Thirattupal or Milk Halwa with Ricotta Cheese & Apple

As you keep reading my blogs you will conclude that I have a sweet tooth and one that is too strong...:-)) I am crazy about sweets from childhood though I would say my craving for sweets has come down to a very large extent in the recent years! Thanks to consciousness about health and fitness.

But if someone places a plate of sweets in front of me and expects me to behave like a Sage....sorry...am not in for that game! Well, this time around no one gave me a platter of sweets but my fridge presented itself with all the leftovers I needed to satiate my cravings:-)

It had the left over ricotta cheese from my Lasagna evening, left over condensed milk from krishna jayanthi day, left over 3/4 of an apple...now that is not strange in our house! As I have mentioned in my earlier post on the Apple milkshake ....this is truly a forbidden fruit..;-) and ofcourse there was this exactly half stick of butter too....that was some coincidence! The outcome of all these leftovers was this supper yummy "thiratupal" or "milk halwa" which I would say is now hardly left over....

Now, this recipe I know is all over the net and I have made it myself a couple of times before but not with Apples! That was quite an idea! I simply wanted to use the left over apple and decided to grate it in and the result was this super yummy and perfectly coloured halwa! Ofcourse I made it in the microwave....

Ingredients:
(alter proportions as needed...below is all what I had & used up:-))

- 3/4 of 15oz pack Ricotta Cheese
- 1/3 of 14oz tin of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 stick of unsalted butter approx 4 tbsp
- 3/4 apple, skin peeled & grated
- 6 tbsp of sugar - powdered
- 2 tbsp milk, i used 1%

Prep time: 5 mins                     Cook time: 30 mins

- In a microwave safe  bowl, add the ricotta cheese, butter, grated apple and condensed milk.
- Warm the milk and pour it in the condensed milk tin. Milk is mainly to get all of the condensed milk from the tin:-)!

Apple changes to this caramel colour the instant you grate them

- Place it in the microwave and heat for 3 minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, remove the bowl, mix all ingredients together. Now, add the powdered sugar to this and mix well.

End of 1st 3 minutes of heating

- Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for a further 3 to 4 minutes. Keep checking so that the mix does not spill out.

At the end of 8 minutes

- Every 4 minutes, stop heating and stir up the bowl to ensure the sweet gets cooked evenly.

At the end of 15 minutes

- The sweet is ready once the ingredients come together and all the butter and milk gets absorbed well.
- It took me about 21 minutes to finish up! This time might vary depending on your microwave. So, pls use your judgement.

At the end of 21 minutes....Done!

- The addition of apples gives a very nice colour and flavour to this halwa. You could add some coarsely ground dates too for additional taste and colour!

This recipe is participating in ABC Series - A for Apple being hosted by Ramya..

Sending the recipe to Friday Potluck at Show and Tell by Vatsala