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Xalwo

Name: Xalwo
Total time: 90 min
Yield: Serves 10
Cuisine: Somalia
Ingredients: 80g Cornstarch; 250g Sugar; 500ml Water; 100g Butter; 1 tsp Cardamom powder; A pinch Nutmeg; A pinch Food Coloring

Dessert

⏱ 90 min

👥 Serves 10

Difficulty ⭐⭐⭐

Sugar, starch, and ghee cooked down with cardamom and nutmeg — Somalia's celebration sweet.

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📖 The Story Behind This Dish

Xalwo is a traditional sweet essential at Somali weddings, Eid, and other celebrations: sugar, starch, and ghee are worked over heat for a long time and scented with cardamom and nutmeg into a glossy, chewy confection. At weddings it's customary for the families of the bride and groom to serve xalwo.

🌆 Where it's eaten: At a Somali wedding venue, glossy amber sweets are cut into small pieces, arranged on trays, and handed to guests.

🥕 Ingredients (serves 10)

Cornstarch 80g
Sugar 250g
Water 500ml
Butter 100g
Cardamom powder 1 tsp
Nutmeg A pinch
Food Coloring A pinch

👩‍🍳 Instructions

Dissolve the cornstarch in 200ml water.
Cook the sugar and remaining water in a pot until caramel-colored.
Add the dissolved cornstarch a little at a time and keep stirring over low heat.
Add the butter in several additions and keep working for 30 minutes until glossy and pulling away from the pot.
Mix in the cardamom, nutmeg, and food coloring, pour into a pan, cool, and cut.

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