Shahi Tukda–indian bread pudidng
What is Shahi-tukda?
The name and picture tells the story of this dessert!
- Shahi–translates as ‘ Royal’
- Tukda stands for –‘Piece’
This is the delicacy made for royals during Mugals era. The way its prepared and ingredients used were in reach of only royals as they were the most expensive ones. Even the use of ‘bread slices’ should have counted as very expensive those days : because I don’t think common households had bread at home.
Long live Royals and their demands that this dish got invented and now we can also relish it in our own kitchen. 
Muglai cuisine:
The Muglai cuisine has strong flavours, rich ingredients and wonderful aromatic ingredients giving it the unique royal touch. Shahi tukdas are also infused with ghee, dry fruits, cardamom, saffron, kewda, rose with a creamy and sweet mixture of sugar and milk.
How is it prepared?
Well, though its only for brave hearts who can ignore the calories or work towards burning those ..the dish starts itself with deep frying bread slices till they are drenched in ghee (clarified butter), later dipped in sugar syrup and to finish off, topped with sweetened evaporated milk & dry fruits, silver or gold foil etc etc…. Now you would know “How Shahi is this preparation! “
Similar Muglai dessert:
There’s a sibling for this royal dessert…thats called ‘Double ka Meetha’ , its made in similar way except that the bread slices are fried and later boiled in milk till they swell up to double the size ,hence the name.
What’s the difference: We can conclude by the way these two desserts are made , double ka meetha is like a bread pudding which is soft and luscious whereas Shahi tukda is layers of crispy bread slices, glistening sugar syrup and topped with milky shahi rabdi.
Start off by making Rabdi as its time consuming and taste better only when its thickened well. Boil together milk , dry fruits, saffron and simmer till thickened and later goes sugar with cardamom.
Make sugar syrup by boiling sugar with water and saffron. It takes 6-7 minutes from scratch to reach one thread consistency which can be checked by taking a drop of syrup and stretching between two fingers to see the ‘thread’.
Crispy fried bread slices can be done either by shallow frying or deep frying in ghee till they have a light brown colour onto them.
Assemble the shahi tukda with layers of bread, sugar syrup, rabdi and garnish!
: Recipe Card :
| Prep Time | 10 minute |
| Cook Time | 60 minute |
| Servings |
people
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Ingredients
For bread layer:
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- Rabdi : start off by boiling milk with dry fruits and saffron in a wide ,thick bottomed pan. Stir continuously making sure it doesn’t stick to bottom. Once milk is half reduced add in sugar and cardamom. Keep mixture on low heat, occasionally stirring while we make bread preparation. It needs to thicken and reduce to 1/3 of original quantity.
- Sugar syrup : Boil 1/4 cup of water in small saucepan, add in sugar and boil till it comes to one string consistency. It takes 3-4 minutes after the syrup comes to boil. Add essence and keep it aside to cool.
- Rabdi should be ready by now.
- Crispy bread : As rabdi is simmering , trim off sides of breads and deep /shallow fry bread slices one by one on medium heat till they turn light brown. Keep aside on kitchen towel to drain excess ghee.
- Assembling shahi tukda: arrange bread pieces in serving dish, pour the sugar syrup onto them and next goes rabdi over them ,top it up with some more dry fruits, saffron, silver foil, cardamom. rose petals etc .
GOOD TO KNOW :
- Using sugar syrup keeps the shahi tukda crisp and not so soggy with rabdi. One can skip the step of making sugar syrup and add more sugar in rabdi to adjust the sweetness. I usually pour the rabdi at last minute to keep breads crisp. (that’s how I like it)
- For health conscious mind: I’ve toasted the bread slices before frying them which takes little oil and ready in less than half time. You can even toast them till brown with little butter brushed on both sides to avoid frying .
- For making the flower shape: I’ve cut bread slices using a round cutter/bowl and fried it. Later cut it into half which becomes a half moon shape ,easily used for shaping a flower.
- For the quickest version of shahi tukda:soak cake rusk in milk for 2 minutes and serve them with rabdi made with condensed milk and milk simmered for 5 minutes..
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