Baked Maple Gajar Halwa (Carrot Pudding)

Cooking time: 30-40 minutes | Difficulty level: Easy | Makes: 6 servings

Gajar Halwa or carrot pudding is a very popular North-Indian dessert and one of my favorite desserts of all time. Basically 'halwa' is anything that is cooked with milk, and this particular halwa is a very smart way to make your kids get their daily source of Vitamin A and fiber, disguised as yummy dessert! Recently we had a bake-off at work where the theme was "baked" and "fall." So I made some autumnal modifications to the contemporary gajar halwa by using maple sugar instead of regular sugar, and baking it in the oven.

Baked Maple-Carrot (Gajar) Halwa

Ingredients
10 medium carrots, peeled and shredded
1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
1 cup whole milk 
1/2 cup maple sugar (or regular sugar if you don't want the maple flavor)
1 cup condensed milk
1 tsp cardamom powder
few raisins, cashews and sliced almonds, as per personal preference

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 F.
2. Heat a wok on medium flame and add the ghee.
3. Once the ghee is melted, add the shredded carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring them well.
4. Add the milk to the carrots and cook for another couple minutes.
5. Add the maple sugar, cardamom powder and nuts, mix well and cook for another 8-10 minutes, until all the milk is evaporated.
6. Add the condensed milk and cook for another 3-4 minutes on a low flame. Stir constantly to avoid the halwa from burning or sticking to the pan.
7. Remove from the heat and transfer to a baking dish.
8. Bake in the oven for about ten minutes, keeping close watch to prevent burning or the condensed milk boiling over (I learned this the hard way when I put my halwa in for 15 minutes but around the tenth minute I started hearing the sizzling sound of the bubbling milk dripping out of the pan onto the floor of the oven).
9. Garnish with a few nuts and / or cardamom powder and your halwa is ready to serve.

Helpful tips:

• You can add a little saffron to enhance the color of the halwa and to give it a royal flavor. I didn't, since I was cooking for about 70-80 people and saffron is way too expensive to use for such a high audience :(
• Condensed milk is optional. If you don't have condensed milk, you can just double the amount of milk and sugar used, but in that case, it's best to make the halwa on the stove instead of baking in the oven to prevent the milk from burning and drying out your halwa.
• If you don't have ghee, you can use unsalted butter.
• You can serve the halwa hot or cold. Gajar halwa can easily be refrigerated and then reheated in the microwave. My favorite way of eating it is to heat it in the microwave and then enjoy it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream.