Indian Sweet Retrospective and My home-made Indian Fudge (Trial #1)
Chickpea Flour Fudge (Besan ki Barfi)
I decided to make today's dessert when I found some misplaced pictures of Indian sweets on my media drive. I thought I had lost them when my last computer crashed.
This visual retrospective of (mostly purchased) Indian sweets was inspirational. I've only made one type of Indian sweets, gulab jamun. Actually I DID make a second type, rasgulla, which are poached balls made of sweet cheese. Although the rasgulla were tasty, they weren't as impressive as I had hoped and I've never gotten around to making them again or taking pictures.
The gulab jamun are the 2 brown balls at the top of the plate in the picture below. Another version of gulab jamun is shaped into a rod, sliced half way down and then the opening is filled with khoya. It can be found on the right side of the plate, just above the 2 white balls (rasgulla). The square sweets are different kinds of barfi or Indian fudges, usually made with almonds, carrots and chickpea flour as a base. The Indian grocery store that I buy my sweets in has two display cases. In one, you can find the sweets in the next picture, for $4.99 a pound ... the less expensive assortment.
The items in the second display case (in the pictures below) are more expensive ($6.99 a pound) as they are individually crafted sweets and often made with cashews and pistachios. Of course, it was these pictures that I misplaced. Unfortunately, the young lady who packed them for me wasn't as careful as I would have liked so they got a bit squashed.
Cashew and pistachio barfis - The fudges are coloured and then rolled, layered or shaped. Fruits like this "strawberry", "apple" and "watermelon", with almond pieces inside, are among the result. At the bottom of the picture, there's a shaped piece of fudge that has been painted and coated with edible silver leaf.
Inside the cashew (kaju) "apple" - the stem is a whole clove
Fudge making is a hit and miss proposition at my house. I've made amazing fudge and when I got cocky about making it again, ended up with disaster. Using a thermometer usually gives me worse results than using the drop of syrup in ice water testing method.
Barfi/burfi is an Indian 'fudge' so, as you can imagine, I have been hesitant in trying it. However, I have a full bag of chickpea flour (besan or gram flour) in my pantry and the cold and snow is keeping me off the roads so, after a good night's rest (the pain medication helped), I decided to try the simplest and most economical (though I used all unsalted butter rather half oil and half butter) barfi recipe I ran across. There are two schools of thought in making barfi ... in one a sugar syrup is poured over toasted chickpea flour while, in the other, which I used, dry granulated sugar is added to the toasted flour.
I watched the video that I got this recipe from a couple of times, followed the recipe carefully, and ended up with a tasty but somewhat granular product which I was afraid was too dry to ever hold together. (By the way, my mixture was NEVER as liquid as they show in the video.) After half an hour in the fridge, it came together into a decent fudge. Not quite as good as the stuff I buy in the grocery store but amazing for a first try.
The recipe below was written rather hastily because I wanted to get it posted and out of my head before I start anything else. :)
Chickpea Flour Fudge - makes 16-20 pieces
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp melted butter
1 tbsp milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp ground cardamom powder
Additional butter for greasing plate
Sliced almonds for decoration
Place the chickpea flour in a pie plate.
Warm the 1 tsp of butter and 1 tbsp of milk together in a microwave and pour over the chickpea flour. Mix together with the tips of your fingers or between the fingers of your two hands until the butter/mixture is well distributed through the flour. Let sit for 10 minutes. Sieve the mixture using a coarse strainer using your fingers to push all the mixture through into a small bowl.
Wash and dry the pie plate and lightly butter.
Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a large flat bottomed pan or skillet over medium heat. Pour in the sieved chickpea flour and turn the heat down to medium-low. Using a flat wooden bottomed spoon mix in the flour and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring constantly until the flour has absorbed the butter and started getting a bit browned.
Stir in the sugar and cardamom powder and mix well for a few minutes.
Turn into buttered pie plate and form into a 1/2-inch thick round patting down gently with the flat bottomed spoon so it's nice and even.
Use a large knife to score the round into diamonds cutting down to the bottom. Decorate each diamond with an almond slice pressing down slightly with the back of the wooden spoon to set the almond into the fudge. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then cut again using the original score lines as a guide. Refrigerate for an additional half hour before trying to transfer the fudge to a plate.
Use a pastry scraper or metal spatula to shift the slices of fudge and transfer to a plate. Store in fridge in an air tight container until gone.
Besan and milk/butter ready to be sieved
Sieved besan mixture
Besan mixture added to melted butter in non-stick saucepan
Cooked for about 25 minutes on medium-low. Sorry it's a bit out of focus
Cooked besan mixture patted into a plate (remember to butter the plate next time)
Next time, slice and decorate not the other way around
I decided to make today's dessert when I found some misplaced pictures of Indian sweets on my media drive. I thought I had lost them when my last computer crashed.
This visual retrospective of (mostly purchased) Indian sweets was inspirational. I've only made one type of Indian sweets, gulab jamun. Actually I DID make a second type, rasgulla, which are poached balls made of sweet cheese. Although the rasgulla were tasty, they weren't as impressive as I had hoped and I've never gotten around to making them again or taking pictures.
The gulab jamun are the 2 brown balls at the top of the plate in the picture below. Another version of gulab jamun is shaped into a rod, sliced half way down and then the opening is filled with khoya. It can be found on the right side of the plate, just above the 2 white balls (rasgulla). The square sweets are different kinds of barfi or Indian fudges, usually made with almonds, carrots and chickpea flour as a base. The Indian grocery store that I buy my sweets in has two display cases. In one, you can find the sweets in the next picture, for $4.99 a pound ... the less expensive assortment.
The items in the second display case (in the pictures below) are more expensive ($6.99 a pound) as they are individually crafted sweets and often made with cashews and pistachios. Of course, it was these pictures that I misplaced. Unfortunately, the young lady who packed them for me wasn't as careful as I would have liked so they got a bit squashed.
Cashew and pistachio barfis - The fudges are coloured and then rolled, layered or shaped. Fruits like this "strawberry", "apple" and "watermelon", with almond pieces inside, are among the result. At the bottom of the picture, there's a shaped piece of fudge that has been painted and coated with edible silver leaf.
Inside the cashew (kaju) "apple" - the stem is a whole clove
Fudge making is a hit and miss proposition at my house. I've made amazing fudge and when I got cocky about making it again, ended up with disaster. Using a thermometer usually gives me worse results than using the drop of syrup in ice water testing method.
Barfi/burfi is an Indian 'fudge' so, as you can imagine, I have been hesitant in trying it. However, I have a full bag of chickpea flour (besan or gram flour) in my pantry and the cold and snow is keeping me off the roads so, after a good night's rest (the pain medication helped), I decided to try the simplest and most economical (though I used all unsalted butter rather half oil and half butter) barfi recipe I ran across. There are two schools of thought in making barfi ... in one a sugar syrup is poured over toasted chickpea flour while, in the other, which I used, dry granulated sugar is added to the toasted flour.
I watched the video that I got this recipe from a couple of times, followed the recipe carefully, and ended up with a tasty but somewhat granular product which I was afraid was too dry to ever hold together. (By the way, my mixture was NEVER as liquid as they show in the video.) After half an hour in the fridge, it came together into a decent fudge. Not quite as good as the stuff I buy in the grocery store but amazing for a first try.
The recipe below was written rather hastily because I wanted to get it posted and out of my head before I start anything else. :)
Chickpea Flour Fudge - makes 16-20 pieces
1 cup chickpea flour
1 tsp melted butter
1 tbsp milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp ground cardamom powder
Additional butter for greasing plate
Sliced almonds for decoration
Place the chickpea flour in a pie plate.
Warm the 1 tsp of butter and 1 tbsp of milk together in a microwave and pour over the chickpea flour. Mix together with the tips of your fingers or between the fingers of your two hands until the butter/mixture is well distributed through the flour. Let sit for 10 minutes. Sieve the mixture using a coarse strainer using your fingers to push all the mixture through into a small bowl.
Wash and dry the pie plate and lightly butter.
Melt the 1/2 cup of butter in a large flat bottomed pan or skillet over medium heat. Pour in the sieved chickpea flour and turn the heat down to medium-low. Using a flat wooden bottomed spoon mix in the flour and cook for 25-30 minutes, stirring constantly until the flour has absorbed the butter and started getting a bit browned.
Stir in the sugar and cardamom powder and mix well for a few minutes.
Turn into buttered pie plate and form into a 1/2-inch thick round patting down gently with the flat bottomed spoon so it's nice and even.
Use a large knife to score the round into diamonds cutting down to the bottom. Decorate each diamond with an almond slice pressing down slightly with the back of the wooden spoon to set the almond into the fudge. Refrigerate for 30 minutes and then cut again using the original score lines as a guide. Refrigerate for an additional half hour before trying to transfer the fudge to a plate.
Use a pastry scraper or metal spatula to shift the slices of fudge and transfer to a plate. Store in fridge in an air tight container until gone.
Besan and milk/butter ready to be sieved
Sieved besan mixture
Besan mixture added to melted butter in non-stick saucepan
Cooked for about 25 minutes on medium-low. Sorry it's a bit out of focus
Cooked besan mixture patted into a plate (remember to butter the plate next time)
Next time, slice and decorate not the other way around