Shahi Tukda is a delicious royal dessert made with bread, ghee, sugar, milk and nuts. It's made for special occasions and is served as a after meal dessert in a biryani meal.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 6
  • Category: Dessert
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 6 slices bread
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons ghee (or ¾ cup ghee (for deep frying))
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • ½ cup water
  • ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
  • ½ teaspoon rose water
  • 3½ cups milk ((or use condensed milk))
  • 4 tablespoons sugar ((for making the Rabri))
  • 1 Pinch saffron ((kesar))
  • 20 Almonds ((soaked for 4 hrs, optional, refer notes))
  • ¼ cup pistas (or mixed nuts)
  • 3 tablespoons khoya /mawa ((optional))

Method

Preparation

  1. Air dry or sundry the bread for 3 to 4 hours. You can also toast them on a pan. Do not use moist bread or bread from the fridge directly as they tend to absorb lot of ghee and have to fry longer to make crispier.
  2. Soak saffron in 2 tbsps hot milk.

Making Rabri

  1. Method - 1 Bring milk to a boil in a wide pot. Reduce the flame to low and continue to boil until the milk reduces to half. Then add sugar and saffron. Boil for another 5 mins. Set aside & cool this.
  2. Method - 2 Grind peeled almonds with 3 tbsps. Sugar, cardamom powder and ¼ cup milk to a very smooth paste. Pour to the 3 ½ cups milk and boil on a low flame till it reduces to almost 2 cups. Set aside to cool.
  3. You can also chill the rabdi until you serve.

Making sugar syrup for shahi tukda

  1. Mix sugar with water. Boil and bring to a 1 string consistency. Switch off the flame. Add rose essence.
  2. Remove the brown edges and cut the bread diagonally. Each slice into 2 or 4 as you desire.
  3. On a low flame deep fry the bread evenly till they turn golden and crispy. Alternately you can smear ghee over the bread and pan till they turn crispy. Set aside.

How to make Shahi Tukda

  1. Immerse these bread slices in the sugar syrup one after the other and place them in a serving plate.
  2. Just before serving pour the cooled rabri over the bread slices and garnish with toasted pistas. You can also sprinkle koya over it.
  3. Serve shahi tukda warm or chilled.

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.