Bombay Ice Halva

A unique sweet from Mumbai; this Ice Halva recipe is a quick recipe.

Made with a handful of ingredients; these paper thin halwa sheets are different from the other sweets and super addictive.

While some Indian recipes are popular across the country there are some that are popular in certain cities. Ghevar from Rajasthan, Petha from Agra and Pak from Mysore started off in these cities and are now popular across the country and world.

Mumbai has a bunch of popular recipes of its own. From chaats, pav bhaji and vada pav to sweets like Mahim Halwa and Ice Halva. All of these originated in the city and can now be found across the globe.

Jump to:

• What is Ice Halva
• Why this recipe works
• Ingredients and Substitutions
• How to make this recipe
• Expert Tips and Notes
• Recipe FAQs
• More Poplar Recipes from Mumbai
• More Delicious Indian Sweet Recipes
• Bombay Ice Halva

What is Ice Halva

Ice halva or Halwa is a popular sweet from Mumbai. True to its name, this sweet comes in sheets that are snowy white. A very unique sweet from the city, this is popularly also known as Mahim Halwa or Paper Halwa.

A single store Mohanlal Mithaiwala takes credit for making what is now available across the city and country. They made the first icy white paper halwa and as demand for this surged, they went on to make flavored halwa like black currant, rose, kesar, sandwich and so on.

This sweet was lesser known outside Mumbai until the store started selling boxes of ice halva across the world. Now, we are able to buy this ice halva from the Indian stores here in US too.

Why this recipe works

• It is a rather unique recipe than peda, barfi and ladoo.
• We only need a handful of ingredients to make this one.
• This sweet needs only about 30 minutes of active time. Rest of the time is simply setting time.
• It is easy to scale the recipe up or down, the time needed to cook the mixture varies.
• This is a unique and lovely hostess gift.
• It is easy to change up the flavor of the recipe by simply modifying an ingredient or two.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Flour: I like to make ice halva with all purpose flour. However, the same works with corn meal (not corn flour) or sooji; however the texture does vary quite a bit. I would recommend all purpose flour over the others.
• Ghee: Ghee brings the Indian sweet flavor to the ice halva. Plus, it gives us moisture and sone gloss in the recipe. Unsalted butter will work as well but the deep earthy flavor will be missing. However, oil does not work here. It does not make the dish well.
• Sugar: Granulated or powdered sugar works for the recipe. We need the sugar to melt in and mix with all the ingredients. I like to use white sugar to get the right color of the ice halva. However, brown sugar will work but make it darker in color. Jaggery will not work very well here.
• Milk: Milk brings all the ingredients together. Use cold milk to avoid getting lumps. Both whole and 2% milk will work for the recipe.
• Toppings: Slivered almonds, pistachios, saffron and cardamom powder works well for the recipe. Moreover, dried rose petals, cashews and even silver varakh can be topped.

See the recipe card for detailed ingredient information, measurements and nutrition.

How to make this recipe

1- In a bowl heat the milk and add the saffron strands. Mix well and set aside for the flavors to steep and for the milk to come back to room temperature.

2- In a large pan add saffron infused milk, sugar and all purpose flour.

3- Mix it all to an even paste with no lumps. Then add melted ghee and mix.

4- Turn on the flame and start cooking the mixture on medium flame.

5- Cook till the sugar starts to melt and then add cardamom powder.

6- Continue cooking while stirring till the mix starts to leave the sides and is thick.

7- Once the mixture leaves the sides, turn down the flame.

8-Transfer the mixture to a ghee lined parchment paper.

9- Place another greased parchment paper on it and roll the mix into a thin even layer. Ideally the thickness should be only 1-2 centimeters.

10- Peel off the upper parchment paper and sprinkle slivered almonds, slivered pistachios and cardamom powder.

11- Place the parchment paper and roll the ice halwa till the toppings stick well to it.

12- Cool the ice halva at room temperature for 4-5 hours or in the refrigerator for an hour. Then remove, and slice into squares of about 3-4 inches.

13- Use a scissor to cut the parchment paper along with the halva and stack them.

14- Serve immediately or transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate to retain freshness longer.

Note: The steps are for kesar ice halva. Repeat the same with plain milk instead of saffron infused milk to make the white ice halva.

Expert Tips and Notes

• Make sure you start with all the ingredients cold or at room temperature. Warm milk will make a lumpy mix that is difficult to fix.
• Use a pinch of yellow color if you want to cut down the saffron amount or want a deeper yellow color.
• Spread the halva in. thin even layer to make sure it sets evenly and turns out smooth.
• I like to let the halwa dry at room temperature for a few hours before moving to the refrigerator. Be careful that the halva does not crack while transferring.
• Use bleached parchment paper to keep the halva looking white. I have used the unbleached version and so the paper does make the halva look darker with no change in taste.
• Sliver the nuts super fine. Thick nuts tend to make holes in the halva.
• The halva is traditionally served with the parchment paper stuck to it. It is peeled just before consuming. However, remove before serving this to kids to ensure they do not eat the paper.
• Use a scale to cut the halva into even sized pieces. That way they are easy to place on top of one another and serve.

Recipe FAQs

More Poplar Recipes from Mumbai

More Delicious Indian Sweet Recipes