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| Maria Dsouza |
Whether it’s called Burfi or Barfi – it’s a sweet treat!
Maria Dsouza hails from Mumbai so she named her fabulous food website – Flavors of Mumbai. She presents recipes from all around the world there, but her specialty is, of course, Mumbai cuisine.
Maria describes herself as self-taught, but in her profile, she says, “Whatever I cook turns out to be a blockbuster hit!” We have to concur with that thought because all her recipes look incredible.
We asked Maria to explain the name of this dish to us and she wrote:
“Kalakand is the name of a famous dessert in India made from cottage cheese and Barfi is a generalized name for sweets made from milk and other ingredients like mango barfi, chocolate barfi, milk barfi, almond barfi etc. Barfi is mainly a sweet confection made from milk and sugar.”
Heavenly Kalakand Milk Burfi
By Maria Dsouza at Flavors of Mumbai
Kalakand is a traditional sweet also known as Milk Cakes or Milk Barfi in India. When is Kalakand Milk Burfi made? Mostly made on Janmashatami (Lord Krishnas birth), Durga puja, Raksha Bandhan and some more festive occasions in India. Kalakand Milk Burfi is soft, tempting, healthy, tasty and is my favorite now.
To be honest, I always heard about Kalakand but never tried them. Thanks to my friend Swasti I made an attempt to this traditional classic Kalakand Milk Burfi. (Hope Swasti you like this Kalakand Milk Burfi and do lemme know your views,) Also, the name is Heavenly cuz it tastes so divine and heavenly that one can’t stop eating Kalakand.
There are lots of ways to make Kalakand Milk Burfi. However, like usual, I have chosen the tough way to make it. So Swasti and all my readers- please be patient while making this awesome milk barfi. This is purely made with milk, chenna and sugar. What is chenna? It’s Indian cottage cheese made home. You could also call use ready cottage cheese from the market. However, making chenna (paneer) at home is different fun.
Also, you could replace sugar with condensed milk and also add some milk powder. If you add milk powder, the milk thickens much faster. Although I haven’t used it, I will still encourage you to use milk powder as the milk thickening process takes a real long time. So if you add milk powder, the time consumed will be much lesser. But this choice I leave up to you.
For some added flavor I have also added 1/2 tsp of cinnamon, cardamom and nutmeg. You could make fine powder of all three. But use only 1/2 tsp of it and leave the rest for next time, or in some other recipe.
Honestly, I am in love with it and I am surely gonna experiment more on this Kalakand Milk Burfi.
Total Time: 35 to 40 mins making + 1 hour cooling.
Serves: 10 to 12 pieces
Ingredients:
1 ltr (1 qt) good branded milk or thick milk (powdered milk added)
4 tbsp sugar (or, as sweetness required)
3 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp spice powder (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom powder)
2 tbsp heaped milk powder (optional)
nuts for decoration (optional)
Method:
Take 600 ml (2 1/2 cups) milk in a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Keep the heat on medium or low mode. Allow the milk to boil.
Add spice powder to it. Once milk comes to boiling point, pour lime juice into it. Keep stirring for a minute more.
Switch off the gas and let the chenna settle down. You can allow the mixture to cool down. Now take a muslin cloth. Place it on a vessel. Ensure muslin cloth covers the vessel from all sides.
Now, pour the chenna mixture over the cloth. Sieve through the cloth and press out the excess water.
You can keep a heavy object on the chenna – this would help to extract excess water from it.
Your chenna (cottage cheese) is ready.
Unwrap the cloth and mash the paneer into tiny crumbs. Set it aside.
Take another heavy bottomed saucepan. Add rest of 400 ml (1 5/8 cups) milk to it. Keep heat on medium mode.
Add homemade fresh chenna to it. Also add sugar. Keep stirring with a big spatula or spoon until sugar dissolves. If you are using milk powder, you can add now.
Now let this mixture boil for another 20-25 minutes or until milk thickens and resembles soft lumps. Also, keep stirring and be patient.
Once it’s done, the mixture will start leaving the vessel edges. Pour this mixture onto a greased plate or vessel. Spread the entire mixture about 1/2 -1 inch thickness. Allow it to cool down or keep in the fridge for an hour or so.
Now cut them into diamond shapes or square shapes. Decorate with chandi varak (edible silver leaf) or with some nuts. I never had varak available at home, hence topped Kalakand with nuts and cherries.
Your Kalakand Milk Burfi is ready. Serve chilled on a platter with other festive sweets.
Tip:
You could use milk powder which will consume less time.
Also you could just use cardamom powder for Kalakand.
If you are lacking time, you could use readily available malai paneer and follow the same procedure.
You could use 4 to 5 tbsp condensed milk instead of sugar.
Some people also add saffron infused milk for yellow colored kalakand.
If you want more, just double up the quantity and make the kalakand.
Enjoy Kalakand Milk Burfi!
The printable version below:
Heavenly Kalakand Milk Burfi
Prep Time: 40 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour
Serving Size: 10 to 12 pieces
Ingredients:
1 ltr (1 gt) good brand of milk or thick milk
4 tbsp sugar or as sweetness required
3 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tsp spice powder (cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom powder)
2 tbsp heaped milk powder (optional)
nuts for decoration (optional)
Instructions:
Pour 600 ml (2 1/2 cups) milk into a heavy bottomed sauce pan. Keep the heat on medium or low mode. Allow the milk to boil.
Add spice powder to it. Once milk comes to boiling point, pour lime juice into it. Keep stirring for a minute more.
Switch off the gas and let the chenna settle down. You can allow the mixture to cool down. Now, take a muslin cloth. Place it on a vessel. Ensure muslin cloth covers the vessel from all sides.
Now, pour the chenna mixture over the cloth. Sieve through the cloth and press out the excess water.
You can keep a heavy object on the chenna – this would help to extract excess water from it.
Your chenna (cottage cheese) is ready.
Unwrap the cloth and mash the paneer into tiny crumbs. Set it aside.
Take another heavy bottomed saucepan. Add rest of 400 ml (1 5/8 cups) milk to it. Keep heat on medium mode.
Add homemade fresh chenna to it. Also add sugar. Keep stirring with a big spatula or spoon until sugar dissolves. If you are using milk powder, you can add now.
Now, let this mixture boil for another 20-25 minutes or until milk thickens and resembles soft lumps. Also keep stirring and be patient.
Once it’s done, the mixture will start leaving the vessel edges. Pour this mixture onto a greased plate or vessel. Spread the entire mixture about 1/2 – 1 inch thickness. Allow it to cool down or keep in the fridge for an hour or so.
Now, cut them into diamond shapes or square shapes. Decorate with chandi (silver) varak or with some nuts. I never had varak available at home hence topped Kalakhand with nuts and cherries.
Your Kalakand Milk Burfi is ready. Serve chilled on a platter with other festive sweets.
