Nov 13, 2012

Kaju Burfi or Kaju Katli...something sweet and simple for Diwali !

Happy Diwali to all my dear readers and friends. Today we celebrate the Festival of Lights, the triumph of good over evil . We burst firecrackers which actually signifies driving away evil spirits , wear new clothes, eat and share lots of delicious sweets and food with friends and family.

What I really love about Diwali the most is bursting firecrackers...nothing beats it!! And I was so happy that we were actually able to play with some crackers and watch the fireworks tonight here in Minneapolis and we totally enjoyed each minute of it.
Preparing or buying sweets and snacks to share with your friends and family is another reason I love Diwali so much :-) For my very first Diwali after my wedding, I was very much in an experimenting mood, so I made Karanji, Chakli and Besan Laddoo, all for the very first time and they came out great!  I will definitely post about them soon. We had cleaned up the whole house and decorated everywhere with beautiful diyas(candles). And bursted lots of crackers...Oh! we had soooo much fun.
This year also I prepared few sweets, but most of them got over before I could photograph them :-P But I made these Kaju Katli specially for my office friends, so I was able to keep them safe and take few quick snaps :-) Its really easy to prepare them and I don't know why I never made them before. I found a simple recipe here and it came out really well. 

I made about 10-15 small sized Kaju katli with this recipe. You can make this Kaju Katli in less than 30minutes (if done correctly), I'll guarantee you that!!

Kaju Katli Recipe
You'll need
Cashewnuts - 1 cup (at room temperature)
Sugar - 1/2 cup (heaped)
Water - 1/4 cup
Milk - 1-2 tblsp (use as required)
Ghee - to grease the hands and plate

Directions
1. Grind the cashewnuts into fine powder. It may stick while grinding, thats ok, just scoop it around with a spatula and keep grinding until its a fine dust like powder. Take out a heaping 1 cup from this.
2. Boil the sugar with water until you reach a consistency where, if you add a drop of sugar syrup into a bowl with water, the sugar syrup should not dissolve and appears like a fine thread or drop.
3. At this point add in the cashew powder and on medium-low flame keep stirring until a smooth dough like consistency is obtained. About 3-5mins.
4. Grease a plate with little ghee and transfer this dough like mixture onto the plate
5. Allow to cool down for 10mins and then grease your palms with ghee and start kneading the dough. Add little milk, only if the dough appears hard and dry. Do not add too much milk.
6. Slowly keep kneading the dough until it becomes smooth and easily pliable.
7. Roll the dough into a 1/4 inch thick circle or square, and cut them diagonally to get the diamond shape. (First make a soft line with your knife on the rolled dough before cutting and then cut over that line)

Silver Decoration
I wanted the silver foil appearance on top of the kaju katli, which is how we usually get it back home in India. Since I din't have any silver foil, I used edible Silver Dust that's commonly used for Cake decoration :-)
I cut out a diamond shape in a small parchment paper and placed it on top of each Kaju Katli and applied the Silver dust with a brush...Simple!! :-)
Suggestions:
1. Its very important that the cashews should be at room temperature , or else it may get all sticky while grinding
2. The correct sugar syrup consistency is very important again in getting this burfi/katli right.
3. Milk is only required if the dough appears dry or hard. Adding milk will reduce the shelf life if kept out, so keep them refrigerated.

So try out these simple, beautiful and yummy Kaju burfi and let me know how they turned out :-) And once again wishing you all a very Happy Diwali !!

-Manju

18 comments:

  1. Happy diwali and hope u had a blast. the katlis look so perfect n yum

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  2. diwali wishes to u and ur family.. well made..

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  3. yummy, vayil vellam varunnu....
    mumy

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  4. Manju,

    They look awesome!! I love all the North Indian sweets and I made some burfi for Diwali too!!

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  5. These Kaju Katli's look so good. I love the silver dust on top..Makes it look so festive. Happy Diwali to you :)

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  6. hi manju first time am your blog good recipies ...loves it am following u glad to follow me back

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  7. Just gorgeous. Kaju Katli is my daughters favourite mithai!

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  8. Seems you guys had a wonderful festival there, cute katlis.

    Belated diwali wishes to you and your family.

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  9. Happy Diwali to you and your family!! It's a lovely holiday with fun traditions. This Cashew sweet treat is amazing. I know it would be delicious with every bite. :) Lovely pictures. :)

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  10. This katli is superb. Love the pictures too.
    http://realhomecookedfood.blogspot.com

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  11. Great Kaju katlis.... loved ur idea for the silver vark-very innovative :-)

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  12. Good to hear that u had a good Diwali...kaju katlis looks delicious..i too wanted to make this for Diwali but my dear hubby got 2 big boxes of sweets from office,so we decided to finish that which finished only yesterday !!
    just wanted to let u know that I posted tha cake I was talking about in my blog :)

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  13. I loved you kaju katli recipe and what a creative idea to use cake decoration for the silver varq. Will try to make it soon!

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  14. Manju madam

    Namaste and Happy Diwali wishes to you, your family members and friends.

    Manju madam it is glad to know that even though you are in USA with busy time schedule you are sharing your cooking knowledge experiences and your delicious recipes with other bloggers. It is really a great effort.

    Manju madam best wishes for you personal, career and hobby goals. Manju madam convey my Diwali greeting to your husband and also to your loving child.

    Manju madam this is my Diwali message "Lamps of India" which i shared in my Heritage of India blog.

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/09/lamps-of-india.html

    Manju madam please look into my Lamps of India message and share your inspirational comments.

    Manju madam i hope you like my blog and join as a member to my Heritage of India blog.

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