Horlicks Sattu Halwa

I don’t like wasting any food or ingredient, for that matter. I try my level best to use everything which comes into my pantry. Some months back I had bought a large bottle of Horlicks and no one really has Horlicks at home, the only reason I bought it was that I love to eat it just like that 😊

But of course I was not able to have the whole bottle and one fine day when I opened the container I saw a rock staring at me. Everyone would have faced this some or the other time in life…be it Horlicks, Boost, Bournvita or whatever. No amount of attempts to pulverize it helps. I spoke to my friends and they all told me I will need to discard it. But that is not what I wanted to do. So one fine day I turned it into this yummy halwa. I have even served this to family and friends and they loved it.

Read along for how to go about it

Ingredients

Hardened Horlicks or Boost or any malt based drink powder,

2 cups of channa sattu (you can also use besan or chickpea flour),

1 cup of sugar (you can adjust this quantity if you have a huge amount of hardened Horlicks),

1 cup of ghee,

Water at needed,

1 tsp powdered cardamom seeds,

2 tablespoons chopped cashewnuts,

2 tablespoons chopped almonds

Method

Take the hardened Horlicks in a saucepan and cover it with water. If possible let it stay in the water for about 4-5 hours and keep stirring it frequently. The Horlicks will start dissolving in the water. By the end of 4-5 hours you will see that quite a bit of it is dissolved. I didn’t keep it for all that long as I was in a hurry and kept it just for an hour.

Then place the saucepan with the Horlicks on the gas and keep stirring till it is completely dissolved. It should take about 5-10 minutes.

Next, heat a pan and add the channa sattu or besan. Keep dry roasting it on a low flame till you start getting a nice aroma. Ensure you keep stirring it or it will start burning. Now add the ghee and fry it all together till it turns golden brown.

At this stage add in the dissolved Horlicks and the sugar as per your requirement. Mix this well and keep stirring till it is all well mixed and the sugar is no longer granular. Now add the half the chopped nuts and continue frying this till it all comes together and starts leaving the sides of the pan. Sprinkle the powdered cardamom seeds and mix well.

Overturn this into a big thali and decorate it with the remaining nuts. Let it cool for a while and then cut it into desired shapes, either squares or diamonds.