Godumai (Wheat) Halwa- Traditional Deepavali Sweet in Tamizh Nadu

Preparing Godumai (Wheat) halwa on Deepavali is almost like a custom in many Iyengar households in SouthIndia. My mother (Lakshmi’s Paatti) used to prepare this every year. Although so common in Tamizh Nadu, I am preparing this Halwa for the first time. For my children halwa has always meant Badam halwa or Carrot halwa or Dumroot! They never attempted to taste Godumai halwa even when we visited my parents during Deepavali! I decided to prepare this as an entry to RCI Tamizh Festivals hosted by Viji of Vcuisine. The halwa was exactly the way my mother’s would taste and I am extremely happy that this traditional sweet will reach thousands of food lovers through my blog! 🙂 My son loved it and now it has become one of his favourites! 🙂

Ingredients

• Whole wheat (wheat grains) – 1 cup
• Sugar – 1 and 1/2 cups (You can increase to suit your taste)
• Cardamom – 4 nos
• Ghee – 4 tablespoons (You can increase if you like)
• Saffron colour – 1 pinch

For garnishing – 1/2 cup chopped dry fruits like cashew, badam and pista lightly fried in 2 teaspoon ghee
Method

1. Wash and soak the wheat for 12 hours.
2. Grind in a mixie adding 1 cup water. Strain through a seive to get a thick milk. Grind again adding 1 more cup of water and strain again. You will be left out with only the husk in the seive. Add enough water to squeeze out all the milk.
3. Pour the milk in to a thick bottomed pan, add sugar and cook on a low flame. Keep stirring continously.
4. Add the ghee when the halwa starts thickenng. Add the cardamom powder and the saffron colour. Mix well.
5. Cook till you can roll the halwa into a ball with your fingers.
6. Add chopped dryfruits sauted in ghee. Spread on a greased plate. allow to cool and cut into desired shape.

TipsIf you want a thick halwa like what we get in sweet shops, add 2 cups sugar in place of 1 and 1/2 cups.

You can add 2 cups chopped dry fruits to get the dryfruit halwa we get in sweet shops.