Almond Barfi - An Indian sweet with powdered milk and almonds

These almond barfis were made by my husband as a surprise for me mother’s day.  He adapted my recipe for chocolate barfis and came up with these delicious almond barfis. They were really delicious and easy to make. If he can make them - anyone can!! (BTW: more recipes to come from him later this week!!)

Here's the recipe as written by him with step by step pictures:

Ingredients for about 20 slices

3 cups of full cream milk powder

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of ground almonds

½ cup almond halves

1 teaspoon cardamom powder

2-3 pinches of saffron

2 tablespoons milk

1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)

Method

1.  Add three quarter cup of water to the sugar and slowly bring to boil until the sugar has melted.  This should take under 10 minutes on a high.

2.  Once the sugar and water mixture starts to feel sticky (Don't allow it to become stringy or stiff); add the milk powder to the sugar mixture and stir.  

3.  Mix well and once mixed, lower the heat.  Add the saffron and cardomom powder now and stir it in. ( Soak the saffron in two tablespoons of milk for 5-6 minutes as this gives the barfi the flavour and the colour).

4.  Add the ground almonds and ghee.  Cook this mixture on a medium heat for 5-7 minutes and take it off the heat.  

5. It may feel a bit soft but will settle and become firm once it cools.

6.  Grease a dish with some oil and turn the barfi mixture onto the dish.  Spread the mixture using the back of a spoon and smoothen it. Garnish it with almond halves.

7 .  Allow this mixture to cool until it solidifies.   

8.  Once the barfi has cooled, cut it into squares or diamonds and it’s ready to eat.  Any left over barfis should be kept in an air tight container and should be fine for a week.

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Chocolate Barfi - An Indian Sweet

This sweet was a favourite of mine when I was a child and is now a favourite of my children.  This is the first time I made these barfis so I was a bit apprehensive of how they would turn out as the recipe as taught to me by my father in law is really simple.  How can something cooked so quickly and simply taste so great? But believe me they tasted better than any barfis I have ever eaten.   I changed the original recipe given to me and reduced the sugar as the chocolate layer tends to be very sweet.

Ingredients for about 25-30 slices

4 cups of full cream milk powder
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
2-3 pinches of saffron
1 tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
½ cup of milk
300 grams cooking chocolate (I used 2 bars of Green & Black's Cooks Organic Milk chocolate)

Method

1.  Add three quarter cup of water to the sugar and slowly bring to boil until the sugar has melted.  This should take under 10 minutes on a high.

2.  Once the sugar and water mixture starts to feel sticky (Don't allow it to become stringy or stiff); add the milk powder to the sugar mixture, stir and add in the milk and ghee. 

3.  Mix well and once mixed, turn off the heat.  Add the saffron and cardomom powder now. ( Soak the saffron in a tablespoon of milk for 5-6 minutes as this gives the barfi the flavour and the colour).

4.   Grease a dish with some oil and turn the barfi mixture onto the dish.  Spread the mixture using the back of a spoon and smoothen it.

5.  Allow this mixture to cool until it solidifies.  I usually leave it overnight.

6.  Once the barfi has cooled, it's time to layer it with the cooking chocolate

7.  Cooking chocolate is best melted by using indirect heat.  Cut the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a heatproof bowl and place it in a shallow pan filled with hot water. Keep stirring the chocolate to avoid it scorching.

8.  Once melted, spread it evenly over the barfi and let it cool for at least 6-8 hours.

9.  Once cool, cut the barfi into bite size squares and store on an airtight container.  Our barfi's turned out to be so delicious that they got eaten quite quickly by friends and family.  If you manage to save any barfi - you can store them for a week in a cool place.

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