Facts you should know about Sohan Halwa
Sohan halwa is a traditional Mughlai dessert in South Asia, which is a variety of dense, sweet confection or halwa.
Gheewala halwa is popular for sohan halwa since the Mughal era.
There are hundreds of shops that produce sohan halwa in the cities of Multan (Punjab), Dera Ismail Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), and Old Delhi.
It is made by boiling a mixture of water, sugar, milk, and cornflour until it becomes solid. Saffron is used for flavoring.
Ghee is used to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Almonds, pistachios, and cardamom seeds are added.
Unlike most other halwa dishes in the Indian subcontinent, it is solid, similar to its Middle Eastern counterparts.
In Old Delhi, a 225-year-old Ghantewala sweet shop established during the reign of Mughal Emperor Shah Alam II, in 1790, made sohan halwa, and was a popular attraction, but in 2015 it closed due to a lack of profitability.
The famous Sohan Halwa shop in Dera Ismail Khan is Qadeemi Sohan Halwa Shop which is situated in the Topan Wala Bazaar of D I Khan.
This shop was established pre-indepence.
The D I Khan’s Sohan is also very famous like the Painda or Sobat of D I Khan.
“The main difference between the Sohan Halwas of D I Khan, Multan and Old Delhi is that the Sohan Halwa of D I Khan is soft unlike the Sohan Halwas of Delhi and Multan.”
The Sohan Halwa is used many times as a present in D I Khan
Sohan halwa has been commercially produced by traditional confectioners for decades.
Facts you should know about Sohan Halwa
It is brittle and caramelised, usually made into discs of 5-6mm thickness or as square bite-size pieces.
It is usually packaged in intricately designed tin cylinders. In recent years other packages have also been common.
