Wishing all my dear readers and family a great Diwali. May this festival of joy brings more happiness in your life. Today I am presenting a delicious sweet which you can make in a jiffy without much planning. Every year during Eid, my Muslim friend here in Sydney gives us delicious Biryani and Sweet. Two years back, she gave me this bread halwa and I tasted it for the first time. It tasted so yummy and I was planning to make it at home since then. Also, she told me that this sweet is very common in Muslim Wedding Menu along with biryani. When I was planning to make some Diwali sweet, this came to my mind and I got the recipe from her. I tried it yesterday with few changes and it came out so well. Traditionally, the bread pieces are deep-fried in ghee and I have followed the same. You can also deep fry it in any oil or shallow fry it with little ghee. Please read the notes section for other options. Do check out my diwali special collection too.
Ingredients:Bread Slices - 6 (250 grams)
Full Cream Milk - 1 Cup(250 ml)
Water - 1 Cup(250 ml)
Milkmaid(condensed milk) - 1/2 CupSugar - 1/4 Cup(more or less as per need)Ghee - 1/2 CupCardamom - 1 tsp(crushed)Nut & Seeds - as required
(I used cashews & sunflower seeds)
Method:
1. Measure and keep the ingredients ready. Chop the bread slices into small pieces. Reserve two tablespoons of ghee for later use and heat the rest of the ghee for deep frying the bread pieces. You can also deep fry it in oil or shallow fry the bread with little ghee. 
2. Fry the bread pieces until crispy and golden brown. Remove it and keep it aside.
4. Add the fried bread pieces at this stage. The bread pieces will observe the liquid and becomes soft. Reduce the flame and cook until the bread pieces are soft and mushy. When everything starts to come together, add a tablespoon of ghee and mix it all together.
5. In a tablespoon of ghee, fry the cashew nuts and pour it over the halwa. Mix and cook until the ghee starts oozing out. Switch of the flame and the yummy halwa is ready to be served.
Like carrot halwa, the bread halwa also goes well with vanilla icecream. Serve it warm or cold based on your preference.
Points to remember:
- Instead of deep-frying the bread pieces completely in ghee, you can use half oil and half ghee or you can fry completely in oil.
- If you want to use less ghee, you can toast the bread pieces in little ghee and add a few teaspoons of ghee at the later stage.
- Bread pieces will drink lots of ghee/oil. Few days old stale bread slices left in room temperature is ideal for this recipe. You can sundry or fan dry the bread pieces for a few minutes before deep frying. You can also stale the bread in the oven.
- Since we are adding ghee and milkmaid the halwa will be very rich and hence I have added only one cup of full cream milk. If using light milk, you can go up to 2 cups(500 ml) of milk and skip the water.
- Adjust the sugar based on your preference and you can increase it up to 1/2 cup.
- I have used big sized wheat bread slices along with the sides. I have mentioned the bread quantity in grams as well and following this will give you a better idea to adjust the sugar quantity.
- White bread can also be used for this recipe. I prefer wheat bread for the dark colour halwa.
- If you need really smooth halwa, you can ignore the sides of the bread slices. Powdered rusk can also be used for this recipe.
- Compromising the ghee quantity will surely give a difference in the texture of the halwa.
- Almonds, Raisins, Tutti Frutti and any melon seeds can be used as toppings.
Happy's Cook - Divya
