Shahi Tukray (Double ka Meetha)

Shahi Tukray is an utterly decadent and droolworthy dessert fit for feasts. It is made with bread slices fried in ghee and soaked twice: first in a sugar syrup called chashni and then in saffron milk thickened with cream. A topping of almonds, pistachios and rose petals makes it truly royal!

Shahi tukray or shahi tukra is an indescribably sweet and rich dessert from the subcontinent. It's right at the top when it comes to classic desserts that are made on special occasions, but when you do make it, people will be oohing and aahing over it. It's just that good!

So what do the words mean exactly? For the uninitiated, shahi tukray can be literally translated to 'royal pieces (of bread).' In Hyderabad, a southern city in India, people sometimes refer to it more prosaically as double ka meetha. However, there are subtle differences. In the latter, the bread is not soaked in syrup first; rather, it is directly added to sweet and thick milk called rabri. In my recipe, we are going to soak the bread in syrup first. That's just how I make it.

Ingredients

Note: exact amounts are mentioned in the recipe card further down.

• Whole fresh milk
• Heavy cream
• Green cardamom seeds (freshly ground into a powder)
• Saffron - use good quality saffron only for the best taste and color.
• Kewra water or rose water - kewra water is the extract of pandanus flowers and is very fragrant. It is available in Indian or Pakistani groceries, but if you don't have the time to pay a visit, go ahead and use rose water instead.
• White sugar
• Water
• White bread slices
• Ghee
• Almonds and pistachios (unsalted and chopped or slivered)
• Dried rose petals (optional) - these add a nice festive touch and a subtle fragrance to the dessert. Available in most Indian or Pakistani groceries.

Instructions

Time needed: 50 minutes

How to make shahi tukre

1. Cook the milk and cream to make a sauce

• Pour the milk and cream in a saucepan and add the cardamom and saffron strands. Cook this mixture on medium heat for 25-30 minutes, taking care that it doesn't boil over. Remove the saucepan from the heat when the milk has thickened. Add a few drops of kewra water or rose water.
• Many recipes skip this step and use condensed milk. It’s the easiest thing in the world to open a can of condensed milk, and you can even avoid making the sugar syrup this way. But really, if you take the easy way out, this dessert will never be as rich or delicious as it is when you take the trouble to slow cook the milk and cream.

2. Make the sugar syrup

• Take another saucepan and add the water and sugar. Cook for 10 minutes or until the syrup has thickened slightly but not caramelized.

3. Fry the bread in ghee

• Take a slice of bread and and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Now, cut it diagonally to get two triangles. Repeat with all the slices of bread.
• Heat half the ghee in a large frypan and slide in the bread triangles. Fry for a few seconds or until deep golden on one side.
• Flip and add the remaining ghee and fry until the other sides turn golden brown too. Remove the bread onto a platter.

4. Assemble the shahi tukray

• Now comes the fun part. Dip each slice of bread in the sugar syrup and allow the bread to soak up the syrup for a few minutes.
• Arrange the syrup-soaked bread in the platter or dish that you want to serve the shahi tukray in.
• Pour the milk and cream sauce that you had prepared in the first step all over the bread slices.
• Top up with the slivered nuts (almonds and pistachios) and decorate the shahi tukray with rose petals if using. This beautiful and decadent dessert is ready to be served!

Top tips

• Avoid using freshly baked bread for this recipe. It's best to use slightly stale white bread that's been sitting in the fridge for one or two days. Makes cutting the bread easier. Also, dry bread absorbs the sugar syrup and milk better.
• You can make the sugar syrup at the same time as the milk and cream are cooking to save time.
• Traditionally, the bread for shahi tukda is deep-fried in ghee and uses up a hefty amount of ghee. I shallow-fried the slices in my recipe (approximately one teaspoon for every bread triangle), but you can control the amount of ghee you use up even further with this trick: don't add the ghee to the frypan first. Instead, spread it with a butter knife on the slices of bread before frying them.
• Peel the cardamom and grind the seeds in a mortar and pestle or a dry spice grinder for maximum flavor. The pre-ground cardamom powder on supermarket shelves is pretty useless! It does not do anything at all for this dish.
• Good quality saffron adds a lot of color to the dish. It also has a warm, distinctive taste all its own. A word of caution here. Don't go overboard with the saffron as too much of it can easily overpower the dish. Less is more and 8-10 strands will be enough.

How to serve shahi tukray

Shahi tukray can be served warm if you have just made the dish and want to serve it immediately. It can also be kept in the refrigerator for a few hours and served chilled. Tastes good both ways.

Tip: You might want to save a little sauce (milk and cream) if you are planning on refrigerating the platter. The sauce can be used to pour over the bread pieces when you want to eat them as the bread will soak up most of the liquid in the fridge.

More traditional desserts for you

• Rasgulla - Soft, spongy, and light-as-air balls dipped in a sweet sugar syrup. Made with chena, a special milk cheese.
• Rice kheer - A creamy milk pudding made easy in the instant pot.
• Moong dal halwa - Another easy version of a rich and delicious Indian dessert made with cooked and mashed moong lentils, ghee and sugar.  
• Carrot halwa - A bright orange halwa made with fresh grated carrots and the usual suspects: milk, ghee, and sugar.
• Sweet potato kheer - kheer made with mashed sweet potatoes, what else?! It's just yum!