Almond Burfi

A classic Diwali sweet treat and one of my favorite Indian sweets growing up. Its called Badam Burfi or Badam Katli. Badam is almond and burfi is the square shaped sweet treat. This sweet treat has a luxurious, elegant flavor of cardamom, saffron and almond and I prefer it lightly sweetened. If you’ve been to an Indian grocery store during any festivities or an Indian sweet shop called Halwai there is a good chance you’ve seen Badam burfi. Its hugely popular with Indians in India and the global Indian diaspora. There are several versions of burfi made with different nuts like cashews and pistachios, but also milk based burfi rolled into different shapes and flavored with different spices. This is a simple homemade version, the recipe can be used to make with cashews. Pistachios is slightly different, so it will be in a separate post later.

To make life simpler I recommend using blanched ground almond, it cuts out a lot of time and effort preparing fine almond powder, and thats a huge saving for me. I’ve tried both methods using whole almonds as given in the recipe and with store bought ground blanched almonds, both successfully. The one important thing is use blanched (without skin) ground almonds, if you want the burfi to look this beautiful blond color. Secondly to keep that white/blond color use white sugar, it may not be the healthiest but to maintain the color its essential.

I prefer my almond burfi to be on the lighter side of sweetness so I go with 1/2 cup of sugar for this recipe, but 3/4 is ideal for the traditional flavor. Other than that this is a delicious simple recipe to try if you want to make your own homemade Almond or cashew burfi it is worth a try. Happy Diwali!

Ingredients

• 2.5 cups whole almonds, should yield 2 cups ground almonds
• ½ cup water
• ½-¾ cup white sugar**, organic preferably
• ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ghee or almond oil, vegan butter but not coconut oil
• GARNISHES
• ¼ -½ teaspoon saffron strands
• edible silver leaf also called Silver vark
• Rose petals

Instructions

1. Soak the almonds in plenty of warm water for about a hour until the skins are soft, they should easily slip off when you press on them. Remove all the skins off the almonds. wipe the almonds dry and chill them in the fridge for 20 minutes.
2. In batches grind almonds to a fine powder by pulsing the food processor a few times and scraping the sides rather than running the blender continually, this will result in a even powder and not almond paste. Refrigerating the nuts can prevent the almonds from turning into a paste.
3. In small batches place the almond powder in a sieve and sift to get a fine powder, you can transfer the coarse residue almond back in the food processor and pulse a couple more times to get all the almonds into a fine powder.
4. In a deep non stick pan, add water, sugar, ground cardamom. Bring the water to a boil so the sugar dissolves drop the heat to a gentle simmer until a light syrup starts to form. You don’t want the color to change to a golden syrup, we are looking for a consistency of a single string. Add the sifted almond powder to the sugar syrup. Mix well, add rose water if using, and continue mixing until the almond starts to come together and forms a dough. Take it off the heat and set aside.
5. Lightly grease a large piece of parchment paper about (9-10 inches) with ghee or almond oil. Transfer the almond dough onto the greased paper. Grease your hand with little ghee and knead for 30 seconds to a couple of minutes till a smooth soft dough is formed. Once you have smooth dough, roll the dough into a rectangle about ¼ inch or less thick, the idea is to cut into squares or rectangle so the rolled out dough doesn’t need to be exact.
6. Sprinkle the saffron strands all over the almond sheet and roll the rolling pin gently over to press the saffron strands. Press the silver foil if using.
7. Cut the almond into squares or diamond shaped barfi. Store in a air tight container in the fridge.
8. Enjoy!