Wheat Halwa : a Delicious Sweetmeat Made From Wheat

Wheat Halwa is a very famous sweetmeat in Tamil Nadu, South India. The main ingredients are wheat, Sugar and Ghee (Clarified Butter). Stir fried cashew nuts in ghee are added to the finished product for more taste.

Whole wheat is soaked in water overnight and the milk is extracted by grinding the soaked wheat grains. The milk is then cooked with sugar and ghee over medium to low flame till all water content evaporates and the mix becomes dense. Wheat Halwa is found in almost all shops of South India selling sweetmeat..

This instructable will explain how Wheat Halwa is made traditionally in our place. I have used about 500 grams of whole wheat to make this dish.

Step 1: Soak Wheat and Grind

Take about 500 grams of whole wheat and soak in water overnight
Once the wheat grains become soft, drain out the water and wash with clean water few times.
Add the soaked grains to a wet grinder or mixer grinder
Add water and grind to a fine paste

Step 2: Strain and Collect the Milk

Initially use a large holed strainer kept over another vessel for collecting the milk.
Pour the ground wheat paste over the strainer in small quantities
Use a ladle and twirl the paste so that to clean the strainer holes from getting blocked
You can discard the solid remains retained on the strainer
The milk we collected still contains solids that we will remove using another strainer.

Step 3: Strain With a Tea-strainer

This time we will use a tea-strainer to remove the remaining solids from the milk

Pour the collected milk in small quantities over the tea-strainer
Use a spoon to turn the milk over the strainer and discard the material retained on top.
Keep the collected milk for about half an hour without disturbing.
After half an hour you may find excess water collected on top of milk
Drain out the excess water and discard it

Step 4: Stir-fry the Cashew Nuts in Ghee

Take about 50 grams of cashew nuts
In a small frying pan add a teaspoon of ghee and heat over low flame
Add the cashew nuts to the pan and stir-fry till the nuts are fried to golden brown.
Transfer the fried nuts to a plate and keep aside

Step 5: Heat Sugar

Heat a frying pan over low to medium flame and add about 500 grams of sugar
Continuously stir the sugar in the pan. After few minutes you will find the sugar start to melt.

Step 6: Caramelize the Sugar

Keep the pan over low to medium flame and continuously stir the melting sugar.
You can use a wooden spoon which is very comfortable for caramelizing sugar
After some time, the caramelized sugar will change color to a golden brown

Step 7: Add Water to Caramelized Sugar

Now add a cup of water to the caramelized sugar in the pan.
Take care as the caramelized sugar may splatter
Stir the foaming caramelized sugar and water mix continuously to form a homogeneous mix

Step 8: Add Wheat Milk

Now add the wheat milk to the pan
Stir continuously with the ladle
Add spoonful of ghee at intervals. You may require about 100 grams ghee to be added at intervals

Step 9: Stir Continuously

Stir the wheat milk and caramelized sugar mix continuously.
The mix will absorb ghee, so you may have to add spoonful of ghee at intervals
After the mix is properly cooked and all moisture is evaporated you will find traces of ghee at the edges
Now add the stir-fried cashew nuts to the pan and mix well

Step 10: Trasnfer From Pan and Serve

Keep ready a pan, preferably a cake making pan greased with ghee
Once the halwa in the pan changed to dark color and the excess ghee is excelled from it, it is time to remove the halwa from stove
Transfer the fully cooked halwa to the greased cake pan and flatten it with a ladle
After few minutes of cooling, cut the Halwa in to cubes and serve

Halwa is mostly served as desert. Hope you like it...