Almond Burfi for Deepavali

Happy Deepavali! everyone.

Isn't "cool as a cucumber" a great trait to have? Watching the third presidential debate the thing that struck me most was what a cool cucumber Obama was. Man, it sure is a great asset to have. I am thinking of the many situations that would have turned so totally different if only I had that kind of cool head on my shoulder! Sigh! Well I can console myself saying you need ying and yang to balance everything.

A Cool head would have gone a long way in my burfi making attempts if we count the number of times I started off making burfi but ended up with halwa. Be it almond, choclate or milk my barfi making has invariably ended up as halwa. It tasted good alright, with sugar, milk and nuts nothing can go wrong in the taste department anyway just that instead of biting into it, you have to slurp it. This time I kept my cool and the resulting burfi spoke for itself. This is an easy sweet and nothing can go wrong it really if you don't mind the halwa in the end that is.

A friend gave me the recipe, hers was white but mine turned well an almond color. I used milk to blend the almonds whereas she had asked me to use water, that could have been the reason. I almost halved the amount of sugar and added it directly to the almond paste. She had suggested making a sugar syrup to string consistency and adding the almond paste to it.

I did not blend the almonds into a smooth paste, this would help in shaping the burfi. Mine was coarse but the texture turned out great.

Makes: 20-25 burfis ofcourse depending on the size they are cut.
Ingredients
1. 2 Cups of almomds soaked in hot water and skin peeled
2. 1 1/4 Cups of sugar (original recipe called for 2 cups of sugar)
3. 1 cup of milk (1/4 or 1/2 cup should have been sufficient, more the milk longer it takes to set)
4. 4 tbsp butter (melt in a pan)

Method
1. Blend the almonds to a paste
2. In a heavy bottomed pan add the almond paste and sugar and in medium heat keep stirring. At this stage it does not stick to the bottom but watch it regularly about 15-20 minutes.
3. When it starts to get frothy add the ghee a bit by bit on the sides
4. Continue till the mixture comes into one big mass and a bit taken can be rolled easily into a ball another 30 minutes or so.
5. Pour into a greased pan and let it cool for a bit and slice into desired shape.
(It is good to have someone help pour and the other spread the mixture)

Soft and melts in your mouth and with the reputation almond has even healthy ;)

This goes off to Cooking 4 all Seasons: Announcing JFI – Nov’08 – Festival Treats!