Chana Dal Burfi

Making sweets at home is fun. Relishing homemade sweets on festivals, parties or just like that is really awesome. I love to make sweets at home and if you have noticed, my blog is mostly having sweet dishes :D
Last week I tried Chana Dal Burfi and fell in love with it. It was  so delicious. We were so tempted to finish it up on the same day but had to control as having too much chana dal in one go is not good for stomach :)  So watch your consumption as its strictly addictive.
Here I used my favourite ingredient Condensed Milk. Its a wonderful thing. Gives any sweet a rich taste in no time. As usual I tried to use less ghee still the burfi came out so nice. Its a perfect festive sweet.   I didn’t use any mawa in it as it was not available here. But you won’t feel to add it once you would try this version of chana dal burfi. Its a very easy peasy recipe and you can make it a day before for parties or guests.
So here is the sure shot recipe for you to try. Happy Cooking :)

Makes - 10-12 pieces
Ingredients:

Chana Dal	½ cup
Milk	1 ¼ cup
Ghee	3 tbsp
Condensed milk	½ cup or  8 tbsp
Desiccated coconut	3 tbsp
Sugar (if required)	2 tbsp
Cardamom (crushed)	4
Melon seeds	1 tsp (optional)
Yellow food color	Few drops (optional)
Almonds(to garnish)	5-6 (chopped)

Method:

• Wash chana dal and soak it in water for 3-4 hours.
• Once soaked, put it in pressure cooker alongwith milk and cook for 2 whistles. Remove and let the pressure go by itself.
• Grind the dal with remaining milk left in the pressure cooker. (Do not add more milk, the consistency should be very thick). Remove it in a bowl and set aside.
• Grease a tray or pan with ghee.  Set aside.
• Heat ghee in a non stick kadhai, add dal paste and fry on a medium flame for 4-5 minutes or till raw smell goes. Keep stirring. Add condensed milk and mix well. Cook for 2 minutes.  Add desiccated coconut with 1 tsp melon seeds and food color (add the remaining milk (if any) left from the boiling of dal at this stage) and mix again.  Cook for another 2-3 minutes.  
• Take half tsp burfi mixture from the pan and put it on a clean dry plate.  Let it sit for 1 minute and check if it is getting a firm texture like a burfi after cooling down.  If not, then cook the mixture for another 2-3 minutes and check again likewise.
• Once you get the desired consistency, remove the mixture from the stove and immediately shift it to the greased tray/pan.  Spread the mixture evenly in the tray.  Even the top with a greased spatula to avoid sticking.  Sprinkle chopped almonds on the top and press them slightly.  Let the burfi mixture warm.
• Once warm, cut it in desired shape and put the tray in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.  
• Remove the burfi slices in the serving plates and serve.
• Store the remaining burfis in an airtight container.

Notes:

1. Do not over cook the dal.
2. Condensed milk would give sufficient sweetness so taste the sugar level before adding the sugar.
3. Do not tempt to use more ghee, 3 tbsps would give you perfect burfis as you can see in the pics :)
4. Instead of almonds you can use cashews and pistachios for garnishing.
5. Do not consume a big amount at a time.  Consuming more chana dal at a time is not good as it takes long time to digest.  You may get tummy ache.

Double decker choco vanilla horlicks burfi

Today when I was checking my pantry I saw one pack of womens horlicks that I had bought a few months back but couldn't consume as I didnt like its vanilla flavour.  I thought for a moment and decided to make some sweet dish with it.  I often make milk powder burfi and horlicks is more or less same as it contains a big amount of milk solids.  So I ended up on making horlicks burfi but was not at all sure about how the vanilla flavour would come out in a  burfi.  An idea clicked to make double decker burfi, half vanilla and half choco because if vanilla flavour would go wrong choco flavour surely lift it up and nothing would go off the track ;D hence this double decker choco vanilla horlicks burfi.  To my surprise both the flavours complimented each other very nicely and came out well.  Me n hubby liked this cute looking burfi.  I topped the burfi with sprinkles but you can use any dry fruits or nuts or have it as it is.  Hope you will also like it.  So here is the recipe for you to try.  Happy Cooking :)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour	½ cup
Horlicks  (Vanilla flavour)	½ cup
Ghee / clarified butter	1 & ½ tbsp
Sugar	1 cup
Coco powder	2 tbsp

Method:

• Sieve all purpose flour and keep aside.
• Grease a plate with ghee and keep aside.
• In a non stick pan, add ghee and let it melt.  Add all purpose flour in ghee and fry it well till raw smell goes.  Keep aside.
• In a heavy bottom non stick pan, take sugar and 1/2 cup water.  Let it boil till one string consistency.
• Add in the sugar syrup, fried all purpose flour, horlicks and coco powder.  Stir continuously.  At one stage, the mixture will start thickening.  Keep stirring.
• When the mixture start leaving the sides of the pan, remove it from the stove and immediately pour the mixture to the greased plate.  Press the top and make it even with a silicon cake spatula or aluminium foil.  Let it warm and put it in the fridge for 2 hours.
• Cut it into pieces and enjoy.

Note:

1. Do not keep the burfi outside for a long time as it will tend to become soft.  Keep it in the fridge and take out only when you want to have it.
2. You can use any flavour of horlicks for this burfi.
3. You can also take assorted nuts to add in the burfi.  It will give a nice crunch.