Besan Kaju Burfi (Chick pea and cashew nut fudge)

Tweet

In the past I have made  both kaju (cashew)  burfi and besan (chick pea) burfi separately and enjoyed them. The thought of combining both of these ingredients together to make a besan kaju burfi  never ever entered my mind. When I was in India recently and I visited my aunt S , she served this sweet and my father and I both loved it.  Obviously,  I did not waste a  minute in getting the recipe from her and  was surprised and intrigued when my aunt mentioned a combination of cashews and chickpea flour in the burfi. I thought it was a fabulous idea and within a week of tasting it for the first time, I made this sweet for my family.  I tweaked the recipe a little by skipping the saffron that my aunt used in her version and I reduced the quantity of clarified butter and sugar a tad bit.

This burfi tastes a little like this mysore pak, not a lot,  just a little.... One of the awesome things about this sweet is that the nut butter from cashew gives this sweet a melt in your mouth quality without having to use copious amounts of clarified  butter to get that effect as you need to do for some other sweets, including the above mentioned mysore pak. If you are in the mood for an indulgence and are looking for something unique you may want to give this sweet a try.....I am sure you will love it as much as we do...:-)



Click here for a printable view of this recipe

Ingredients and Method to make besan kaju burfi
1 cup chick pea lentil flour (gram flour/ besan/kadalai maavu)
1 cup raw unsalted cashew nuts (kaju) powdered fine
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup warm clarified butter (ghee/nei) + 2 to 3 tbsp extra clarified butter to roast the chick pea flour and a few drops extra to grease a tray

Grease a deep plate or a tray with clarified butter and keep aside
Roast chick pea lentil flour in 2 to 3 tbsp of clarified butter until it starts to emit an aroma. Make sure not to over roast the flour, just until it emits a light aroma. Keep the flour aside.

Powder cashew nuts in a spice grinder or blender using short bursts of power until it becomes a fine powder.
Place the powdered cashew in a bowl. Add roasted chick pea lentil flour to it, add warm clarified butter, mix well and keep aside.

Place sugar and water in a large heavy bottomed pan, and place on medium heat. Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes until sugar dissolves and you get a very light one string consistency. To check for string consistency, put a drop of sugar syrup on a plate, blow a little to cool it and place it between your thumb and forefinger, if it forms a very light string it means the syrup is ready.

Pour cashew + chick pea flour+ clarified butter mixture into the sugar syrup and mix gently.
The copyright of this content belongs to Veginspirations.com

Allow the mixture to simmer for a few more minutes until it starts to thicken and froth a little. Pour this mixture on the pre greased plate/ tray and gently flatten it. If you are not able to make out if the burfi is ready to be removed from heat, you can also drop a couple of drops on a plate, if it hardens immediately means the burfi is ready and can be removed from heat.

After a few minutes when the burfi begins to harden, cut into squares or diamonds with a sharp knife. If the burfi sticks to the knife and does not cut cleanly allow to harden some more and cut.

Store this in an airtight container when cool and enjoy within the next week to ten days.
Yield will depend on thickness and size of each piece.