A no-bake Tibetan sweet pressed from dried cheese, butter and sugar into firm little bricks. Rich, crumbly and intensely buttery, it is one of the very few traditional Tibetan desserts and a centerpiece of festival tables.
In a land with little sugar and few sweets, thue became the prized treat of celebration. Tibetans say a good thue lives or dies by its butter: with poor butter the cheese is just a lump. Fine dried cheese is worked by hand with plenty of butter and sugar, then shaped into squares and rounds or pressed into a carved wooden mold. For Losar and other festivals families decorate the bricks with butter shaped into suns, moons and the yungdrung symbol, then set them on the household shrine before they are shared.
It crumbles like fudge and melts into pure butter, sweet from the sugar with a savory, almost cheesy tang underneath. Studded with chewy raisins, it is dense, rich, and meant to be eaten in small, slow squares.
Generous butter binds the dry cheese and sugar into a cohesive paste, and chilling sets the butterfat firm so the unbaked bricks hold a crisp, sliceable shape at the table.
Variations
With chopped dates and nuts, with droma (Tibetan potentilla root) added, plain undecorated everyday version
On the Palate
Where Thue sits in the Tibetan flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 8How it's made
8 steps · 25 min
- 110 min
Crumble dried hard cheese (or grate parmesan) into a fine, sandy powder.
- 25 min
Soften unsalted butter to a smooth, spreadable consistency at room temperature.
- 35 min
In a bowl, work the butter and brown sugar together by hand until creamy.
Watch outCream the butter and brown sugar until smooth and pale before the cheese goes in — this fat is the glue holding the whole brick together.
- 45 min
Add the cheese powder and a handful of raisins or chopped dates and knead into a stiff, crumbly dough.
- 53 min
Press the mixture firmly into a small rectangular mold or line a tray and press flat.
Watch outPress the mixture in really firmly with no air gaps — a loosely packed brick crumbles when you cut it.
- 65 min
Smooth the surface and, if desired, pipe softened butter into sun or moon shapes on top.
- 760 min
Chill for about an hour until the bricks are firm enough to hold their shape.
Watch outChill until the butterfat firms and the brick holds its shape — too soft and it won't slice into clean squares.
- 82 min
Turn out, cut into squares, and serve at room temperature.
