Badam halwa recipe (almond halwa)

Badam halwa is an Indian sweet made with almonds or almond meal, sugar, ghee and cardamoms. Make this delicious festive dessert under 30 mins, the traditional way using whole almonds or the quick way using store bought meal. You can cook this in a saucepan or in the instant pot with my recipe. Halwa is a go-to-dessert for a lot of Indians and you will find so many kinds of halwas being made across India. We make halwa with semolina, flour, lentils, veggies and even with fruits & nuts.

You will find some or the other kind of halwa being made for every occasion – festivals, celebrations and even for a simple meal.

About badam halwa

Badam halwa is a traditional pudding like dessert where the whole almonds are soaked, peeled, ground and cooked with ghee, milk or water & sugar. It is flavoured with cardamoms and saffron. “Badam” is the Hindi word for “almonds” hence the name.

Badam halwa is a rich and delicious dessert more popular in South Indian sweet shops and tiffin centres serving Karnataka foods.

If you attend lavish South Indian celebrations like weddings, baby showers, naming ceremonies, house warming ceremonies etc you are more likely to be gifted with a few packs of badam halwa.

Badam halwa is a classic but still it is not made often in the households because it is time consuming and requires patience.

If you love halwa, you may love these
Carrot halwa
Moong dal halwa
Suji hawa
Lauki halwa

My recipe

In this post I share with you 2 ways to make the badam halwa – 1. Using whole almonds. 2. With store bought almond meal. For years I have made the traditional way with whole almonds until I found a few years ago that making it with the store bought meal is much easier as you don’t need to soak, peel and grind the almonds.

Apart from almonds or meal, you will need pure ghee, cardamoms, saffron strands and water or milk to make this delicious and rich halwa.

In Sweets shops and restaurants, badam hawla is made with food color but since I don’t use artificial colors I have used saffron. You may look for organic natural food color if you don’t saffron flavour. You are also free to skip it.

Edible camphor is also used in a lot of tiffin centres and sweet shops for a unique festive flavour.

More Indian recipes using almonds
Badam burfi
Indian Badam milk
Badam kheer

Related recipes: Diwali Sweets Recipes and Diwali Snacks

How to make badam halwa (stepwise photos)

Preparation

1. Soak almonds for about 3 to 4 hours. To quicken the process, you can also boil 2 cups of water. Then add almonds to it. Leave for 2 mins and drain the water. Then soak in fresh water for 30 to 40 mins.

2. Peel off the skin and rinse them. Its easy to peel the skin if they are soaked well.But do not over soak them, the halwa turns sticky if soaked for very long.

3. Add almonds, water or milk, skinned cardamoms and saffron to the blender jar. I also added sugar at this stage as it helps to blend the almonds easily and prevents the badam halwa from turning lumpy.

4. Make a slightly coarse paste like rava. Badam halwa is usually of a fine rava texture.

Making badam halwa

5. Heat a heavy bottom pan or preferably nonstick pan. Add ghee.

6. Pour the ground almond paste.

7. Constantly stir and cook.

8. Very soon the badam will begin to leave the sides. Add the sugar at this stage if you have not added while blending.

9. If you have used saffron, you will begin to see the halwa getting better color as it is cooking and blending well with sugar.It got a better color now after cooking for about 8 minutes. When it thickens, add little more ghee and stir. Add ghee in intervals twice or thrice. You should not stop stirring to prevent burning.

10. Keep cooking until badam halwa leaves the sides of the pan. Then turn off the stove. The halwa thickens when it cools down.

Badam halwa is ready. Garnish with sliced cashews.

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Badam halwa with almond flour

1. I have used instant pot here. You can use a regular heavy bottom pot. Add 2 to 4 tablespoons ghee to the pot and heat it.

2. When the ghee melts add 1 cup almond flour.

3. Saute this for 2 minutes stirring often. If using instant pot, press cancel.

4. Add half cup sugar.

5. Pour 1 cup water if making in pot. If making in instant pot, add 1¼ water. Add 1 pinch saffron (kesar), this is optional.

6. Give a good mix until the sugar dissolves. Cook on a low heat, covering the pot partially as it begins to splatter a bit.

7. If cooking in instant pot, secure the lid and pressure cook for 0 minutes.

8. When the Ip beeps, press cancel and release the pressure manually.

9. Stir and continue to cook until the badam halwa leaves the sides of the pot. Add more another 2 to 4 tbsps ghee and ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder and mix well. If you prefer you can add a pinch of edible camphor or rose water too.

Pro Tips

• Almonds: Choose fresh sweet almonds and avoid bitter almonds. Please taste test before using. Do not use rancid tasting nuts. If using almond meal look out for blanched almond flour or meal. Please taste test first and use. I use Bob’s red mill flour.
• Ghee: Use fresh ghee or homemade if possible. It is freshness and quality of ghee that imparts a great flavour to any halwa. Traditional badam halwa is made with 1:1 ratio of almond:ghee which helps to retain the loose consistency for longer. But I have not used so much here.
• To make the recipe vegan, you may use any neutral or flavorless oil like coconut oil.
• Saffron: You can skip the saffron and add a large pinch of turmeric or organic food color. Do not add a lot for a deep color as it may alter the flavour of the halwa.
• Cardamoms: Most Indian desserts are flavored with cardamom powder. However you can also use a tsp of edible rose water or kewra water for the fragrance.

Related Recipes

Recipe card

Badam Halwa recipe first published in October 2014. Updated and republished in October 2021.