Bread Halwa – Indian Sweet

It takes quite some will to supress one’s appetite to indulge in a rich Indian sweet, be it a melt-in-the-mouth gulab jamun or bread halwa. But who can resist them? Over the past week we have been indulging ourselves with a lot of desserts – badam kheer, biscuit cake and bread halwa to name a few of the sinful temptations as we entertained friends at home.

Whenever there is left over bread at home, its either dried and crumbled to be used later as bread crumbs or more often than not, prepare bread halwa. Its simple to make and is a rich sweet which calls for a generous amount of sugar and ghee (clarified butter). Surely we should have the luxury of indulging ourselves, once in a while, to savor such sinful temptations!! -:)

Bite sized pieces of bread are fried in a generous amount of ghee till golden brown and then cooked in a milk, sugar and a paste of almonds and cashewnuts till soft and topped with almonds and cashews. The halwa has a rich sweet taste and can be served either warm or cold. I prefer my halwa warm as the halwa tends to be soft and has a nice mouth feel, while the cold halwa is not-so-soft as it tends to harden a bit. But the taste is heavenly either way.

1 Tear the bread into bit sized pieces. Heat three fourth cup of ghee in a cooking vessel and add the bread pieces and fry them till they turn a golden brown.
2 Grind elachi, almonds and cashewnuts (leave a few toasted almonds and cashewnuts aside for garnish) to a fine paste.
3 Meanwhile boil the milk, add sugar and keep stirring it till it blends into the milk. Add the fried bread pieces and the remaining ghee to this mixture.
4 Let it simmer till the bread pieces turn soft and cook in the milk mixture. Combine the nuts paste. Garnish with the toasted almonds and cashewnuts.
4 Serve warm or refrigerate until chilled and serve. It tastes good both warm and cold.