Traditional thirunelveli halwa | Tirunelveli Halwa | Iruttukadai Halwa | How to make wheat halwa at home

1. Take 1 cup of  Sambha Godhumai / Wheat in a bowl. Wash it well and let it soak for nearly 12 hrs( This is how its traditionally soaked, it has to soak at least 10-12 hrs). Now blend them in mixie and extract thick milk out of them. I have maximum used 1/2 of water to extract this thick milk. Now filter it using a cloth strainer.




2. Throw the wheat dough part that you get as residue after extracting the milk. Now pour this milk in a bowl and let it rest for 3-4 hrs. The milk has to stay idle for few hours to get that perfect taste you get in FAMOUS SHOPS like IRUTTUKADAI halwa.

3. Now if you notice the milk, you will see little water floating on top and thick milk . Slowly pour out that little water that's floating and keep the thick milk safe. Now take a glass and measure it. I got 1 cup of thick milk. Now to this add 2 more cup of water and mix it well.


4. Now heat pan, add 1/4 cup of water and when it's boiling add  1 cup of sugar. Let it caramelize to golden brown in color.

How to camamelize?

• Add 1/4 up water to pan and let it boil. Now add 1 cup sugar and srir until the sugar completely dissolves. Then stop stirring. With in a min or 2 it will start to get mild to dark  brown in color that's caramelizing. If you keep srirring then the sugar will get hard. (Stop stirring once the sugar is completely dissolved)

This step is very important since this will be the color of the halwa once done. So caramelize to whatever colour you need say like mild brown or golden brown. Tirunelveli halwa is usually dark brown or honey brown in color it's never yellow or orange. Don't ever use food coloring for this. By caramelizing the sugar correctly you will automatically achieve the perfect color and texture.



5. Okay now off to recipe, once you have caramelized the sugar, add the milk and start stirring. From here all you will be doing is stirring. After 20 mins of stirring the halwa will start to thicken. Now add the remaining 1 and half cup of sugar and keep stirring. Always keep the flame in low to medium. This process will take time so you need lots of patience. Never stop stirring, this is a very important thing to remember. Now when the halwa gets even little more thicker and changes the color to dark brown say after 30 mins, slowly add the ghee little by little. I add 1/4 cup every 15 mins.

6. Keep stirring , once the halwa gets little more thicker and starts to get that glossy shine, I got it after 45 mins add cashews and keep stirring. Now after this you will see halwa ever thicker and the cashew will be nicely blended inside the halwa. You will start to get that halwa smell aroma in you house.

7. When the ghee starts to ooze out or when the halwa doesn't stick to pan anymore slowly you should be ready to switch of the flame. My ghee was completely observed so I slowly transferred it to a glass bowl and let it sit for few mins. {When the halwa gets that shiny look and starts to ooze ghee and doesn't stick to pan anymore is the indication time to remove the halwa from pan)

8. Halwa is ready. Serve it hot or serve it little warm. This will stay good for many days. I keep it in fridge after 2 days and will reheat it before serving to others. Little time consuming but def worth trying. Let me know how it turned out after trying this method.