Badam Kathli (Almond Burfi) is an easy to make Indian sweet delicacy made especially during festival days or as an offering to the God and distributed among the devotees. There are different ways to make this delicacy. One is to soak and grind the almonds and cook with reduced Milk. Another is to make with Almond powder. One can make it with condensed milk also. But, the one which we are going to see here is a total Vegan delicacy where we will not use milk or Ghee. Cardamom Powder can be used to add flavor to this delicacy, but it is only an option. You can serve it as a dessert after the meals also. Decorated and packed in boxes, it acts as a great gift item during the festival days like Deepavali, Rakhi and Dassera etc. make it at home and enjoy.
Ingredients:
Almonds – 1 cup
Sugar – ½ cup
Ghee – 1 tsp
Water – 2 tbsp
Method:
Take Almonds in a vessel, wash and rinse. Drain the water. Add 2 cups of hot water. Simmer it in low flame for an hour covered with a lid.
Powder the Sugar and keep aside.
Remove the Almonds from the water, drain the water. Remove the skin of the Almonds. Rinse well and drain the water completely. Transfer to a kitchen towel and dab them to make them moisture free. And then leave them under fan for an hour. Or you can heat it in a pan lightly to remove the moisture fully.
Take them in a mixer jar and grind to a semi fine powder. Do not over grind because Badam will give out the Oil if over ground.
Transfer the ground Badam to a thick bottomed pan. Add the Sugar Powder and 2 tbsp of water. Add ¼ tsp Cardamom powder, if you prefer. Mix well. Start heating in low flame. Keep stirring. Scrape the sides and bottom and push back the almond and sugar sticking to the sides into the pan. Keep stir cooking till it becomes non-sticky dough. If you touch the paste with your finger, it should not stick to your finger. Switch off the flame at this stage and continue cooking for another minute.
Transfer it to a flat greased plat. Mash it with a ladle for few minutes till it becomes just warm. Now, mash further to a smooth non sticky dough with hands.
Now, you have to flatten it. You can do it in the greased plate itself or in an aluminium foil. You may not be able to roll it into a perfect square shape with this method.
I rolled it using a square zip lock bag. Keep the dough inside the zip lock bag and roll it with a rolling pin. Fold the edges and top of the zip lock bag to make a perfect square. Now, roll so that the dough get spread into a perfect square with uniform thickness.
Unfold the edges of the bag which you had folded. Cut the bag along the folded edge with a knife. Now you can remove the rolled dough easily. Remove gently and keep in a flat surface.
Draw lines vertically dividing the whole flat surfaces equally – with 1 to 1 ½ inch spaces as per your preference. Use a sharp knife so that it forms only the cuts right up to the bottom, but does not make any bulge. Now, make equal cuts diagonally so that you get diamond shaped Kathlis. You will be left with non-diamond shaped Kathlis also. Collect those Kathlis, mix them together to form dough and roll again as above and cut into shapes.
Allow the Kathlis to cool completely and then store them in air tight jar.
Note:
1.You can make the Kathlis thin or thick as per your preference.
2. You can make it sweeter by adding half a cup of Sugar while making the dough initially.
3. You can make the Burfi diamond shaped or diamond shaped depending on your preference. Cutting the rolled dough into squares is more easy than making diamond shapes.
4. The grinder jar should be dry and moist free while grinding the Badam.
5. Grind the Badam by pulse grinding only.
6. While cutting the Burfi. It should be firm. If you find it gooey, cook the dough little more to make it non-sticky.
7. You have to knead the dough well with hands to get a smooth finish of the final Burfi.
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