Farro, Dried Figs and Walnuts Dessert - Albanian Hashure
This farro pudding recipe is called Hashure in Albania. It's origins come from a similar Turkish dessert called Ashure, however the Turkish version has a lot more ingredients. Albanian hashure is a wheat pudding made with farro (or barley), dried figs, walnuts, cloves and cinnamon. It's rich, full of flavor and perfect dessert to share with friends, family and neighbors.
10cloves add less if you're not sure if you like this spice
2tbspscorn starch
2cupsdried figs
1cupchopped walnuts
Instructions
Inspect the farro grains for any impurities, clean them and then put them in a pot and cover with water. Leave farro in water for few hours. I usually add them in water in the morning so it can be ready to cook by the afternoon.
When you are ready to cook hashure, drain farro then add them to a medium size pot. Add 6 cups of water. Please note that if you're cooking farro for a salad or other purpose you will only need to add 4 cups of water per 2 cups of farro. But since this is a pudding you need more water.
Set to boil in high temperature then lower to medium. Add the cinnamon sticks.
While farro is cooking, you can chop the dried figs. Also, mix the starch with few tbsps of water in a separate container.
After farro has cooked for about 20-25 minutes, you can remove the cinnamon sticks. Add sugar and mix well.
At this point add the dried figs and cloves. Let cook for another 5 minutes.
Finally add the starch mix, keep stirring so no lumps are created. The starch mix will thicken the pudding. Let cook few more minutes. You can try to smash few farro grains to the side of the pot using a wooden spoon. This will thicken the pudding even more.
Turn heat off. Let the hashure cool off a little bit than pour with a laddle into serving bowls. Top with cinnamon and chopped walnuts.
Place the hashure bowls in the refrigerator for about 2 hrs. Then enjoy and share with others:)
Notes
Please note that since dried figs are very sweet I do add less sugar to my recipe.