Pineapple Halwa Recipe (Pineapple Sheera | Kesari)

Pineapple halwa recipe - a sweet or dessert made from semolina, sugar, clarified butter and pineapple (pieces and puree).

In northern parts of India, it is called halwa. While in the western part of India, it is called pineapple sheera. While in south India, it is called pineapple kesari. Different names, same method and taste.

The basic sooji halwa aka sheera is the most popular sweet recipe in India. Today I am sharing the variation of it using pineapple in it. Most of the ingredients and procedure will be same as basic sheera recipe. Only addition is the pineapple and saffron.

Ingredients used for pineapple Sheera:

Sooji (Semolina or rava): There are two kinds of sooji available in the market. One is coarse verity and second is fine. For making halwa or sheera, I prefer to use fine semolina. But if you have coarse one available in your pantry, no worries use that.

Ghee (Clarified butter): This is essential to make rich and perfect textured sheera. Please do not reduce the amount of ghee used here.

Pineapple: For making this halwa, it is used two ways. Chopped pineapple provides some texture and you will have juicy bites here and there. While pineapple puree adds its flavor to the halwa.

Always use ripe and sweet pineapple. Taste your pineapple first and accordingly adjust the sugar quantity. Mine was really sweet and juicy. So I have used ½ cup of sugar which gives perfect sweetness.

Sugar: White sugar is used here.

Saffron: it gives nice bright yellow color to the halwa. Along with saffron, pineapple puree also plays a role in getting a nice color. Instead of saffron, you can use a few drops of yellow or orange food color.

How to make pineapple halwa?

1) Take water in a saucepan and let it come to a simmer on medium heat.

2) On another stove, take ghee, semolina and saffron in a pan on medium-low heat.

3) Start roasting the sooji with stirring constantly. As it gets heated up, ghee will starts to melt down.

4) Keep roasting and stirring till it gets a slight brown color or you will smell the toasty, nutty aroma of roasted sooji. You will also notice that ghee will starts to ooze out and the mixture will be bubbly, airy and very light. It will take about 7-8 minutes of roasting.

5) Now add chopped and pureed pineapple.

6) Mix well and continue cooking with stirring.

7) After a few minutes, it will become thick.

8) Now add simmering, hot water and while adding water, keep stirring with a spatula. Be careful, it may splutter a lot.

9) cook with stirring constantly for about 2 minutes. All the water will be absorbed by the sooji.

10) Now add sugar and mix.

11) As sugar melts, the mixture will again become runny.

12) Keep stirring and cooking until it gets thick and leaves the sides of the pan. Also, ghee will starts to ooze out from the sides.

13) Turn off the stove and add chopped cashew nuts.

14) Mix well.

Pineapple halwa or pineapple kesari is ready to serve.

Serving suggestion: Serve this pineapple sheera warm or chilled as a dessert.

Check out other halwa (sheera) recipes
Mango halwa  //  Banana sheera  //  Aate ka halwa  // Badam halwa