Badam Burfi

Wish you all a very Happy Deepavali

I miss home very much around festival times (I know all of you do too.. but I just want to let it out) especially for Diwali. No fireworks, no elaborately decorated diyas around the house means no fun. Its been (oh.. wow.. let me think) 8 long years that I celebrated actual diwali.

Some of my colleagues were asking me why I was working on a festival and not take a day off. But what am I to do at home, I don’t have to dry fire crackers in the sun or cook for guests. We used to sundry all the back home to make them dry and light better.. but it almost always used to be either cloudy or raining on diwali day.. its still fun with crackers that go tsssss… than have nothing.

To chase away all these negative thoughts during the festival season I’m trying to compensate the lack of fun with lots of food. I made Janthikalu (Chakli), Badam burfi (Almond bars) & gulab jamuns.
Gulab jamuns are from store bought mix, I love MTR brand and they come out perfect everytime for me.
Badam burfi recipe is adapted from Saffron Hut’s Badam halwa recipe, I cooked about 20 minutes more than the time needed for badam halwa.

Ingredients:
Slivered Badam (Almonds) – 1 ½ cups
Sugar – 2 2/3 cups (or as per taste)
Cardamom powder (Elaichi) – ½ tsp
Milk – 3 tbsp (approximately)
Ghee – ¼ cup (or as needed)

Method:

• Soak the almonds in hot water for 1 hour. Drain and grind into a smooth paste adding milk as needed.
• Combine sugar and 1 cup of water in a heavy bottomed pot, bring to a rolling boil; lower the heat and slowly mix in the badam paste. Whisk thoroughly and make sure there are no lumps.
• On low heat keep stirring the mixture occasionally to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom.
• Add 2 tsp ghee and stir about every 5 minutes. The mixture slowly starts getting thick from being watery to heavy creamy/ idly batter to very thick and slides away from the sides of the pot, about 40-50 minutes.
• Remove it onto a greased plate, pat it smooth with the back of a smooth and score into bars; allow to cool completely before trying to break.

Will keep fresh in a tight lid container for about 2 weeks (if they are not eaten before that). Enjoy..

This is my entry to JFI: Festival treats being hosted by Srivalli @ Cooking 4 all Seasons. JFI is the brainchild of Indira @ Mahanandi.