Badam Halwa (Almond Sheera)

Name: Badam Halwa (Almond Sheera)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
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

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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.

Badam halwa take with a spoon ready to eat

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❤️Why I Love This Recipe
🧾Ingredients
👩‍🍳 Step By Step Photo Instructions
💭Expert Tips
FAQs
📋 Recipe Card
⭐ Reviews

❤️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.

Ingredients used in almond halwa includes almonds, sugar, milk, ghee, saffron, cardamom, water.

👩‍🍳 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.

Collage of 4 images showing, blanching almonds, peeling almonds, in the blender with milk, ground paste

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

How to make Almond halwa with almond flour?

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.

Can I use jaggery instead of sugar?

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.

Badam halwa in a bowl garnished with saffron, few whole amonds are in the background

Check Out Other Halwa Recipes

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5 from 5 votes

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The BEST Badam Halwa you’ll ever eat! It is a perfectly rich and heavy festive dessert.

Author: Kanan

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Calories: 341kcal

Servings 6

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

US measuring cups are used (1 cup = 240 ml) See details

Ingredients

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.

Notes