Shahi Tukda is one of the first Indian desserts I learnt how to make, and it has taken a fair few years to perfect. My version uses soaked pistachios to give this pudding a gorgeous green hue and loads of rich flavour. This has to be one of the most requested recipes at family events and parties! You can call this an Indian Bread & Butter pudding and it is a recipe that everyone absolutely loves
What is Shahi Tukda?
Shahi Tukda is one of those desserts that people keep coming back for more and more. It also happens to be one of my favourites to make!
This Hyderbadi dessert has it’s origin from the Mughal era during their reign in India. Also known as Double ka Meetha, this sweet is made using bread (or the Tukda or Double in the names) that is soaked in sugar syrup and topped with a thickened sweet milk mixture (or Rabri). Previously made and served during the holy month of Ramadan, Shahi Tukda has made its way into mainstream cooking and can be found in many Indian restaurants now.
What do you need?
My recipe has been a long labour of love to develop, with several attempts over a few years. I am so proud of this recipe and how far it’s come. I mean I have done every possible iteration to try and make this the best recipe possible, and it is finally here.
There are 3 key components to Shahi Tukda
1. The Bread
Now typically you would use white bread for this recipe, and if you do, do yourself a flavour and buy the high fibre expensive kind. Believe or not but white bread is made cheaper by adding a lot of water content into the bread itself, and watery bread results in a soggy, compressed result.
I’ve made this recipe a few times with wholemeal bread, and it works incredibly. The wholemeal bread holds up really well against all the soaking required in this recipe, and you know what? It makes you think the recipe is just slightly healthy.
Either way, whichever bread you choose, you need to shallow fry this up in some beautiful fragrant ghee. I always add a touch of vegetable oil to the ghee to ensure I get no burning – this step is really critical if you choose to substitute the ghee for butter to ensure the butter doesn’t burn. I cut the pieces of bread into 4 square pieces before frying them up in the ghee until they are golden brown and crispy either side. Set these aside to cool on a cooling rack so that they remain nice and crispy.
2. The Sugar Syrup
For this recipe we make an easy syrup, with one cup of sugar along with one cup of water. This is infused with cardamom pods, some saffron and rose water (the trifecta of beautiful Shahi Mughlai flavours). It’s simple enough!
You need to boil these down over the lowest heat until you get what is called a two thread consistency. That means after dipping a spoon in, and letting it cool, when you press some of the syrup between your forefinger and thumb you get a nice thin thread that makes it to at least 2 cms. Basically you need a lovely, thick sugar syrup.
After cooling this mixture for about 5-10 minutes, the fried bread needs to be dipped into this syrup using a pair of tongs to coat the bread properly. You only need to soak the pieces for 20 seconds (max!) before arranging them into a baking dish, tray or whatever you plan to use to assemble the final thing!
3. The Rabri / Sweet Thickened Milk Mixture
The rabri is probably the most incredible part of this recipe, and actually is very unique in my recipe. The most of the experimentation that happened with this recipe was solely in perfecting this rabri. I’ve tried it all! Condensed milk, boiling down milk, white sugar, and various techniques.
My perfected recipe uses evaporated milk (saves you a hell of a lot of time), brown sugar, soaked pistachios, and cardamom (of course!). Trust me – this one is a true banger. The little secret is to add the left over sugar syrup right into the milk mixture. This creates a beautiful harmony of flavours and makes the entire dessert one cohesive story.
The great thing is, you can absolutely make this ahead!
the Milk
Full cream milk vs Evaporated milk?
In all honesty, the basic answer here is time. The time you save using evaporated milk is huge. I have actually tested the recipe using evaporated milk and full cream milk, and the results are basically the same. Using evaporated milk is easier, and saves a lot of time for you as well. I recommend the evaporated milk route if it’s your first time making this dessert, if you aren’t 100% comfortable cooking in the kitchen, or if you are short on time.
Now just because you are using evaporated milk, doesn’t mean you don’t stay 100% focused on the pot, stirring it continuously, watching it carefully and ensuring the contents do not bubble over. Keeping your eye close on the pot is absolutely critical.
Here is the recipe!
Shahi Tukda
Equipment
- Fry pan
- Baking tray or dish
- 2 Pots
- bowl
- Food processor or Nutri-bullet
Ingredients
The Bread
- 6 slices white or whole meal bread crusts removed
- ¼ cup ghee or vegetable for frying
The Sugar Syrup
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup water
- 2-3 whole cardamom pods
- ½ tsp dried rose petals
- ½ tsp rose water optional
the Rabri using evaporated milk
- 1 can evaporated milk 400mL
- 5-10 strands saffron
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup pistachios soaked overnight
- ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
- toppings: chopped pistachio, rose petals, silver foil and/more saffron strands
Instructions
- Soak the pistachios in water overnight
- Start by preparing the sugar syrup. In a saucepan, combine the granulated sugar, 1 cup water, cardamom pods, rose water and rose petals and gently mix to ensure all the sugar is covered by the water. Heat this over the lowest heat
- Continue to heat the syrup up until it thickens and forms a two strand consistency. To test this, dip a spoon into the syrup and cool it gently before using your index finger and thumb to pinch some of the syrup. Separate your fingers gently – if the syrup can form a cohesive 1-2 cm strand, the syrup is ready. Remove the syrup from the heat and set aside to cool
- Pour the soaked pistachios and 2 tablespoons or so of the soaking liquid into a grinder, food processor, or vitamix/nutri-bullet and blitz until smooth. You want to get a very smooth paste. If there are still lumps or chunks of pistachio, add some more of the soaking liquid and grind until you achieve a smooth lump free paste
- In a different saucepan or non-stick pot combine the evaporated milk, pistachio mixture, brown sugar, saffron and heat over a low to medium heat setting. It's important to continually stir the pot using a spatula to prevent any milk from sticking to the bottom and burning
- Bring the milk mixture to a gentle boil and let this simmer for roughly 10 minutes on the lowest heat setting. Add the ground cardamom, mix it through then set aside to cool.
- Now prepare the bread. Cut each slice into 4 small squares
- Prepare a cooling rack with paper towel underneath it, right beside your stovetop
- Heat up 1-2 tbsp of ghee at a time in a wide pan
- Add 4 to 6 pieces of the bread into the pan to fry. The number of pieces will depend on the size of your pan and be sure not to overcrowd
- Fry until the piece is golden brown then turn over and fry till golden brown too
- Remove the bread from the pan and set aside on the rack to drain the oil. The cooling rack will keep the pieces crispy
- Once the bread is cool enough to touch, use a fork or a pair of tongs to dip the bread pieces into the sugar syrup. Only let the pieces soak for a total of 15 seconds before removing them and arranging the pieces in a baking tray, or serving tray
- Pour all the remaining syrup into the prepared rabri/milk mixture and stir everything well
- Now pour the rabri/milk mixture all over the soaked bread and set the tray aside in the fridge for at least 3 hours before serving
- Top with more pistachios, rose petals, saffron strands or even some ice cream on the side
As always, let me know what you think of my recipe. This is hands down one of my very favourites! Share your photos with me @theminiaturelife on Instagram and be sure to send me a Direct Message so that I can see it!
