Shahi Tukda is a rich, royal, indulgent and popular dessert from the Mughlai Cuisine. It is made of ghee fried bread slices that are soaked in rose & cardamom scented sugar syrup that are topped with fragrant, creamy, sweetened, thickened milk (a.k.a rabdi) that is flavored with exotic saffron. It is garnished with nuts like almonds, pistachios, cashews and sometimes even edible silver leaf (varak).

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 60 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 90 minutes
  • Yield: 4
  • Category: Desserts
  • Cuisine: Indian, Mughlai

Ingredients

  • 1 litre whole milk
  • 2 to 2.5 tablespoons sugar (or as required)
  • 3 tablespoons milk powder (or dairy whitener, optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon green cardamom powder
  • 1 tablespoon masala milk powder (- optional)
  • 1 teaspoon kewra water ((pandanus water) or 1 teaspoon rose water or a 1 to 2 drops of kewra essence or rose essence)
  • 12 to 15 saffron strands (or 1 to 2 pinches of saffron powder)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder (or 3 to 4 green cardamoms powdered in mortar pestle or 1 teaspoon rose water or a drop of rose essence)
  • 6 slices bread (- white or brown or whole wheat or milk bread)
  • 2 tablespoons ghee ((clarified butter) - 1 tablespoon for frying each batch of bread, add more if required)
  • 12 to 15 almonds (- blanched and sliced)
  • 12 to 15 saffron strands (- optional)
  • 10 to 12 pistachios (- blanched and sliced)

Method

Blanching nuts

  1. First heat a cup of water till it begins to boil in a microwave or stove top or electric heater.
  2. Add the pistachios and almonds to the hot water.
  3. Cover and keep aside for 30 mins. Then peel both and slice or chop them. Set aside.

Making rabri

  1. In a broad thick bottomed pan or sauce pan or a kadai take the whole milk and bring to a boil. Stir the milk a few times when it is coming to a boil, to avoid it from getting browned or stuck to the pan.
  2. Then add milk powder (I used nestle brand). The addition of milk powder reduces the cooking time of rabri. Milk powder is not essential and if you don't have then also it is fine. Just that you will have to simmer the milk for some more minutes.
  3. Add masala milk powder. Again optional and if you don't have just add a pinch of crushed saffron and ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder.
  4. Remove the clotted cream or malai which forms on top of the milk and add it back to the milk. Also keep on scraping the dried milk from the sides and add them back to the milk.
  5. Do stir and scrape often so that the milk does not get browned or burnt from the bottom as well as the sides.
  6. Keep on simmering, stirring, removing the clotted cream and scraping.
  7. Switch off when the milk has reduced to one-third of its original volume and become thickened.
  8. Add sugar. Stir well so that the sugar dissolves.
  9. Next add crushed saffron and kewra water (pandanus water) or rose water. Skip this step, if you have added saffron earlier. You can also add sliced almonds and pistachios here. I did not add as I have already added homemade masala milk powder, which is finely ground dry fruits with a few fragrant spices.
  10. It will take about 1 hour for the milk to thicken on a low to medium-low heat.

Pan frying bread

  1. Slice the crusts of the bread. Cut them into squares, rectangles or triangles.
  2. Heat 1 tablespoons of ghee in a flat pan, tava or frying pan.
  3. Place the bread slices and on a medium-low to medium heat toast them.
  4. When one side is browned, flip and toast the other side.
  5. Flip once or twice more to get an even golden color and browning.
  6. Drain the bread slices on paper towels.
  7. Add 1 tablespoon ghee again and toast the remaining batch. Keep all the toasted bread side.

Making sugar syrup

  1. Mix sugar with in a pan. You can begin with the sugar syrup when you start to toast bread slices.
  2. Keep the sugar solution on a low heat.
  3. The mixture would start to come to a boil.
  4. Cook till you get a one thread consistency in the sugar syrup.
  5. Switch off the heat, when one thread consistency is reached in the sugar syrup. Add cardamom powder and stir.
  6. In case the syrup cools and crystallizes before you soak the bread in it, then add about 1 to 1.5 tablespoons of water and reheat the syrup until lightly hot.

Making shahi tukda

  1. Now dip the bread slices in the sugar syrup. With the help of a spoon or small tongs, coat the bread slices evenly with the sugar syrup. If this is difficult for you, then just pour the sugar syrup evenly on a neatly arranged bed of bread slices.
  2. Arrange the sugar syrup soaked bread slices neatly in a serving tray or plate.
  3. Pour the rabri on the sugar syrup coated bread slices.
  4. Garnish with sliced blanched almonds and pistachios.
  5. Serve the rich royal Shahi Tukda.
  6. If not serving shahi tukda immediatedly, then keep in the fridge in a covered container. If you plan to add silver foil (chandi ka varak) then place it at the time of serving, whether serving shahi tukra chilled or warm or at room temperature.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.