Dry Fruit Kheer at Home: Recipe + Cost for 6 Servings

Kheer is the dessert every Pakistani household already knows how to make, and the dessert every household makes differently. The base is always the same — milk, rice, sugar, slow heat — and the difference is the dry fruit: how much, which ones, and whether they go in during the cooking or on top at the end. A plain kheer is a good dessert. A dry fruit kheer is a winter dessert: richer, warmer, and the one that belongs on the table at a dawat, at a shaadi, and on the coldest nights of December.

This guide gives the full dry fruit kheer recipe — the method, the portions, the storage, and the cost at today's live shop prices — as the next recipe in our winter-dessert series, after the halwa, the barfi and the laddu. It is deliberately different from those three: the halwa is cooked in ghee, the barfi is pressed and cut, the laddu is rolled — and the kheer is slow-cooked in milk, which is a different skill and a different sweet. One honest note up front: the shop does not sell milk, rice, sugar or plain desi ghee, so those four come from your kitchen and your bazaar; everything else on the list is costed from the shop.

The Recipe: Dry Fruit Kheer, Step by Step

Serves 6. Time: about 1 hour 15 minutes, plus cooling.

Ingredients. Full-cream milk 1.5 litres (ghar ka / bazaar, not costed); basmati or broken rice 100g, soaked 30 minutes (bazaar, not costed); sugar 150g (bazaar, not costed); desi ghee 1 tablespoon, for roasting the nuts (bazaar-bought — the shop does not sell plain desi ghee); American badam 50g, blanched, peeled and slivered; raw kaju 50g, roughly chopped; pista giri 30g, slivered, for the top; desi kishmish 30g; dried coconut 30g, grated; char magaz 20g; phool makhana 20g, lightly crushed; zafran a pinch (about 0.1g), soaked in 2 tablespoons of warm milk; green elaichi 3–4 pods (about 2g), seeds crushed.

Step 1 — Soak the rice and the zafran. Wash the rice and soak it in water for 30 minutes, then drain and crush it lightly with your hands — not to a paste, just broken, so it cooks faster and thickens the milk. Soak the zafran in 2 tablespoons of warm milk in a small cup and set it aside; it needs the half hour to give up its colour.

Step 2 — Roast the nuts. Heat the tablespoon of ghee in a small pan and roast the badam, kaju and makhana separately, a few minutes each, until they smell toasted — the makhana goes last and fastest, and it burns in seconds. Set the roasted nuts aside. The kishmish, coconut and char magaz do not need roasting; they go in as they are.

Step 3 — Cook the milk and rice. Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy pot, then add the soaked rice and turn the heat to low. Cook, stirring every few minutes so the rice does not stick, for 40–45 minutes, until the rice is completely soft and the milk has thickened to the consistency of pouring cream. This is the step that cannot be rushed: fast heat scorches the milk, and scorched milk cannot be saved. Low heat, a heavy pot, and patience are the whole method.

Step 4 — Add the sugar and the dry fruit. Add the sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add the roasted badam, kaju and makhana, the kishmish, the coconut and the char magaz, and the crushed elaichi seeds. Cook for 10 more minutes, stirring, until the dry fruit has softened into the kheer and the mixture coats the spoon. The kheer should be thick enough to coat the spoon but still pourable — it thickens further as it cools, so take it off the heat a little thinner than you want it.

Step 5 — Finish with zafran and pista. Take the pot off the heat. Stir in the soaked zafran with its milk — the kheer will turn the palest gold — and sprinkle the slivered pista on top. Do not cook the zafran: heat kills its colour and its smell. Let the kheer cool for 20 minutes, then serve warm, or chill it for two hours and serve cold. Both are correct; warm is the winter way, cold is the dawat way.

The one mistake. Adding the sugar too early. Sugar added before the rice is cooked stops the rice from softening — the grains stay hard no matter how long you cook them. Sugar goes in only when the rice is completely soft. If your kheer has hard rice in it, this is why.

The Ingredients, One by One

American badam — 250g Rs 1,100. The backbone nut, blanched and slivered, for richness and for the look of the kheer. The batch uses 50g, costed at Rs 220. Soak and peel if you like the clean look; for kheer, blanched and slivered is the tradition, and the peel has no place in a white dessert.

Raw kaju — 250g Rs 1,400. The creamy nut, chopped, for the softness of the kheer. The batch uses 50g, costed at Rs 280. Buy raw, not salted — salt has no place in a kheer.

Pista giri — 250g Rs 2,750. The garnish and the luxury: slivered on top, not cooked in, so the green shows against the pale kheer. The batch uses 30g, costed at Rs 330. It is the most expensive item per gram on this list — if the budget is tight, halve it to 15g and the kheer is still complete.

Desi kishmish — 250g Rs 500. The small sweetness inside the kheer, plumped by the hot milk. The batch uses 30g, costed at Rs 60. Pick out the stems first; a stem in a kheer is the one flaw nobody forgives.

Dried coconut — 250g Rs 500. The chew and the milkiness. The batch uses 30g, costed at Rs 60. Grated or desiccated both work; long shreds do not — cut them short so the kheer pours smoothly.

Char magaz — 250g Rs 780. The thickener and the quiet richness: ground into the milk as it cooks, it gives the kheer its body. The batch uses 20g, costed at Rs 62. See our char magaz guide for the full story — and do not confuse it with chilgoza magaz, which costs Rs 4,000 for 250g and is a different seed entirely.

Phool makhana — 100g Rs 650. The surprise ingredient: lightly crushed and roasted, makhana melts into the kheer and thickens it, the way it thickens a panjiri. The batch uses 20g, costed at Rs 130. It is the ingredient that makes this kheer different from the plain one — and the reason the kheer holds its thickness when it cools.

Zafran — 2g Rs 1,800. The colour and the smell: a pinch, soaked in warm milk, turns the whole pot gold. The batch uses about 0.1g, costed at Rs 90. It is the most expensive ingredient per gram in the pot, and it is also the one you use least of — a 2g pack lasts twenty kheers. If the budget is tight, skip it: the kheer is still a dry fruit kheer, it is just a paler one.

Green elaichi — 250g Rs 4,200. The fragrance: three or four pods, seeds crushed, for the whole pot. The batch uses about 2g, costed at Rs 34. It is the cheapest ingredient per batch on this list, and the one that makes the kitchen smell of kheer before the pot is even off the stove.

Milk, rice, sugar and desi ghee — not costed. Say it plainly, because the shop's own catalogue says it: milk and rice are NOT sold on the Shopify shop — they are ghar ka and bazaar — and plain desi ghee is not sold either (only panjiri and sohan halwa contain it). Buy milk from your doodhwala, rice from your usual shop, sugar from the bazaar, and ghee from your own trusted source, about a tablespoon for a batch. This guide does not invent a price for any of them, because there is no shop price to quote.

The Costed List: One Pot, 6 Servings

Every price is the shop's own live price on 10 November 2026. The batch is costed by the amount used, from the verified pack price:

Rs 1,266 a pot is the shop-bought cost; the milk, rice, sugar and ghee from your kitchen sit on top of it, at your own local price. The packs you buy go further than one pot: the 250g badam and kaju packs make five pots each, the 2g zafran pack makes twenty, and the 250g elaichi pack lasts the whole winter. The second pot, from the same shopping, costs far less than the first — which is the real economics of homemade kheer. Skip the zafran and the pot falls to Rs 1,176, or about Rs 196 a serving.

Portions, Storage and Serving

Portion. One bowl (about 150–180g) is a serving — roughly Rs 211 of shop-bought ingredients, plus the milk and rice from your kitchen. Two bowls is a generous serving, and the second bowl is the one people ask for at a dawat. Anyone watching sugar should take a small bowl and skip the second: the kheer has 150g of sugar in the pot, and that is real.

Warm or cold. Warm is the winter way: serve it 20 minutes off the stove, when it is thick and the ghee and elaichi are at their warmest. Cold is the dawat way: chill it for two hours, and it sets into the firm, sliceable kheer that holds its shape on the plate. Never reheat a cold kheer hard — warm it gently, or the milk splits. And never leave a pot of kheer on the stove overnight: milk goes off, and a pot left out is a pot wasted.

Storage. A covered bowl in the fridge: three to four days. The kheer thickens as it cools — stir in a spoon of warm milk before serving to bring it back to pouring consistency. Do not freeze it: the rice turns grainy and the milk separates, and the kheer never comes back. If it smells sour, throw it away — milk does not negotiate.

Serving. Small bowls, not big ones: kheer is rich, and a small bowl finished is better than a big bowl left half-eaten. Garnish each bowl with a few slivers of pista and a pinch of char magaz, and serve it after the main course, with chai — the way it has always been served, and the way it will always be served.

How do you make dry fruit kheer at home?

Slow-cook 100g of soaked rice in 1.5 litres of milk on low heat for 40–45 minutes, until thick. Add 150g sugar, then roasted badam, kaju and makhana, kishmish, coconut, char magaz and elaichi, and cook 10 more minutes. Take it off the heat, stir in soaked zafran, garnish with slivered pista, and serve warm or chilled. Add the sugar only when the rice is completely soft.

How much does a pot of dry fruit kheer cost?

Rs 1,266 for the shop-bought ingredients in one pot of 6 servings — about Rs 211 a serving. Milk, rice, sugar and desi ghee are ghar ka / bazaar and are not costed, because the shop does not sell them. Skip the zafran and the pot falls to Rs 1,176.

Is desi ghee sold on Khan Dry Fruits?

No — plain desi ghee is not sold on the Shopify shop; only panjiri and sohan halwa contain it. Buy ghee from your own trusted source, about a tablespoon for a pot. Milk and rice are not sold on the shop either.

Can I make kheer without zafran?

Yes. Zafran is the colour and the smell, not the structure: skip it and the kheer is still a dry fruit kheer, just a paler one. The pot falls from Rs 1,266 to Rs 1,176 without it. Do not substitute food colour — it tastes of nothing and looks wrong.

How long does dry fruit kheer keep?

Three to four days in a covered bowl in the fridge. Stir in a spoon of warm milk before serving to bring it back to pouring consistency. Do not freeze it, and do not leave it out overnight — milk goes off, and a sour kheer is a wasted pot.

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