Shahi Tukda with Jaggery: Healthy Indian Dessert

Shahi tukda is a royal dessert fit for the kings! Give the easy recipe a try and take your taste buds for a ride! But before you do, let’s take a closer look at this sweet treat, and what goes into making it. 

What is Shahi Tukda?

Shahi tukda is an Indian dessert that is crafted using bread slices, full-fat milk, a sweetener, and several other additions that make it fancy. It might seem simple, but the flavors are top-notch. 

This royal Mughlai dessert is usually served after meals. 

Jump to:

• What is Shahi Tukda?
• What Will I Need to Make it?
• How to Make the Shahi Tukda?
• Serving Ideas & Suggestions
• Shahi Tukda with Jaggery: Healthy Indian Dessert

What Will I Need to Make it?

You’ll need just a few basic ingredients to make the Shahi tukda. The authentic version of the dessert needs you to use sugar as a sweetener, but we’ve used jaggery to make it a healthier alternative. 

• Bread Slices: 3
• Ghee: For frying
• Jaggery: ¼ + ¼  cup
• Water: ½ cup
• Cardamom: 2
• Full fat milk: 500 ml
• Saffron: 5-6 strands
• Rosewater: ½ tsp
• Almond slivers: For garnish
• Dried rose petals: For garnish

How to Make the Shahi Tukda?

Ready with your ingredients? Here’s how to make this fancy-schmancy dessert. 

Cut the bread slices diagonally into triangles.

Heat the ghee in a pan and deep fry the bread slices until crisp and golden brown.

Heat water in a pan and add ¼ cup of jaggery and let it come to a boil.

Add the cardamom to the boiling liquid and let it boil for 5 minutes. 

Once the jaggery completely dissolves, remove the pan from heat and keep it aside. 

Heat the milk next. When it comes to a boil, add the saffron and rose water. Let the milk simmer and reduce to half the original quantity. 

Add the remaining ¼ cup jaggery to the milk and let it melt. Once the milk has thickened enough, turn the flame off. 

For assembling the shahi tukda, dip the bread slices into the jaggery syrup for 5-10 seconds and put them on a plate.

Top the slices with the prepared reduced milk. 

Garnish with almond slivers and dried rose petals.

Tips & Tricks to Make it Right

Ready to get started with the recipe? Keep these little tips and tricks in mind to make sure you hit it to perfection. 

• Deep-fried bread may make this dessert not-so-healthy, but that is exactly what lends the Shahi tukda the rich and exquisite taste. If you’re looking for a healthier way to go about it, you can bake the pieces of bread or pan fry them with just a teeny bit of ghee. 
• You could also use whole wheat bread instead of regular white bread for the purpose of this recipe. 
• Remember to brown the bread really well if you’re planning to pan fry or toast the bread. This will ensure that the bread gets that nice crispiness that you’re looking for. 
• If you’re deep-frying the bread, keep a close eye on it and get it out as soon as it starts to turn into a darker shade of brown. Bread can end up getting burnt pretty quickly when you deep fry it. 
• Allow the ghee to heat up nicely before you add the bread in. Then, turn the heat down and let the bread brown up on low to medium heat. 
• To get this dessert to have a richer taste, you can also add some condensed milk to the thickened milk. Keep in mind that since condensed milk is sweet, you’ll need to reduce the amount of jaggery you’re adding in. 
• If your reduced milk still seems runny, you can thicken it up by adding in a couple of spoonfuls of almond paste. 
• To lend the Shahi tukda a more intense, creamy flavor, you can add a few spoonfuls of powdered milk into the mixture too. 
• While reducing the milk, make sure you keep stirring. This will help keep the milk from getting scorched at the bottom of the pot. 
• You can use bread that has dried out, and one that is a few days old for the purpose of this recipe too. In fact, using air-dried bread is highly recommended since it keeps the bread from soaking up too much ghee when you fry it. 
• Top the bread with the reduced milk mixture and the almond slivers right before you serve. Assembling this dessert beforehand will cause it to become soggy and mushy. 

How Do I Store the Shahi Tukda?

You can actually prep this delicious dessert and store it for later if you want to. Obviously, the bread and the thickened milk mixture will need to be stored separately. Just remember to transfer them to airtight containers and then refrigerate them. 

They can stay good in there for up to 4 days. 

Serving Ideas & Suggestions

Can’t wait to dig into this sweet treat? Here are a few ideas and tricks to help you serve it right. 

• The best part about this dessert is that it tastes absolutely divine- whether you have it hot or cold. If you’re making this in the winter months, you can dig into it right after you’ve made it- while it is still warm. 
• When you're in the mood for a cool dessert during the summer months, you can let the Shahi tukda chill in the refrigerator for a few hours before you enjoy it. 
• If you’re planning to make this for some guests coming over, remember to keep the portions small. Shahi tukda is a rich and heavy dessert, which is why it can take a lot to finish up smaller portions too. 
• Planning to serve this with some more Indian desserts? Why not try teaming it up with some mango shrikhand or Gavvalu?
• You can also bring some variation into how you serve the dessert. Create a layer of the syrup-soaked bread pieces in a glass baking dish and follow up with a layer of the thickened milk. You can keep doing this until you get 2-3 layers, and then top it all off with a generous sprinkle of roughly chopped pistachios or rose petals.