Milk-based desserts are popular in the culinary repertoire of India. Today I am taking you to one of my favorites since childhood, the barfi.
Barfi is a dense milk-based sweet from the subcontinent, and a fudge-like mithai (sweet). The name is derived from the Persian word burrf, which means snow because of it’s soft as a cloud and crumbly texture. The base is so versatile and can be have many variations: almond barfi, coconut barfi, cashew barfi, chocolate barfi, various fruit-infused ones, floral one like rose and lavender, and so on. The barfi-bilities are endless.
My East African heritage has so many fond memories of this mithai. From finding pieces of it in our prasad after pooja at the mandir and fighting over it with my brother, to having batches and batches of it made for holy days to share with family and friends, it made constant appearances in my life. I find that the dishes I make today have so much influence from my upbringing there. My mom always made an extra effort to keep us embedded in our cultural values, traditions and all the scrumptious material she brought with her from India. This, while also using the opportunity to incorporate all the new ingredients from a new land in the recipes she developed along the way.
I have always believed that we find the best and most original foods in the houses of immigrants, as they are the ones who strive to preserve the social, cultural and, most importantly to me, the culinary heritage of their homeland. The Gujarati immigrants to East Africa have not only preserved the food traditions of their homeland but also embraced the foods and ingredients of the country they adopted. It truly was the best mix in our diaspora.
Traditionally, barfi is made with condensing milk down for several hours, then adding ingredients like milk powder, milk mawa (milk powder/solids) also known as khoya, hung ricotta cheese, sugar and exotic aromatics like cardamom, saffron and also most times finished with slivered nuts like pistachios and almonds. It is a true labor of love, if you are willing to go through all the extra steps, but here I show you how to simplify the process and still make it taste like just how mum makes it. My canvas recipe is made with three ingredients only, leaving room to play with other flavors. My creation has added flavors of dehydrated strawberry, pistachio and cardamom, and a touch of food color.
Milk Barfi
INGREDIENTS:
- 1-15oz container of whole milk ricotta
- 1-14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 1-tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
- ½ teaspoon of cardamom powder
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Grease a small sheet pan 8 X 8 size with ghee and set aside.
(I also add a ghee-coated wax paper with overlapping sides for easy pull out later.) - Heat a nonstick saucepan on medium flame.
- Add ricotta cheese and the condensed milk.
- Cook for 45 minutes until most of the liquids have evaporated. The mixture will liquefy initially but eventually you will start seeing granules form.
- Keep turning the mixture constantly to prevent caramelization.
- Add ghee and cook for another 5 minutes.
- Add cardamom.
- Pour into the greased tray.
- Cool completely before cutting into diamond shapes. This yielded about 64-1 inch pieces.
My variation included separating my barfi mixture into three equal portions. One portion is flavored with cardamom, the second has two tablespoons of powdered pistachios and a drop of green color, and the last has a tablespoon of crushed dried strawberries and a drop of pink food color. I layered them individually first then stacked them together. I added slivered pistachios and saffron strands on top, finishing off with some edible silver leaf to make it festive.
Barfi can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to a month.
For another delicious dessert, check out our Baklava recipe!
