Apple and Cashew nut Halwa Recipe

With Navratri and Thanksgiving around the corner, many of us want healthy desserts! 

This Apple Pudding with Cashew nuts fits the bill to the T. How?  It is delicious, easy and low fat and quick all the requisites for my cooking are fulfilled. With my father-in-law's birthday coming up I was glad to try making it. You will love the warm apple halwa and not miss the ice cream!! 😀  Read on folks and  I will share a delicious Halwa for Dusherra, Diwali. Spread the love, like and share my post. Sign up for my newsletter! (link below) for simple and easy recipes.

So what is Halwa? 

You can check my detailed post about halwa here but in short, halwa is made worldwide. 

Halwa is a sweet confection and is an Arabic word. Halwa was a gelatinous pudding of flour, oil and sugar but as it got around the world halwa went amazing transformations. From vegetables to fruits like carrots, pumpkin, ash gourd, bottle gourd, lentils, nuts and of course fruits. Wherever you go halwa is rich food full of carbs and fats.  But then that is what you want from a special festive food right?

In the Indian sub-continent halwa generally means milk, ghee and sugar.

Why Apple Halwa?

All around me, bloggers are talking about Fall and Thanksgiving! And apples and pumpkins!

I will not have any fall other than rainfall here but I am will be happy to join for Thanksgiving! There is so much to be thankful for starting from the breath we take to the food we eat and the health that we enjoy! 

Then I read about read of Apple Halwa and was surprised! A very popular North Indian dessert that I had no idea about.

For me, apples meant fruit salad, pies, cakes, upside-down cakes even apple sauce! Similarly, my halva knowledge was always limited to Gajar Halwa, Doodhi Halwa, the thanks to Bollywood I knew of Suji Halwa which was always called Shira( There are variations in that too ) anyway now I know of Whole Wheat Halwa, Moong Dal Halwa. Am I the only one who never thought of putting the two together?

It was Father-in-laws birthday we were to order food from a restaurant. I had baked a cake but he has a sweet tooth he cannot indulge in much, so I thought why not?

This apple halwa is easy, needs hardly any effort on my part and all the ingredients were at home. Like the traditional halwas, Seb ka Halwa can be made with milk or mava but you can skip it. You just need apples, sugar and a little ghee! Make it for the Navratri Prasad I will love to add it in a bottle and carry it as a gift for Diwali season. 

The theme was suggested by Mayuri of Mayuri's Jikoni an amazing cook.  If you are looking for a sugar-free sweet indulgence for Diwali,then her delicious Emirati Sweet Batheeth is the perfect find.

Ingredients:

• Apples: Use sweet apples I used the Delicious Apples available.
• Milk: Since it was a festive occasion I could not bring myself to use water.
• Sugar: I have used regular plain white sugar.
• Nuts: Since I live in cashew nut land I always have them and used them.
• Ghee: I prefer to use homemade ghee.
• Flavouring: It is only recently that I have started liking cinnamon and I am adding it. to everything I see. Just to keep the tradition in place I used green cardamom or Hari Elichi.

Method

• Peel core and cube the apples.
• Cook then till they soften in milk/water.
• Add the sugar and let it caramelise. I added the nuts too as I needed them to cook well.
• Add the ghee and cook till the halwa stops sticking to the pan.
• Serve warm. I will love ice cream on the side! 😀

Pro tips

But I am jumping let us start at the very beginning 

• Apples to use: The idea here is to use less sweetener so the tart apples or green apples are best avoided.
  • You can make a great pudding with tart apples but the amount of sugar you will need is more.  Or if you enjoy sweet-sour taste then please go ahead and use them. 
• Nuts: I used cashew nuts but feel free to use walnuts, almonds, pistachios are good alternatives too.
  • Use seeds like pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, melon seeds, sunflower seed. 
• Sugar or Sugar Alternatives: Sugar, of course, brown sugar, jaggery, palm sugar, coconut jaggery, maple syrup, agave are the sweeteners you can use.
  • Palm sugar and coconut jaggery are dark so your Halwa will be blackish.
  • I rather not heat honey so will not recommend it.
• Ghee, personally  I recommend homemade ghee.  But you want to use oil use an odourless oil like sunflower, olive oil. If you like it use coconut oil but you will get a hint of taste and smell that all may not like.
• Flavourings: I have used cinnamon and cardamom you can use nutmeg, cardamom, vanilla. Saffron will be lost so I do not recommend it.
• The best tip that Maria (from whom I copied this recipe) gave and I loved is use the oil towards the end of the cooking. This way you get the high gloss expected from halva and you need a lesser amount.

I must say I loved this Halwa a lot and I want to make it yet again sooner the better. With little ghee and this time jaggery I am sure it will be a great accompaniment to use as jam too with my rotis! I am incorrigible when it comes to sweets!

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Apple and Cashew Nut Halwa Recipe

A simple easy and adaptable Apple Pudding that is ideal for the Navratri Festival. You can also gift the Seb ka Halwa as Deepawali Gift and why not serve some warm halwa for Thanksgiving?

5 from 8 votes

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Course: Desserts

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Apple Dessert, Easy Apple Recipes, Halwa, Seb ka Halwa, Simple and healthy diet in old age

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 3 people

Calories: 150kcal

Author: ArchanaPotdar

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Equipment

• Peeler
• Knife
• Kadhai/wok

Ingredients

• 3 apples
• ½ cup cashew nuts
• 1 cup milk
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
• ½ teaspoon green cardamom powder
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 tablespoon ghee

Instructions

• Peel, core and cube the washed apples.
• In a kadhai/wok add the apples, milk, cardamom and cinnamon. Set your pan on medium flame and stir well then cook covered.
• Cook till the apples become soft and you can mash them with your ladle.
• Add the sugar and the cashew nuts mix well. The halwa as the sugar melts will become watery. That is fine to cook for about 5-10 minutes till the liquid evaporated and the sugar starts caramelising.
• Now add the ghee and stir well. the halwa sticks to the bottom of the pan and burns so keep stirring.
• Once ready your halwa stops sticking to the pan and becomes nice and glossy. The gloss is also because ethe ghee separates from the pan.
• I served warm plain. But you can serve with with ice cream or custard.