Halwa Puff Pastry

Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori. There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are carried on by Muslim families.

The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori seemed to be a perfect answer to it.

Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight container.

Initially when I started making Halwa Poori, t was hard to make them for just the two of us, Mr. Parveez and me. Making 10 would be more than enough and would last us more than a week and usually by day 2 we would be dead bored and didn’t feel like eating more. So, this is when I felt that the Halwa poori needs a twist and I changed it to halwa Puff Pastry. The good thing about that is that I can always make the dough for puff pastry and keep it in my freezer. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. This way we make the puff pastry whenever we want, eat them warm and fresh and we can also use the Halwa as just halwa minus the poori or puff pastry.

I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.

Nutella Danish

Our favorite Bakery/ Breakfast Restaurant in Manhattan serves these amazing baked goodies. From Muffins to croissants, cakes to cupcakes, pies to sandwiches and of course Danish. Pineapple, cranberry and Nutella.

Now, if you are a chocolate lover, you will love the hazelnut chocolate spread Nutella. I am not running an advt for Nutella. In spite of all the words I hear about the high sugar, I still do not like using any other chocolate spread besides Nutella, when I need to. One thing I did do is get my little one off it. My little one could just never have enough of Nutella Sandwiches and with time, I felt using Nutella once in a while was fine, but feeding it daily to kids wasn’t a very good idea.

These Danish were shaped like a heart, following the demands of my boys. These Danish are crunchy from the outside and sweet chocolaty from the inside. This yummy crunchies are easy to make and super easy to please. They are a super good addition to surprise breakfast or play dates and even for guests, who fail to inform before ringing the door bell. The Nutella can easily be substituted for a fruit based spread. If you need more details, Please feel free to ask.