Double Ka Meetha, also called as Dabal Ka Meetha, is one of the classic Nizami desserts ~ an eggless bread pudding, that hails from the city of Hyderabad, India.
Hyderabadi Double Ka Meetha – Milk Bread Pudding with Nuts Ingredients: Milk Bread Slices – 4 Canola Oil(safed sarson ka Tel) – to deep fry (traditionally ghee is used to deep fry) Dry fruits and Nuts (cashewnuts-halved, raisins, pistachois, deseded dates, walnuts-chopped, almonds-chopped, pinenuts-chopped) – 4 tbsp Milk – 2 cups Homemade Khoa - 1/4 cup, grated (khoa is also available in most of Indian stores in the refrigerated section) Cardamom Powder – 1/8 tsp Saffron threads – a pinch Water – 1 cup White Sugar – 1 cup Method: 1. Fry bread slices and dry fruits and nuts: Cut off the corners of the bread slices and slice them into triangles. Deep fry them both sides in oil till they are dark brown but not burnt. Remove the fried crisp bread slices using a slotten spoon onto a wire mesh strainer for the excess oil to drip off. In a small frying pan, in about a teaspoon of oil, stir fry the dry fruits and nuts till they are browned. Do not burn them. In a baking dish, arrange the fried bread slices, and sprinkle the stir fried dry fruits and nuts all over them. Note: In step 2, instead of boiling milk to half its original quantity, you can simply use 1 1/2 cup half and half, or light cream and add khoa, cardamom powder and saffron threads and boil it for a few minutes to dissolve the khoa. Keep stirring and do not burn. Continue with next step.
2. Prepare reduced spiced milk mixture: In a milk sauce pan, pour milk and let it boil once on high heat. Once it has come to a boil, add khoa, lower the heat, and let it cook till it has reduced to half its original quantity, throw in the saffron threads and cardamom powder and keep aside.
3. Prepare sugar syrup: At the same time in an another small saucepan, pour the water and the sugar. Stir to dissolve and let the water boil on high for 10-12 minutes.
4. Gently pour the prepared warm simple sugar syrup and the warm reduced spiced milk a little at a time one by one into the baking dish with the arranged fried bread slices. Now keep the dish aside for about 2-3 hours, until it has completely cooled down and the bread has almost absorbed all the milk. If there’s still some milk around the bread slices, and the bread has not completely absorbed it, then put the baking dish in the oven at 350°C for about 10-15 minutes, uncovered, in the middle rack. Some people like to have this meetha warm, and some like it cool. I let the baking dish cool down and then refrigerate it for a while and serve it chilled.
