Shahi Tukda is considered a Mughlai dessert dish, though it has many stories regarding its arrival in India. Some said it was accidentally invented in the royal kitchens; others said it was brought to us by Emperor Babur and many more stories. Shahi Tukda means ‘a royal piece’ of dessert. Generally, they say, it’s a dessert made by kings for kings.
What is Shahi Tukda?
A decadent royal dessert made with bread pieces fried in ghee that are dipped in a sugar cardamom syrup, topped with thick creamy flavourful rabdi and garnished with lots of nuts. This royal sweet has a twin brother who stays in Hyderabad, yup, correct! “Double ka Meetha” is the same recipe, only the names are different. It is called by that name because, in India, in many states bread is known as double roti, so the name came from there.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Mughlai
Time of preparation: 40 mins
Ingredients
- 5 bread slices
- 1/2 ml water
- 2 crushed black cardamom
- 3 cup milk
- 1 handful cashews
- 1 handful pistachios
- 1/2 cup ghee
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 6 strand saffron
- 2 pinches of powdered green cardamom
- 1 handful almonds
Directions
Making Rabadi for the dish
- Boil the whole milk in a large, thick-bottomed pan, saucepan, or Kadai. When the milk begins to boil, stir it a few times to prevent it from browning or sticking to the pan.
- Then stir in the milk powder. The use of milk powder shortens the cooking time of rabadi.
- Mix in the masala milk powder (optional); if you don’t have any, add a pinch of crushed saffron and ¼ teaspoon of cardamom powder.
- Remove the clotted cream or malai formed on top of the milk and replace it with the milk. Continue scraping the dried milk from the sides and adding it back to the milk.
- Stir and scrape frequently to keep the milk from browning or burning on the bottom and sides.
- Continue to simmer while stirring, removing the clotted cream and scraping.
- Please turn off the heat when the milk has reduced to one-third of its original volume and thickened.
- Pour in the sugar. Stir well to dissolve the sugar.
- Then add crushed saffron and kewra (pandanus) or rose water. If you’ve already added saffron, you can skip this step.
- The milk will thicken in about an hour on low to medium-low heat.
Making Sugar syrup
- Mix sugar in a pan, and maintain low heat in the sugar solution.
- The mixture would begin to heat up. Cook till the sugar syrup reaches a one thread consistency.
- When the sugar syrup reaches one-thread consistency, turn off the heat. Stir in the cardamom powder.
- If the syrup cools and crystallises before you soak the bread in it, reheat it with 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of water until lightly hot.
Making ghee-fried bread
- Bread should be sliced. Make squares, rectangles, or triangles out of them.
- Tava, or frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of ghee in a flat pan. Toast the bread slices in a skillet over medium-low to medium heat.
- Flip and toast the other side. Flip once or twice more to achieve an even golden colour and browning.
- On paper towels, drain the bread slices. Toast the remaining batch with 1 tablespoon of ghee. Keep all of the toasted bread on one side.
Pro tip: Bread should be sun-dried for 3-4 hours or dry in an oven because if you use bread directly from the fridge, it will soak more ghee.
Shahi Tukda Assembly
- Dip the bread slices into the sugar syrup now. Coat the bread slices evenly with the sugar syrup using a spoon or small tongs.
- Arrange the sugar syrup-soaked bread slices in a serving tray or plate neatly.
- Pour the rabri over the bread slices coated in sugar syrup.
- Garnish with nuts.
Tadaaa! Your dish is ready. Serve the affluent royal shahi tukda.