Want some melt-in-the-mouth Bohra Eid Kharak recipe? These bite-sized goodies are made to perfection and are freezer friendly too! Your guest will keep asking for more!
Kharik or Chuara means dried date. Kharak is a traditional Bohra sweet made by soaking dry dates until fully puffed. The puffed dates are then pitted and filled with cardamom and rose-flavored crumbled milk (mawa or khoya). It is garnished with nuts and served to greet guests on Eid ul Fitr.
Today, I’m sharing our secret family recipe of Bohra-style Kharak. These are served to guests on Eid ul Fitr.
It's an age-old Bohra tradition to make kharak on Eid ul Fitr and eat a first thing on Eid ul Fitr morning to rejoice at the end of the month of fasting (Ramadan). It is also served to guests who visit during Eid Celebrations.
With this, people also like to make sheer khurma, date roll, and coconut date balls on Eid-ul-Fitr that enhance the joy of this occasion among people. These welcome treats are served to greet the guests.
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Why this recipe is best?
- Most Kharak recipes call for soaking alone and don't require cooking. The dry dates stay firm like that.
- BUT when you cook it, it becomes very tender. Because we are soaking dry dates in milk and then cooking them in some milk. The milk catches all the nutrition and flavors of kharak.
- When we use the same milk to make mawa. The mawa has the flavor of date.
- While on the contrary, if you soak dry dates in water and discard the sweet water laden with nutrition, you waste much of the flavor.
- The recipe requires some time, but if you break the process into three days. Soak it one day and cook another day and fill it the day after. You can easily fit it into your busy Ramadan schedule. I usually start making this on 27th Roza.
Ingredients
In this recipe, you will need dried dates (kharak), milk, water, milk powder, condensed milk, almonds, pistachio and green cardamom powder.
Dry Dates are not soft dates. These are shriveled dates that are hard and sun-dried dates and they are also called "chuara" or "kharik". You can learn more about dry dates at Food NDTV.
How to make it?
- Wash the dates thoroughly. They are laden with dust.
- Take dry dates, milk, and water into the thick-bottomed pot. Heat the mixture to bring to a boil.
- Now soak the dried dates in it for 4 hours at room temperature in a cool place. Or up to 24 hours in the fridge.
- Add more milk (about ½-1 cup) as required to dip the dates fully in milk.
- Cook the dates on high heat for 1 minute to bring them to a boil then reduce heat to a very slow flame. Keep the lid covered until dates become soft for about 1.5-2 hours. Then remove the lid and cook further until the milk becomes very thick and the water almost dries. The total cooking time will be about 3-4 hours. Keep stirring at intervals.
- Remove dates from the pot with a spoon leaving the thick milk (mawa) in the pot. Continue cooking the milk with constant stirring until all the water has dried. Adjust heat as needed.
- To make the filling, take mawa in the bowl and add cardamom powder, condensed milk, and milk powder. Mix it to make a thick mixture that can easily be filled. If the mixture is flowing, add more milk powder.
- Fill the mawa in the dates and garnish it with crushed nuts.
Variations:
This could be just two ingredients recipe as well that is just milk and dry dates. Just use ½-1 cup extra milk in the recipe so the level of milk is 1 inch above the date when cooking. This way you'll have more mawa in the end to fill all of your dates.
Then you do not need to add condensed milk or milk powder to fill in your dates. You can sweeten it with some sugar if needed and just add cardamom powder. The cooking time will increase more milk will take more time to dry.
If you don't have time to soak, then you can skip soaking and cook covered until dates are tender. Soaking gives better and softer results.
Do not hesitate to double the recipe, these will be gone in no time, especially if you have a large family and loads of guests visiting.
No cooked version:
If you visited this page looking for an uncooked version of kharak. It is very simple just soak dates for about 24-48 hours in rose water in the fridge. When the dates are fully puffed, discard the liquid. De-seed puffed dates.
Next, mix sugar, rose water, crushed nuts, and cardamom in mawa. Fill this mawa in dates. You may fill dates with peera filling or kalakand instead.
Expert Tips
- Kharik tastes best when served chilled.
- Soaking time: You can soak the dates for up to 24 hours in the fridge. The minimum soaking time is 4 hours outside at room temperature.
- Always store kharak in an air-tight container as these love to soak bad odor in the fridge.
- You can freeze the leftover cooked kharak for up to 2 months.
- You can grind the leftover kharak and make its halwa.
FAQs
Kharak or kharik is a Bohra traditional dry date sweet that is made on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. Puffed-up dry dates are filled with mawa or kalakand or peera filling.
To double the recipe double all the ingredients and use a larger pot to settle your kharak in it. The cooking time will increase in this process, so look for the visual sign for the completion of steps.
You can grind the leftover kharak and cook it in ghee to make "kharak ka halwa" which is a quick and delicious way to use leftover.
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📖 Recipe
Bohra Kharak Recipe (Kharik)
Ingredients
- 250 gram dried dates, about 36 (kharak, chuaara)
- 1½ cup milk, (I used tetra pack,) more as required
- ½ cup water
For Mawa Filling
- ¼ cup milk powder
- 3-4 tablespoon condensed milk, or 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon powdered nuts, (pista, cashew, almonds)
- ¼ teaspoon green cardamom powder
Garnish:
- 1 tablespoon crushed almonds
- 1 tablespoon crushed pistachio
Instructions
Soak Dates
- Wash dates throughly.
- Take dry dates, milk and water into thick-bottomed pot. Heat the mixture and bring it to a boil. Soak dried dates in it for 4 hours at room temperature. Pro tip: You can soak dates for up to 24-36 hours in the fridge. Keep it in the fridge after cooling.
Cook Kharak
- Add more milk (about ½-1 cup) as required to dip the dates fully in milk. Cook soaked dates for about 3-4 hours until soft and tender. (Bring the milk to boil then reduce the heat to very slow flame. Keep the lid covered until dates become soft for about 2 hours. Then remove the lid and cook further until the milk becomes very thick and the water almost dries.)
- Remove dates from the pot with a spoon leaving the thick milk in the pot. Let the milk dry completely. Our mawa is ready. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool.
For Mawa filling
- Add all the ingredients of filling to the bowl and mix well.
Assembling
- Slit the dates with a knife and remove the seeds. Wipe off any excess milk (mava) from date's skin and mix it with filling.
- Slip a generous portion of mawa filling inside the date and garnish with crushed nuts.
- Repeat to fill all the dates and store in an air tight container in the fridge.
Notes
- Dry Dates are not soft dates. These are shriveled dates that are hard and sun-dried dates and they are also called "chuara" or "kharik".
- This could be just two ingredients recipe as well that is just milk and dry dates. Just use ½-1 cup extra milk in the recipe so the level of milk is 1 inch above the date when cooking. This way you'll have more mawa in the end to fill all of your dates. Then you do not need to add condensed milk or milk powder to fill in your dates. You can sweeten it with some sugar if needed and just add cardamom powder. The cooking time will increase more milk will take more time to dry.
- If you don't have time to soak, then you can skip soaking and cook covered until the dates are tender. Soaking gives better and softer results.
- Always store kharak in an air-tight container as these love to soak bad odor in the fridge.
- You can freeze the leftover cooked kharak for up to 2 months.
- You can grind the leftover kharak and make its halwa.
Tas says
Since 3 years I am making kharak following your recipe and my husband loves it
Today only revisited your page to revise the recipe❤️
Mariam Sodawater says
Thank you so much, this was my MIL's recipe. May Allah Subhannah bless her in Jannah. I'm so glad you like it. You made my day. ❤️
Maria Motorwala says
I made kharak for the first time using this recipe and it was an absolute success. The recipe is so detailed that I felt so comfortable making it! I definitely recommend everyone to try it!! 🔥👌
Recipe 52 says
Thanks a lot for leaving a detailed review. I'm really glad you found this recipe useful.
Arwa says
Hii marium bhen.
I tried this recipe, it was amazing.
You put every detail in your recipe with pictures which makes us understand exactly how it should be. Thanks to you.
Recipe 52 says
Thanks Arwa for leaving a very motivating and lovely comment. I’m so glad the recipe turned out good for you and you find the tips helpful.
I try my best to make recipes clear and easy to follow for everyone so your efforts and energies never go waste. ??