Badam Halwa – Mrs. Saraswathi Dorairaj’s special badam halwa

Badam Halwa – A festival full of sweet memories, sky full of fireworks, mouth full of sweets, house full of deepams and heart full of enjoyment! Here is a scoop of love from my grandma’s Badam Halwa – indispensable for any kind of celebration in our family… be it a wedding, birthday, anniversary, festival, vacation, travel abroad…?ada! chumma exam pass pannaley 😀 this will be on the table from my ஆயா Mrs. Saraswathi Dorairaj, who will be 95 plus this year, had made this a thousand times for each one of us in our family. With no comforts what so ever, she makes these from scratch every time.. from kova to ghee all kindufied in slow flame for hours together in a dark kitchen with no ventilation? Nothing but pure love❤️…. makes this taste sooooo ?awesome. Also the way she takes care to get them neatly packed to perfection to serve them in style to make us all happy… a million thanks is never enough! 

After so many years.. I realize how hard it is to make traditional sweets which were once relished without even knowing the efforts of someone behind, who put in hours of hard work just to make her family happy… I owe her a thousand? kisses???? flying all the way from Detroit to Chennai! This rich delicacy is deeply rooted in our family tradition…I’m so glad that i have mastered it after this many 🙄 years and all credit goes to grandma who is not only a good cook but a Gold medalist in physics has given us guidance throughout my life from studies to tradition. ?Though she is not in a position to read nor see all of these but will be proud of her granddaughter who promises to keep the family tradition alive!

There is another version that she makes which includes almond and cashew… which typically made to feed a large crowd, check that version here Badam Halwa

Ingredients

• Badam / Almond – 1 cup
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Milk – 1 cup
• Ghee – 1/2 cup
• Yellow food color – 1 pinch
• Saffron – we never add this in our family as it may change the taste
• Patience – definitely a ton

Lets see how to make this Badam Halwa…

Before we start… some things to note for sure

1. Flame should be always on low medium, never cross that mark.

2. Stirring is a must all the time, a quick distraction can send the halwa straight to hell 😈 

Boil 2 cups of water and pour it over raw almonds and soak it for 30 minutes. (or alternately you can soak with room temperature water for 3 hours)

Then lightly rub off the skin which by that time will loosen quite a bit.

Keep them soaked as you peel each one of them. (this is an annoying job, so outsource)

Then drain all the water and rub between a clean towel to dry.

Take the dry badam in a mixer.

Pour the milk and grind.

You are going to just run the mixer in pulse mode. We need a grainly texture and not a paste. The ground almond should be of rava consistency and not a paste.

Add about a tablespoon of ghee to a non stick pan… (any an is fine but non stick makes the job easier)

Add the paste to it and fry over low flame.

Add in the sugar and mix.

Which will slowly melt and blend with the almond paste.

Add in food color at this stage and stir.

The consistency will be watery for the first 15 minutes of stirring.

Add in  a teaspoon of ghee at regular intervals and keep stirring.

In the next 15 minutes it will thicken but will be sticky. Add in ghee and stir. It will bubble at times and splutter… so be careful and never stop stirring.

The next fifteen minutes will bubble and start to roll up and the ghee will slowly separate from the paste. Also the badam paste will now look a lot firmer and not sticky. Add the remaining ghee at this stage and stir.

After about an hour…. your halwa will firm up and start leaving the sides automatically and dance in ghee as you shake the pan. Switch off. Remove the pan from flame and keep it aside to do the testing…

Apply little ghee to a plate and roll a bit of that paste to see whether it forms a soft ball as shown.

It should dance to your tunes… see iam shaping it with a spoon and its obliging 😛 Now, that’s the right consistency. You deserve the Master Chef title 😉

Pour it over a plate greased with ghee and let it sit for 2 hours.

Once it cools.. it will firm up even more and is ready for some dress up… we in our famli never eat it froma cup, the traditional way is to pack them i butter/ parachment paper. Scoop some in a square cut butter paper and fold.

Fold on either side.

Fold the ends and there’s your passport to heaven!

All set for deepavali distribution 🙂 Wishing all my readers a very Happy Deepavali!

Notes

• Makes 20 packs
• Our family recipe calls for 1:1:1 ratio of almond, sugar & milk. I’m sticking to it… but if you want to cut down on the time of stirring reduce the milk. But the taste of kova will be less.
• No compromise on ghee… yo need the entire 1/2 cup
• Like I said saffron tend to change the taste of the halwa and we never add it… you may if you like it.