Cashew Barfi /Kaju Katli

Sweets are as important as our daily food in our family. We relish on sweets or any ice cream desserts at least one time a day, definitely after a heavy meal. Yesterday, i have made kaju katli and let it cool over the night to set it in the right texture and enjoy the next day. Here i'm gonna write about my experience on the making of kaju(means cashew in Hindi and it is popularly accepted as kaju katli all over India) katli or cashew burfi.

Ingredients:

2 cups of cashew
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
few saffron strands (optional)

Steps:

1. Blend the cashews in a mixie to a fine powder. If it is coarse, sieve it once and blend the remains of the strainer once again in the blender. If the cashews are refrigerated, fry them in a hot pan for 2 minutes before grinding.

Tip: Cashews have the tendency to release oil if we over grind them. Make sure not to run the mixie continuously.

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, preferably a non-stick pan, add sugar and water on high flame.

3. Prepare a parchment paper or a plate greased with ghee on kitchen counter-top or a heat proof surface.

4. Once the sugar dissolves completely in water, add cashew powder slowly.
I'm using a strainer to filter out the coarse particles.

Tip: If you are making in large quantities, it is better to seive the cashew ground powder before preparing the sugar syrup.

5. While adding cashew powder, continuously mix the cashew powder to get along with the sugar syrup.

6. Reduce the flame to the lowest mode and keep stirring the cashew paste at constant intervals to avoid sticking to the sides and bottom of the pan.

7. After 7-8 minutes, the cashew paste looks like this.

8. In about 11-12 minutes, the cashew paste comes together and releases oil. This is the right consistency. Turn off the flame.

9. Add a tbsp ghee to the cashew paste and leave it undisturbed for about 2 minutes or till it cools down a bit.

10. Crush the saffron strands with your hands, the saffron strands i have got at home is crispy as it is summer here. Hence it is easily crushed. If the saffron strands has little bit moisture and cannot be crushed then add it to a hot pan for a minute and then crush it.

11. Add the crushed saffron strands to the cashew mixture.

12. Knead well for about 2 minutes.Adding the saffron strands is completely optional. You can skip this step if there is no saffron available.

13. Add another parchment paper over the kneaded cashew paste.

14. Using a chapati roller, roll over it to be very thin.

15. Let the cashew roll cool completely.

16. Run a knife to cut into diamond or square shapes. As we go be the general rule :), i'm making a diamond shape here.

17. Cut the diamond shaped cashew burfi and store in an air tight container.

18. This may stay fresh for a week even if not refrigerated.

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