Shahi Tukda Recipe - The Royal Dessert For Festival Season

The days of devotion are here and so is the season to have the best food served on the table for all your guests. Do you remember how your mother used to cook special thali all 9 days of Navratri when we were little children trying to help them but ended up messing it up further? Now we are all grown up and the responsibility falls on our shoulders to come up with the best delicious food for these days of countless blessings.

I know, most of you hate going to the kitchen and cooking anything pro-level whole Navratri thali (non-fasting recipes). What if I give you one easy-to-make sweet recipe that brings out the royalty of your family? That's why we have the Shahi Tukda recipe. That's one easy to make, mouth-watering sweet, and makes you feel like a chef (we all want it somehow). 

What is Shahi Tukda?

Shahi Tukda may not be as famous as it sounds, however, in the Mughal times, this was served as a dessert to showcase the royalty of the period. It's nothing but fried bread, soaked into the flavorful sugar syrup and served with thick milk rabri. This is the only way to simplify this food. 

There are ways to make it in several parts of India, but one that gives the brilliant taste is Balai Tukda. That authentic dish has Balai, thick malai that comes from continuously boiling milk, which is now replaced by bread. This is why it points straight to the Mughals who brought double roti, or bread in India with them. 

It used to be a winter dessert at that time but today, when you take it out cold from the fridge, you'll feel the refreshing Sweetness of every bite you take.  

You must be thinking, Shadi Tukda is all about having savory rabri served on fried bread pieces but that rabri part is where all the hard work goes. What if I tell you there is a way out of this problem? You’ll find a much-simplified version of Shahi Tukda here in this recipe.

So, read on.

Shahi Tukda Ingredients

1. Bread 
2. 1 cup sugar + 2 tablespoon (for rabri)
3. 4 cups of milk
4. Bread crumbs
5. Oil for frying (refined oil or ghee)
6. Dry fruits chopped
7. 2 tablespoons of milkmaid
8. Cardamom or cardamom powder. 
9. A pinch of saffron
10. 1 cup of water.

Method to prepare the bread. 

• Take some bread slices like 5-6. Cut off the sides because if you leave them as it is, it will make the whole thing chewy. 
• After you trim the sides, cut the bread slices into four parts in a way that takes the shape of small triangles. 
• On the stove, put some oil to heat for frying the bread.

• As the oil heats up, put the bread triangles in the oil for frying. Make sure that the flame is not medium because if the flame is too low, the bread will soak the oil and if it's too high, it will burn the bread pieces. 
• Once the edges of the bread become golden in color, flip and fry from the other side. Strain and take out the bread from the oil. You’ll have crisp golden brown bread pieces as shown in the picture. 

• On the other side of the gas, put a pan and add about 1 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar. This is where we make the sugar syrup, aka chasni. 
• Once this solution comes to a boil, add about ½ teaspoon of cardamom powder or 2 whole green cardamoms for the extra flavor. 

• Stir and mix in between until the sugar dissolves completely. Once that’s done, turn off the gas and bring it to room temperature. 
• As you get sugar syrup at room temperature, dip the fried bread pieces completely. Soak the sugar syrup and let it rest in it for a while. 

Let’s make instant rabri in the meantime. 

Prepare the rabri

• In a pan, take about 4 cups of milk and add about 2 tablespoons of sugar. We are making it a bit less sweet because we have already dipped the bread in sugar syrup. 
• Mix the solution and add about 2 tablespoons of milkmaid. Keep it on medium flame and stir continuously in slow motion. 
• Once it comes to a boil, add about a pinch of saffron. If you don’t have saffron, you can also add a food color for the yellowish texture. However, you won’t get the flavor though. 

• Now mix and mix and mix until it becomes 1/3rd of what we started with. 
• After that, add about 4 tablespoons of bread crumbs. This is our little secret to thicken the rabri just like we see in the halwai shops. 
• Now, keep stirring until it becomes a little runny. 

• As you get the right texture, turn off the heat and cool it down. 

Plating of Shahi Tukda 

• In a flat tray-like container, place the bread in layers. Make sure you strain the sugar syrup using a spatula but don’t play with it too much as this can break the bread pieces. 

• Be gentle and place two-two pieces in a row. 
• Now, spread the rabri you just have prepared on top of the bread pieces. 
• Above it goes dry fruits and if you want, you can even place silver sheets for the extra royalty. 
• Now, the plating is ready to cool down together. For that, take the tray and put that in the refrigerator for like 30-45 minutes. This process will not only make it cold that you can enjoy in this burning summer but will also mix all the flavors. 

There you go, Shahi Tukda is ready to be served to your guests on this Navratri. 

Things to note

• If you want, you can prepare the sugar syrup through milk as well for the fine texture and taste. For this, you can have a milk and sugar mixture until sugar dissolves completely. Then add your fried bread pieces to it. Once the bread is soaked completely, you can take them out and use the same mixture to prepare rabri as your next step so that milk doesn't go to waste. 
• Cutting edges of the bread before frying is very important because it allows the bread to cook evenly while frying. Also, leaving sides on will make the bread hard to chew and you don't want that. 
• If you don't have bread crumbs, you can simply cut a small piece of bread (without sides) and use it to make rabri. The only thing to keep in mind is that once you get a not-so-thick rabri texture, use a hand grinder and grind the rabri thoroughly. Or else, you can cool it down to room temperature and use a mixing jar to grind it. 
• If you are conscious of deep-frying, you can also go for the shallow frying method. For that, spread the ghee on bread (without edges) and toast it on a Tava on a low flame until it becomes super crisp and golden brown in color. 
• You can also go for the microwave method. Just spread the ghee on each piece and cook it in micro until it becomes crisp. However, you might have to compromise with the taste. 

Wrapping up

Navratri is the festival of devotion and femininity and with it comes immense happiness. When we talk about happiness, it can come from the simplest of things, just like food. So, no matter if your guests are old or young just like your kids or niece and nephews, this Shahi Tukda recipe will surely bring a smile to people's faces. 

Get to the kitchen and make this delicious and mouth-watering recipe for your loved ones and make your Navratri extra special and royal.