The BEST Badam Halwa you’ll ever eat! It is a perfectly rich and heavy festive dessert. This recipe gives the exact same taste as you get in South Indian mithai shops.
Badam is the Hindi term for almonds, so it is also called almond halwa. In the western part of India, this kind of pudding is referred to as sheera. Hence we call it badam sheera.
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❤️Why I Love This Recipe
This is the traditional method of making almond halwa when almonds are blanched, peeled and ground and used in the recipe. There is another method that uses almond flour (detailed mentioned below).
The cooking time is only 15 minutes. That’s quick and you’ll have decadent dessert is ready.
This badam halwa recipe gives the perfect texture (soft yet firm), not pasty or dense at all.
It has the right amount of sweetness and richness. Perfect for festivals like Diwali, Holi, Raksha Bandhan, Iftar, etc.
🧾Ingredients
Here is the pic of ingredients used in almond halwa. You’ll need total 6 ingredients + water.
- As the name of the dish, almonds are the main ingredients, so use the good quality almonds.
- Adjust the sugar as per your liking sweetness. We prefer our desserts just sweet.
- Saffron and cardamom powder are added for the flavor.
👩🍳 Step By Step Photo Instructions
1) Take almonds in a bowl. Pour about a cup of hot boiling water. And let it soak the almonds for at least 5-15 minutes.
2) Drain all the water and start peeling the almonds. As we blanched the almonds it will be very easy to peel the skin off. It took me only 5 minutes.
3) Now take peeled almonds and milk in a blender.
4) And grind it into a puree. It should have some texture, do not make it smooth paste-like.
5) Heat 3 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter) in a pan on LOW heat.
6) Once the ghee is hot, add pureed almonds. And cook it with stirring continuously.
7) Keep cooking till all the milk or moisture gets evaporated and it starts to leave the sides of the pan. It took me about 10 minutes. Add saffron strands and mix it well.
8) Add sugar and mix.
9) Sugar will start to melt and halwa will become runny again. At this time add 1 tablespoon of ghee.
10) Keep stirring and cooking till it starts to leave sides of the pan and fat will ooze out. That time halwa is ready, turn off the gas heat.
💭Expert Tips
- Stirring constantly is the key here. Otherwise, it sticks, burns to the bottom of the pan. This burning flavor will ruin the halwa taste.
- Keep the gas heat LOW.
- Add ghee in two stages to get the best texture of halwa. First, in the beginning, second at the end of the cooking process.
- Storage: This badam halwa stays good in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
FAQs
Make a paste from almond flour (almond meal) by mixing with milk and use that paste just like I have used coarsely ground almonds paste in the recipe. Keep in mind that texture and taste will be different than made traditionally.
Personally, I have not tried. But one of the readers has tried this badam halwa with jaggery and she says it works fine. You can read the comment below.
Check Out Other Halwa Recipes
PS Tried this recipe? Please leave a star rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comment section. I always appreciate your feedback! Plus, Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook for all the latest updates.
📋 Recipe Card
Badam Halwa (Almond Sheera)
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almonds
- 1 ½ cup Water (boiling hot)
- 1 cup Milk
- 4 tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter)
- ⅔ cup Sugar
- 10 strands Saffron
- ½ teaspoon Green cardamom seeds powder
Instructions
Blanching & Pureeing Almonds:
- Take almonds in a bowl. Pour about a cup of hot boiling water. And let it soak the almonds for at least 5-15 minutes.
- Drain all the water and start peeling the almonds. As we blanched the almonds it will be very easy to peel the skin off. It took me only 5 minutes.
- Now take peeled almonds and milk in a blender. And grind it into a coarse puree. Don't make it smooth paste-like.
Making Almond Halwa:
- Heat 3 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter) in a pan on LOW heat.
- Once the ghee is hot, add pureed almonds. And cook it with stirring continuously till all the milk or moisture gets evaporated and it starts to leave the sides of the pan. It took me about 12 minutes.
- Add saffron strands and sugar and mix.
- Sugar will start to melt and halwa will become runny again. At this time add 1 tablespoon of ghee.
- Keep stirring and cooking till it starts to leave sides of the pan and fat will ooze out. That time halwa is ready, turn off the gas heat.
Neeta Shenoy
Hi Kanan, another gem from your kitchen. Just made it and it tasted fantastic. Now need to see how our guests react to the flavor. 🙂 Question, you have cardamom powder in the ingredients list, however, it doesn't show up in the cooking instructions. Is it optional? I added it towards the last 5-8 minutes of cook time and it turned out ok - applied your sage advice from other recipes.
Kanan Patel
Glad that it came out good.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention in the instructions
You did right by adding it towards the end of the cooking process.