Shahi Tukda | Shahi Tukra
Updated: August 28, 2022, By Swasthi
Shahi tukda is a rich & festive dessert made with bread, ghee, sugar, milk and nuts. It is a very popular classic royal dessert and is said to have originated during the Mughal reign. There are different stories which relate to the origin of this delicious dessert. It is said that shahi tukda also known as shahi tukra was a favourite of the Mughal emperors and was enjoyed with their festive iftar meals during the month of Ramadan.
About Shahi Tukda
Shahi tukda is a Mughlai dessert made with ghee fried bread, thickened sweetened milk, saffron and nuts. Shahi is a Persian word meaning Royal and tukda or tukra is a hindi & urdu term meaning a piece. Shahi tukda literally translates to a royal piece of dessert. This delicious dessert is the star at most iftar gatherings, parties & celebrations. It is served as an after meal dessert.
Shahi tukda is much similar to the hyderabadi double ka meeta. Traditionally shahi tukda is made by deep frying bread pieces in ghee until golden and crisp. Then they are dipped in sugar syrup.
To finish off, a generous amount of thickened creamy saffron milk known as Rabri is poured over them. Lastly shahi tukda is topped with mawa & roasted nuts like cashews, almonds and pistachios.
This delicious dessert is high in calories so it is usually eaten in small portions.
For more Sweets recipes, you can check
Double ka Meetha
Sheer Khurma
Rasgulla
Carrot halwa
Anjeer barfi
Photo Guide
How to Make Shahi tukda (Stepwise Photos)
Make Rabri
Firstly air dry or sun dry bread for 3 hours. This helps bread not to soak up ghee when fried. You can also pan toast it first and then use to deep fry.
1. Bring milk to a boil in a heavy bottom pot.
2. This one and the next 3 steps are optional. If you want your condensed milk to be ready under 5 minutes, follow these steps. Soak almonds for 4 to 5 hours. Then remove the skin. Blend them with 2 green cardamoms, little milk, sugar and a generous pinch of saffron/ kesar. I added sugar later to the milk directly.
3. The almond paste must be very smooth.
4. When the milk comes to a boil, then add this paste.
5. Stir and cook on a medium flame.
6. Under 4 minutes, milk thickens and begins to smell aromatic. Switch off and set aside. Aromatic condensed rich milk is ready. If you have not used almonds, condense the milk until it thickens and reduces to half.
7. Trim the brown sides of the bread. Cut to triangles as well. Deep fry or tawa fry or bake the bread triangles. If tawa frying, smear ghee all over the bread and toast on a medium heat. Set aside.
If making for festive occasions, i suggest deep frying. We need to fry bread to golden.
Make sugar syrup
8. Add 1/3 cup sugar and little water to a wide pan to make sugar syrup.
9. Next simmer it until it comes to a one string consistency. If you are a beginner, don’t worry much about the string. But make sure the syrup is a bit thick and not very thick. Switch off the stove. If you like you can add rose essence now.
10. Cool it a bit. Add bread slices and make sure syrup is coated well over the bread.
Assemble shahi tukda
11. Place them on a serving dish. Any left over sugar syrup can be poured to the serving dish.
12. Lastly pour the condensed milk all over the bread. Garnish with pistachios, almonds, nuts, saffron.
To make shahi tukda, do add some crumbled khoya/ mawa over the bread. Allow it to absorb for a while and serve.
You can also make individual servings by arranging bread in a deep plate. Add rabri to a small cup and nuts to a small bowl.
Pro Tips
Bread: You can use any kind of bread but white bread tastes the best. The dessert made with whole grain bread will have a strong nutty aroma. However I always use whole grain bread as we don’t eat the white one.
Ghee: I highly suggest making shahi tukda with the best quality ghee and not oil. You will get a very good flavour with ghee but not with oil.
Rabdi is thickened milk. Making rabdi is the main laborious task in this recipe as you need to keep stirring the milk for long hours until it reduces and thickens. So you can make quick instant rabdi by following my instructions below.
If you are making shahi tukda for a festive occasion then make it the authentic way as mentioned below.
To make the dish authentic
- Air dry the bread for a day or at least for few hours. This avoids the bread from soaking up too much ghee when you fry.
- Fry the bread in pure desi ghee.
- Make the rabdi following the traditional method & no short cuts like using condensed milk. You can find the rabri recipe here.
- Garnish the finished shahi tukda with rabdi, mawa and lots of nuts just before serving. This prevents the bread from turning too soggy.
How to make this recipe easy & healthier
If you are health conscious and do not prefer to use a lot of ghee & sugar in your shahi tukda then follow my easy steps:
- Toasting bread: Smear ghee over the bread and toast them on a pan or grill them until golden and crisp. I went ahead by following this method.
- Making rabdi: Many a times I make rabri with ground almonds. This is an amazing way to thicken the milk quickly. This is the easier way but will taste different from the authentic rabdi.
- Skip making the sugar syrup: If you are not deep frying the bread in ghee, then I would also suggest you to skip the sugar syrup. Just pour the rabdi over the toasted bread.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Shahi Tukda | Shahi Tukra Recipe
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
For sugar syrup
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- ½ teaspoon rose water
For rabdi
- 3½ cups milk (or use condensed milk)
- 4 tablespoons sugar (for making the Rabri)
- 1 Pinch saffron ( kesar)
- 20 Almonds (soaked for 4 hrs, optional, refer notes)
For garnish
- ¼ cup pistas or mixed nuts
- 3 tablespoons khoya /mawa (optional)
Instructions
Preparation
- Air dry or sundry the bread for 3 to 4 hours. You can also toast them on a pan. Do not use moist bread or bread from the fridge directly as they tend to absorb lot of ghee and have to fry longer to make crispier.
- Soak saffron in 2 tbsps hot milk.
Making Rabri
- Method – 1 Bring milk to a boil in a wide pot. Reduce the flame to low and continue to boil until the milk reduces to half. Then add sugar and saffron. Boil for another 5 mins. Set aside & cool this.
- Method – 2 Grind peeled almonds with 3 tbsps. Sugar, cardamom powder and ¼ cup milk to a very smooth paste. Pour to the 3 ½ cups milk and boil on a low flame till it reduces to almost 2 cups. Set aside to cool.
- You can also chill the rabdi until you serve.
Making sugar syrup for shahi tukda
- Mix sugar with water. Boil and bring to a 1 string consistency. Switch off the flame. Add rose essence.
- Remove the brown edges and cut the bread diagonally. Each slice into 2 or 4 as you desire.
- On a low flame deep fry the bread evenly till they turn golden and crispy. Alternately you can smear ghee over the bread and pan till they turn crispy. Set aside.
How to make Shahi Tukda
- Immerse these bread slices in the sugar syrup one after the other and place them in a serving plate.
- Just before serving pour the cooled rabri over the bread slices and garnish with toasted pistas. You can also sprinkle koya over it.
- Serve shahi tukda warm or chilled.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
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About Swasthi
Iโm Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthiโs Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
I fried the bread in ghee and transferred to airtight box than also it was soggy after 2 hours can u advice on it
Hi Anju,
Did you not cool them first before putting in the box? I think they became soggy because you put the hot fried bread and closed them in the box. Place them on a hot pan and fry again. Hope this helps
I fried bread in ghee and it became hard. After putting the rabri also, it remained hard like rusk texture . Can you please let me know why.
Hi Geetha,
I think the bread got over fried. It should still soak up the sugar syrup and turn slightly softer. May be the syrup was too thick or the rabdi. If the syrup or the rabdi are too thick, they won’t enter the bread and it will remain hard. However give it some time in the refigerator, it should soak up some of the rabdi and turn softer.
Hello Swasthi,
Awesome receipe of Shahi Tukda. Whenever I want to make or try new receipe, you are always there and it has never failed. Your detailed descriptive steps, pro tips and photos are of always great help. Thank you so much.
Swasthi, I want to prepare this dish for around 40 guest . What could be the measurements of all ingredients ?
Hello Shifa,
Thank you! Look for the box/field in the recipe card named as servings. Change that from 6 to 40. You will get the ingredients for 40 servings. You need to convert some of the quantities manually – ex: it says 23.33 cups milk, that converts to 5.5 lts. I have never made this dish for so many people so I’m not sure how that works. Hope this helps
Thank you so much for quick reply. Lets see how it turns out, I am making it for the first time for 40 people. I will let you know. Thanks a ton.
Hello Swasthi,
Thank you for such a detailed and delicious recipe.
I’m planning to prepare it next week for around 40 guests. Please let me know what can be prepared ahead of time. It is extremely hot here so I would like to keep myself away from frying on the day of my dawat ๐
TIA
Hello Ahmed,
You can prepare everything 3 to 4 days ahead – frying the bread, making the rabdi and even chopping the nuts. On the day of serving, make the sugar syrup and assemble it. Cool the fried bread completely and add store in a air tight jar and refrigerate the rabdi. If you are toasting the bread ahead make sure it is almost dry from inside else it can go bad. Hope you all enjoy the dish.
This method of making rabdi for shahi tukda sounds so easy and delicious. I’m going to try it soon but with a bit of khoya for the texture.
Thank you Reshma. Yes you can use khoya for garnishing the shahi tukda else it will dissolve in the hot rabdi.
Awesome recipe and specially love the detailing …jazak ALLAH
Thank you for the wishes Hurram.
SHARE ME SOME QUICK HEALTHER LUNCH..
Wow so nicely explain Yammy recipe to all Ur viewer …now add me also thank you so much
Thanks Varsha
That was a detailed description. Thank you so much. I tried it and it turned out to be so delicious.
Glad to know Deepthi
Thank you
Thank you Swathi for this amazing recipe… Healthy rabri, I need to say. I tried today.. and it came out well…
I have been trying many recipes of yours and never once it has failed… Thanks a ton..
Carry on…
Thanks for trying Sindhya. Glad you like it.
Hi Swasthi,
I have tried almost all your recipes and all have turned very good. Thank you so much for posting such wonderful recipes with so accurate measurements. Whenever I try any of your recipes, I rest assure that it will turn out super delicious. Swasthi can you please post the recipe of Arabian sweet dish Kunafa (with vermicelli). Although many recipes of Kunafa are available on net but I’m not convinced with any of them. It will be a great help if you post me the recipe of Kunafa…waiting for your reply…thanks in advance
Hello Dr.Saher
You are welcome! Thanks for trying the recipes. Glad to know! I do not have a recipe for kunafa yet on the blog. I will try if I can.
Tukra is also a Bengali word meaning piece. I love how the language of Bengali and Bangladeshi people are almost always excluded when it comes to talking about south Asian cuisine and culture as if they donโt exist.
Hi mam,
I have tried all your recipes regularly… The taste, colour very thing come perfect to your measurements given..
This Shahi tukda was really tastes amazing everyone in my house liked very much and appreciated..
Thank you for the wonderful recipes mam.
Hi Bhargavi
You are welcome! Glad to know it turned out goos.
Thank you!
Just tried this recipe. Your instructions are spot on and even though I am an absolute amateur I could follow the instructions very easily. Many thanks.
Regards,
Dr. Ian D’Souza
Hello Dr. Ian DSouza
You are welcome! Glad you could make it. Thank you so much!
Thanks a lot,
Can I bake after adding condensed milk.Thanks for replying so soon.And when used condensed milk there is no need to use sugar.
Fatima,
Yes there is no need to use sugar. Baking after adding to condensed milk should work like a pudding but I haven’t tried it.
Hi Swasthi,
Can I use condensed milk in milk and skip sugar syrup and at last can I bake
Hi Fatima
Yes you can but you will need some regular milk to thin down the condensed milk. Yes smear some ghee on both the sides of the bread and bake them
Thanks for replying so soon
Hi, if we have to serve it to guests, can we prepare it before hand and arrange it? Or bread will get soggy with rabri and syrup for long time? How can we make it work so that it remains crispy and doesnโt have to assemble or fry bread at last time?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Ammy
Yes the bread turns soggy with in 15 to 20 min. Just keep the syrup ready and rabri ready separately. You can make rabri 1 day ahead as well and just refrigerate. Fry the bread and set aside. If they turn soft, you can just crisp them in a oven. It will take just 10 mins for assembling. Just keep the bread slices ready in a serving dish. Then just before serving, dip them in warm sugar syrup and put back in the tray. Pour the rabri and garnish with nuts.
Thanks for the tip Ma’am
Maโm I made this last year during Ramadan and turned out very good. Can you pls tell me how to make this for 25 people. Thanks in advance
Hi Rehna
How are you? Thanks for trying. I will mail you the details as I need sometime to calculate
๐
Delicious
Ma’am
1. What do u mean by air drying bread ? How to do that?
2. Can i use multigrain white bread or will it not br that gud as plain white bread?
3. For syrup how much water needed?
Hi Jyoti,
1. Air dry means just keep the bread in open air on a table for 3 to 4 hours. If you have a sunny place in the home you can also keep there or just toast it on a tawa till bread turns slightly crisp. This helps the bread not to absorb ghee while frying.
2. Actually white bread is best but I make it using multigrain fine flour bread. I think this is the same as multigrain white bread. There should be no bran or seeds in the bread.
3. You can use a half cup water. Thanks for the mention I will update in the post.
Hope these help
Really appreciable that you reply so quickly.
Thank u
Thank you for the recepie….. It came out superb…….
Welcome Tanuja