For Diwali and every celebration

Saffron Kheer

Saffron kheer takes about 15 threads for six servings and roughly seventy minutes of slow reduction. Milk, rice and sugar cooked down and turned gold with saffron, finished with nuts — the most-cooked saffron dessert on earth, and the one where thread quality shows most.

Serves
6
Prep
10 min
Cook
1 hr
Saffron
15 threads
Shop the saffron
A bowl of creamy saffron kheer topped with slivered pistachios, almonds and red saffron threads

Method

  1. Bloom the saffron

    Steep the threads in 3 tbsp of warm milk. Leave it while the kheer cooks — twenty minutes or more is fine here.

  2. Reduce

    Bring the milk to a boil, add the rice, and drop to a bare simmer. Cook uncovered for 45–50 minutes, stirring regularly and scraping the base, until reduced by about a third and visibly creamy.

  3. Sweeten

    Stir in the sugar and cook another 5 minutes until dissolved.

  4. Add the saffron

    Stir through the bloomed saffron with its milk and the cardamom. Cook just 2 minutes more — enough to distribute, not enough to boil the aroma away.

  5. Finish

    Take off the heat, stir in most of the nuts, and serve warm or chilled with the rest scattered over.

Notes from our kitchen

  • Rinsing then draining the rice — rather than soaking — gives the grains that hold their shape in the finished kheer.
  • A heavy-based pan is worth it. Milk catches on a thin base and the burnt note never leaves.

Keep cooking

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Afghan Super Negin saffron threads in a crystal bowl with the Authentic Afghan Saffron branded porcelain teacup of golden tea

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All recipes

Made with

The saffron this recipe is written for.

Single-origin Herati Super Negin, single-origin and harvest-dated.

The hero
The 1 gram crystal bottle of Authentic Afghan Saffron Super Negin threads

For giving

The Crystal Bottle — 1 g

One gram of Super Negin in a crystal keepsake bottle. About 60 cups of tea.

$12.99About 60 cups of tea
Give the bottle
Most gifted
The Authentic Afghan Saffron gift box beside the branded porcelain teacup of golden saffron tea

For the ritual

The Gift Box

Two crystal bottles in a gold-foiled gift box.

$27.991 g + teacup & saucer
Shop the set
All-red Super Negin saffron threads heaped in a cut-crystal footed bowl

For the kitchen

The Connoisseur Jar — 5 g

For the kitchen that cooks with saffron, not around it.

$44.99$12.00/g
Shop 5 g

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