Badam Halwa / Almond Halwa – Celebrating 5 Years of Blogging

It has been 5 years since I started blogging, and it has been a wonderful experience. Blogging, which started as a hobby is now a passion. Though, I have taken quite a few breaks, few long ones too, but I could never stay completely away from the blog. I owe this to my lovely readers, friends and my family. Big thanks to one and all for all your love and support.

I wanted to do a special post to mark this milestone, in my blogging journey. What better way to celebrate than with a sweet. Badam Halwa is one of my favorite sweets. This sweet was one among my grandfather’s signature recipes. Almost every year for Diwali, he used to prepare a fairly large quantity of this halwa and me and my brother used to gorge it. This halwa is a big hit with my kids. Both my girls love it.

This halwa is mildly sweet, with a rich flavor of saffron and ghee. Ghee is a very important part of this recipe and one should not compromise on it. Do try it and let me know how it turned out.

What you’ll need

1. Almonds/Badam – ½ cup, heaped
2. Sugar – ½ cup, heaped
3. Ghee – 1/3 cup
4. Saffron – a fat pinch
5. Milk – ½ cup enough to grind the badam and to soak the saffron
6. Yellow food color – just a little (optional)

Method

1. Soak the badam in hot water for 2 hours. Peel the almonds.
2. Grind the almonds with just enough milk into a smooth paste. You can keep it slightly coarse if you like.
3. Soak the saffron in 2 tbsp of warm milk. Keep aside.
4. Heat a heavy bottomed kadai, or a non stick kadai, add the sugar and ¼ cup of water, let the sugar dissolve completely.
5. Now add the ground badam paste and start stirring. Add the soaked saffron milk too. Add the food color also if using.
6. Keep stirring on medium heat, start adding the ghee at regular intervals, whenever you feel the mixture is sticking to the bottom add the ghee.
7. At one stage, the mixture will start leaving the sides and you will start seeing white frothy bubbles. This is the right stage to stop. Switch off the heat and keep stirring for some more time.
8. One it cools slightly take a small portion and try to roll it, if you can make a ball then the consistency is right.
9. Transfer to a vessel, cool and store.

Note:

1. When the halwa is hot, it will be a little runny and sticky, once it cools, it will become thicker and non sticky.
2. If on cooling, it doesn’t thicken enough and is still sticky then the amount of ghee added is not enough and also it requires a little more stirring. So stir for some more time.
3. Adding food color is completely optional.
4. To get a good texture and shiny halwa, amount of ghee is very important.