At Indian wedding buffets, the dessert table empties fastest around one dish, shahi tukda. Soaked in creamy rabri and topped with almonds and pistachios, this sweet looks as rich as it tastes, and at big functions in cities like Patna, guests often clear the tray within minutes of it arriving.
A royal looking sweet that costs very little to make
Many people assume a dessert this decadent must be expensive to prepare, but that is not the case at all. Shahi tukda can be made at home with ordinary bread lying in the kitchen, a simple sugar syrup and rabri made from milk. Work out the total cost and each piece comes to very little money. If sugar syrup or the base ingredients are already prepared and sitting at home, the effort and the expense drop even further.
Start by cutting the bread into triangles
The first step is slicing regular bread into triangular pieces, cutting each slice so that it yields four small triangles. Once that is done, the real work begins with the rabri, which forms the heart of this sweet. Pour milk into a kadhai and bring it to a rolling boil on high heat. The moment it boils, lower the flame and let the milk simmer gently.
Cardamom and saffron go in as the milk thickens
After the milk has simmered for a while on low heat, stir in cardamom powder and a little saffron. Keep the milk cooking on low heat and stir it from time to time so that it does not stick to the bottom of the kadhai. The milk needs to reduce until its volume is roughly half of what it started as. While that happens, the syrup can be prepared in a separate pan at the same time to save effort.
Keep the syrup only lightly thick
To make the syrup, add one bowl of sugar and one and a half bowls of water to a separate pan and let it cook on medium heat. Once the sugar dissolves completely, let the syrup come to a boil and cook it until it turns lightly thick. A syrup that is only slightly thickened works best for this sweet, since it lets just the right amount of sweetness soak into the bread.
Fry the bread until golden and crisp
With the syrup and rabri underway, it is time to fry the bread. Heat oil or ghee in a pan and fry the triangular bread pieces in it until they turn golden in colour. Frying the bread properly keeps it crisp and lifts the overall flavour of the dessert by several notches. Once the pieces turn crisp, lift them out and set them aside on a plate.
Adding milk powder to the rabri
Once the milk in the kadhai has reduced to half, stir in two tablespoons of milk powder. It is important to keep stirring continuously while adding the milk powder so that no lumps form. After this, the rabri does not need much more cooking time. As soon as it turns slightly grainy and thick, turn off the flame. Take care not to let the rabri get too thick at this stage, because it will thicken further on its own once it cools down.
The trick to soaking the bread just right
Pour the lightly thickened syrup over the crisp, fried bread. The bread should not be dunked into the syrup, only enough syrup should be poured over it to bring in sweetness. One small detail matters a great deal at this stage, either the bread or the syrup needs to be warm. This helps the bread absorb the syrup properly. If both the bread and the syrup are cold, the sweetness will not soak in fully and the bread can end up tasting bland.
Top with rabri and dry fruits before serving
Now spoon a generous amount of the prepared rabri over the syrup soaked bread. Garnish it with chopped almonds, pistachios and a touch of saffron on top. Any dry fruit of choice can be used for the garnish. Let the finished sweet cool for at least 30 minutes before serving it. Made with ordinary bread at home, this shahi tukda tastes every bit as good as the sweets served at a wedding. The next time there is a craving for something sweet and royal at home, this easy method is worth trying.
