Dessert| No Bake Mini Nutty Carrot Pudding Pies

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Dessert| No Bake Mini Nutty Carrot Pudding Pies – A Fusion Festive Dessert

13 February 2012 36 Comments

Nutty Carrot Pudding a.k.a Gajar Halwa, this ubiquitous dessert hardly needs any introduction to those who love Indian food! This rich, decadent and comforting sweet made with red carrots adorns the dinning table of many households during the chilly winter nights. The juicy sweet red carrots which gives the distinct color and taste to the pudding are available only for a few month in a year and its presence also welcomes the beginning of winter days in India. Fresh carrot juice, pickled carrots in jars, exotic carrot jam, colorful pilaf with tiny chunks of red carrots and just plain carrots is what I love to serve mine.

I remember mom making a huge quantity of carrot halwa and storing it for almost 2-3 months in her refrigerator. Wish I could do the same, but then my children don’t prefer the same dessert over and over again, unless it is served in a different way. Everyone at home like anything served as individual portion, a cupcake or mini pies was what I decided to make out of it.

I made all the three varieties of no-bake crusts given below and served it as Mini Nutty Carrot Pudding Pies. And voila they all disappeared before I could even test which crust was better than the other 🙂 The crust added the health quotient to the rich and indulging nutty carrot pudding.

These pie crusts are no bake and makes healthy substitute to the All purpose pie crusts which require baking and are time consuming to assemble. The following crust recipes also give a wonderful crunchy texture and flavor to the crust.

Nutty Carrot Pudding or Halwa

Dessert I No Bake Nutty Carrot Pudding Pies

Hard to resist…

Ingredients;

4 cups grated carrots
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar/palm sugar/jaggary
½ cup crushed nuts (cashew/almond/pistachio)
1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
A few raisins
1 tsp. cardamom powder

Method; Wash and grate carrots. Heat clarified butter/ghee in a heavy bottom vessel. Add grated carrots and sauté for a few minutes.

Add milk and keep cooking at slow flame till all the liquid is absorbed and the carrots look like a semi solid ball.

Add palm sugar or white sugar, the pudding will become liquid again. Cook for 5-10 minutes till it all the liquid is dried.

Take off the flame and add powder cardamom, nuts and raisins. Serve it as a dessert with a dollop of ice cream or just plain.

A Few Healthy Pie Crusts

1. Cookie Crust;

1 cup digestive biscuits
1 tbsp. powder sugar
4 tbsp. butter
A few drops of milk

2. Cornflakes Crust

1 cup crushed cornflakes/wheat flakes
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. honey

3. Nutty Crust

1 cup Almond meal flour
10-12 Medjool Dates (juicy dates)
A few drops of water

Method; All the recipes above follow the same process. Just grind all the ingredients in a blender and make dough. Use more liquid if the dough is too dry to make pies.

Nutty Carrot Pies

Arrange paper cup liners in a muffin tray and fill each with half of the pie crust mix. Press the crumbles slightly to make a firm pie crust.

Top it with carrot pudding and press it with the back of a spoon. Garnish it with more crushed nuts if you desire and serve.

These pies will make a perfect dessert for your children’s party.

Nutty base or cornflakes/wheat flakes will give a wonderful crunch and texture to the carrot pudding.

You can always mix and match the ingredients to make a creative crust of your own.

Serve these mini nutty carrot pies in colorful paper cups as a party dessert or during birthday parties for kids. The pie is a great way to reduce the quantity of rich and indulging carrot pudding in each serving and thereby making it almost a healthy and guilt free dessert.

Isn’t it an easy and fun way to serve our traditional sweet, use your imagination and create different crusts and serve yours. will it also make a good Valentine day’ gift? Let me know..

Notes;

You could use condensed milk in place of milk to make it into more exotic and rich treat.
Fry the nuts and raisins in a little clarified butter/ghee, it gives a crunch and wonderful aroma to the nuts.
You can replace bottle gourd, sweet potato and pumpkin with carrots to make the same pudding.
These pies stay good for 5-6 days as there is no water in the recipe.
Try the same dessert recipe with Apple pudding. Replace the grated carrots with apples.

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36 Comments »

foodwanderings said:

these nutty carrot pudding and pies looks so good!!So decadent!! Now do you deliver?! 🙂

# 13 February 2012 at 7:14 pm

the wicked noodle said:

I adore Indian food but this one is new to me! I love carrots in desserts, too!

# 13 February 2012 at 7:40 pm

Sharmilee said:

Wow love the idea…..looks delicious

# 13 February 2012 at 8:01 pm

Deepa said:

Simply mindblowing pics of gajar ka Halwa.Must have tasted simply wow!

Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi

# 13 February 2012 at 8:36 pm

Pinky said:

Wow awesome sanjeetha, such a decadent recipe and gr8 innovative recipe as well…hats off to u dear.

# 13 February 2012 at 9:39 pm

Ansh said:

I will take the almond and dates crust please!! And this is so very innovative!!

# 13 February 2012 at 10:51 pm

Spandana said:

Delicious and nice ideas to serve the carrot halwa!!

# 14 February 2012 at 3:20 am

sumi said:

neat idea…looks lovely

# 14 February 2012 at 4:58 am

Laura @ Gluten Free Pantry said:

These little pies look so scrumptious!

# 14 February 2012 at 5:25 am

Julie M. said:

These look sooooo good; especially with the crust you involved. I can’t imagine ever getting tired of these flavors. Beautiful recipe Sanjeeta.

# 14 February 2012 at 7:12 am

Divya said:

What a co-incidence-I posted gajar halwa too.Nice way to present it differently,but I almost never have leftovers with gajar halwa.It is immediately shared with friends lest I finish off the whole batch in one sitting!!

# 14 February 2012 at 11:28 am

chinmayie @ love food eat said:

I will definitely try these pie crusts!! They look awesome 🙂

# 14 February 2012 at 11:31 am

Helene Dsouza I Masala Herb said:

I love carrot sweets! I am always looking for no bake options, your recipe will come so handy and I can imagine how quickly they will be indulged at home. =D thx for sharing!

# 14 February 2012 at 11:46 am

Joanne said:

My roommate’s mom brings us carrot halwa a lot and it’s SO GOOD. But I think I’d love it even more in mini cupcake form!

# 14 February 2012 at 5:53 pm

alpa said:

True fusion 🙂 Love your innovative recipe and I LOVE the little container in the last pic. Is it brass? Feeling like going to India and go shopping now. Thanks for sharing!

# 14 February 2012 at 7:52 pm

Priya (Yallapantula) Mitharwal said:

wow, what a creative idea and how handy to eat 🙂

# 14 February 2012 at 11:13 pm

Asmita said:

I love the name for gajar ka halwa. I love gajar halwa and love the way you have presented it. Would be interesting to try it with a nutty base. Yummy!!!

# 15 February 2012 at 12:49 am

Latha said:

These cute little treats look divine.

# 15 February 2012 at 4:59 am

peachkins said:

I should try to make these!Happy Valentine’s Day!

# 15 February 2012 at 6:09 am

Terra said:

I really need to try carrot halwa, it really sounds delicious! I have never heard of it, but love the idea of using it in a little pie! Hugs, Terra

# 15 February 2012 at 8:41 am

mjskit said:

What a unique and fabulous dessert that I just want to eat right off my computer screen! Looking at all of your options I think I’ll start with the nut and dates crust and the carrot pudding but because of my HUGE sweet tooth, I’d use the condensed milk as you suggest. I think the hubby would really love these as well. Gotta give these a try!

# 15 February 2012 at 9:17 am

Liz said:

What beautiful and delicious little pies…and lovely when a few sweet bites are healthy, too!

# 15 February 2012 at 11:21 pm

vianney said:

what a coll treat!! i love the color and thanks for including easy crust options..

# 16 February 2012 at 8:05 am

Kalyani said:

yummilicious 🙂

Kalyani..

# 16 February 2012 at 9:57 am

Kiran @ KiranTarun.com said:

Yummy! I love creative recipes as such 🙂

# 16 February 2012 at 10:32 am

Rose from Magpie's Recipes said:

How yum and innovative! Love carrot halwa and carrot cake too and this looks so much fun. Will try it with the cornflakes crust for my little one!

# 17 February 2012 at 3:03 am

kankana said:

That would be great for a party. And we can make it in advance. Sounds yummy!

# 17 February 2012 at 4:02 am

EA-The Spicy RD said:

What an intriguing dessert, and I love that you made an almond crust version for your pies! So scrumptious looking too!

# 17 February 2012 at 12:04 pm

Nami | Just One Cookbook said:

How lovely. I like that this is “vegetable” desserts. I feel so much better eating them myself and giving them to the kids. They must go so well with chai…. hmm very nice treat!

# 17 February 2012 at 3:00 pm

Vandana said:

Hi Sanjeeta!

Loved the idea… my daughter adores cupcakes and I think I may be able to get away with carrots on this!

I do a lot of healthy recipes on my website – svasa.com, which is a social website for the promotion of organic & natural food and healthy living. (link to recipes is at esvasa.com/?q=taxonomy/term/17)

If you could share a healthy recipe for our readers on the site it would be great!

Thanks, and God bless!

Vandana

# 17 February 2012 at 3:34 pm

Spirulina Shake « Drinks « Course « Index « said:

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# 17 February 2012 at 5:27 pm