the paste has cooked a litlte bit.
  6. When all the ghee has been added, at some point the halwa would release the ghee it has absorbed. At this stage, it’s ready!
  7. Remove from heat, and scoop into a serving dish.