Sweets for Deepawali festival Archives

My love for Naariyal(coconut) ki burfi started after I settled down in Chennai. I guess after my marriage if I wouldn’t have settled down in South India, I would not have learned how to prepare Naariyal (coconut) ki burfi . No, that doesn’t mean that people in North India don’t know how to prepare Naariyal ki burfi or coconut burfi. Before my marriage I hardly took any interest with my mom to prepare sweets. After settling down in Chennai and now in Bangalore whenever my husband and I were invited to anyone’s house for some special occasion, I used to get one coconut, beetle leaves, supari (betel nut) along with haldi- kumkum. In North, we never had so many fresh coconuts all year round. So, I used to be excited to get coconuts with each visit! But how much could I eat…. and how to use so many coconuts? Then I decided to learn coconut burfi. Took some tips from my mother as she is an expert in preparing sugar syrup based sweets. So now, after every festival there was coconut burfi in our house as I used to get invitations from 8 to 10 neighbors. The more invitations, the more coconuts!!!

But slowly over the years to be on the healthier side, I reduced my sugar intake and so I stopped making coconut burfi. I decided to prepare it only once a year during the occasion of Janmashtmi. But this year I prepared Naariyal ki burfi with dry desiccated coconut powder.

Is there any difference between burfi prepared with dry desiccated coconut powder and fresh grated coconut? Yes, there is…. Fresh grated coconut has lots of moisture so it takes a lot of time to reduce the moisture. With dry coconut powder preparation time is less and we don’t need to keep burfi in the fridge for 3-4 days.

I have two more types of burfi posts in the blog, can take a look… Dry fruits Burfi

Seven Cups Burfi

Some points to remember:

While measuring sugar, coconut and water we don’t need any specific measuring cups. Use any cup, glass or bowl from your kitchen and use the same vessel for measuring all three ingredients.
I had used 4 cups of sugar for 5 cups of coconut and I felt that burfi was overly sweet. So the quantity of sugar can be reduced to 3 or 3+1/2 cups.
It is sugar syrup based sweet, so it’s a bit tricky as preparing the right consistency of sugar syrup needs experience.
When sugar syrup starts becoming thick, reduce the flame and take some syrup at the edge of of spoon and from there very carefully try to check with your finger and thumb about the thread consistency. If there is only one thread formation, it means that syrup still needs to be cooked for some more time. Be very attentive because if sugar thickens more than two thread consistency, burfi would be dry and brittle.

If burfi is not properly set in the plate after cooling down also and you can feel a lot of moisture is still there, then once again collect it and put it back in the wok. Switch on flame and using spatula, stir it on medium flame till it becomes thick and sticky .It might take 5 to 10 minutes. Pour it again in another greased plate and set it down.
Sometimes we overdo sugar syrup and after cooling down, burfi is very dry and brittle. Don’t worry, we can still fix this. Crumble all burfi pieces. It will be in a coarse powder form. Pour 1/3 cup of milk in the wok, heat it and add that broken coarse powder. Keep stirring it on medium flame and when it turns thick and sticky, pour it in a new greased plate and set it down.
If it is difficult to judge whether batter is sticky enough or not to set it in the plate, very carefully (it is very hot) take 1/4 tsp batter and try to prepare it as a ball. If you are able to bind it easily, batter is ready to set in the plate.

Ingredients:

Desiccated dry coconut powder 5 cups

Granulated sugar 4 cups ( can reduce little bit)

Water 1+ 1/2cup

Milk 2 tbsp

Ghee only to grease the plate

Cardamom powder 1+1/2 tsp

Process:

Grease a big plate (preferably with high edges around it) with ghee and keep it separately.

Measure coconut powder and keep it in a bowl or plate.

In a heavy bottomed wok heat one cup of water and add sugar in it. Keep it stirring till sugar dissolves completely.

Once sugar dissolves completely, add milk. The wok would be full of bubbles.

Slowly bubbles would settle down and the impurities of the sugar will gather around the wok. With the help of spatula take them out and throw them. Add cardamom powder.

On medium to high flame let this sugar syrup boil till it reaches two thread consistency. Add measured coconut powder, quickly mix it well and spread it in greased plate evenly. With the help of flat spatula pat it nicely so that it sets down firmly.

After 10 minutes cut burfi in any shape and let it cool down completely.

Once burfi cools down completely, once again cut it into pieces with a sharp knife and spread happiness with your homemade coconut burfi!

During festivals nothing is better than gifting your friends homemade sweets…

Rabdi /Rabri is milk based sweet dessert. In India milk sweets are prepared with a wide range of varieties. Some are done by curdling the milk, like Rasgulla , or by thickening milk, like Rasmalai or by thickening and then curdling the milk and so on…

Rabdi/ Rabri is prepared by thickening the milk and simultaneously collecting the milk cream (malai in Hindi) during the process of thickening and later adding it in the milk. Rabdi/ Rabri is generally served with other sweets such as ghevar, malpua, sweet bread toast, gulab jamun etc to enhance the taste, flavor and richness of sweets. But you can have it independently too. It has a thick creamy consistency of milk with small chunks of malai (milk cream). Rabdi tastes best if served chilled. So for your guests you can prepare it one day in advance.

Rabdi is prepared using full fat milk. It is a long time process and it needs our complete attention. Once milk is boiled, it is left on sim heat till the volume reduces to 1/4th quantity of the initial volume. While milk is becoming thick or concentrated, a layer of milk cream (malai) keeps appearing on the top of the milk. We have to collect this milk cream at regular intervals all around the sides of the milk vessel.

Now if you are using a light weight vessel, then this cream might get burnt and even milk will be stuck at the bottom of the vessel despite stirring. So always use thick heavy bottomed vessel to prepare Rabdi /Rabri.

While milk is thickening, it will change its colour to pale yellow and it can be served just like that after adding cardamom powder. But you can make it more flavored and attractive by adding saffron and by garnishing with a few dry fruits.

Doing some workout is advisable after relishing this delicious milk sweet as it will add on a lot of calories!!

INGREDIENTS :

Full fat milk 1 litre

Sugar 1/4 cup

Saffron strands 5-6

Cardamom powder and your choice of finely chopped dry fruits.

PROCESS:

Boil milk in a big heavy bottomed broad vessel. Usually in India we use kadai/ wok. It is a broad vessel and is helpful in collecting the milk cream around its edges and in making the milk evaporate faster.

Once milk is boiled, take out 2 tbsp milk in a bowl and add saffron strands to it. Reduce the heat to sim and let the milk become thick. After 5 minutes, add 2 tbsp saffron milk in the vessel. Keep stirring in between to avoid it sticking or burning at the bottom of the vessel (kadai/wok) . Simultaneously keep collecting the milk cream (malai) around the sides of the vessel.

Add sugar once milk has reduced to half of the quantity you originally started with. With the addition of sugar, milk will again become diluted. So let it keep boiling for some more time and when milk remains 1/4th of the of the initial quantity, switch off the heat.

With flat spatula slowly remove all milk cream from the edges of the vessel. If you are having difficulty in removing the milk cream, then pour thick milk from the vessel on it and it will come out easily.