Keep the dates ready by de-seeding and cleaning. Put them in a vessel along with raisins and some water. Cook them together till they turn soft and mushy. Switch off once done and let it cool.

Meanwhile add almonds and cashews in to a mixer and powder them coarsely. Let there be some small chunks of nuts and do not make it fine powder. Transfer it to a plate and add cooked dates+raisins to the mixer. Grind them to fine puree.

Now all the things are ready and lets proceed to make syrup. In a cooking pan add both jaggery and sugar together. With 2 tsp of water, cook it to make syrup of soft ball consistency. The jaggery and sugar dissolve in few minutes and it starts bubbling. Keep checking the consistency by letting a drop of syrup in some water. If the syrup in water is firm and you can make soft ball out of it, then proceed to next step.

Next include coconut and cooked dates and raisins. Stir everything well and cook for few more minutes.

Then include almond plus cashew powder and stir to combine everything. Continue cooking till the mixture gathers, add ghee in between and when the halwa mix leaves the pan, switch off the flame.

Transfer the mix to ghee greased tray and let it cool down to room temperature. Later, using sharp knife mark the pieces and remove from tray. Garnish the pieces with poppy seeds if using.

Overwhelmingly delicious pancharatna halwa is ready to serve as special Diwali treat.

You can use pressure cooker to cook dates and raisins. I cooked them over stove top.

Syrup consistency is very important. If the consistency is less than soft ball, then the halwa won't hold the shape. On the other hand if it is overcooked after soft ball consistency, halwa turns little hard.

You can use almond and cashews in any proportion. I used them in the ratio of 75%:25%.

This recipe calls for more jaggery compared to sugar. Dates and raisins too contribute sweetness, so the above measurements made the halwa perfectly sweet.