Kaju ki Barfi / Indian Diwali Sweet Recipe

May the festival of lights be the harbinger of joy and prosperity. Best wishes for Diwali.

This Kaju ki Barfi is so easy and full proof that you will never want to buy barfi from the market at such high prices again. Diwali is approaching, so I thought I would share this recipe with you all. Kaju Barfi is one of the most popular sweets which are gifted to relatives and friends during the Diwali festival in North India.

The only trick to make perfect barfis is to get the consistency of the sugar syrup right. If the syrup is too thick, the barfi will turn out hard and if the syrup is too thin it will not bind. The sugar syrup should be of one string consistency.

Ingredients

1 cup cashew nuts

½ cup sugar

4-5 tbsp water

1 tbsp ghee

Silver varakh for garnishing  (optional)   

Procedure

First powder the cashew nuts. This is an very important step.

Before starting the process take the cashew nuts out of the refrigerator. Bring it to room temperature.

I dried my cashew nuts well before powdering. Grind the cashew into fine powder. While powdering, do not stop in between and grind .Cashew nuts will start emitting oil and powder will become sticky.

Grease a plate with ghee and keep aside.

Take a non stick pan. Add cashew nuts powder and stir it on low flame for 2 - 3 minutes so that the raw smell of the cashew nuts will go away.

Take ½ cup sugar and melt this on wide pan with just 4-5 tbsp of water.Don’t add more water. Keep on low flame.

Heats until the sugar completely dissolves in the water and add Cashew powder. 

Keep stirring on low flame until it reaches a soft dough consistency .Over doing this will result in hard barfis.

 The mixture would start thickening and almost come together .When it starts coming together in one form and starts looking like a  very soft dough , check the paste, pour little amount of paste in a bowl  and check whether it has becomes thick or not. …it’s time to remove the whole lump of the mixture from the pan.

Transfer it to a plate and grease your hands and start kneading it into soft dough.

Take a butter paper and grease the butter paper with ghee. The butter paper helps preventing the barfi from sticking to the surface.

Then put the mixture on a greased butter paper and flatten it with a spatula. Now roll it with a rolling pin.

Leave it for 15 -20 minutes.

If you want, garnish it with silver varakh .

Do not cut when it is hot. Cut into diamond shape after it cools a little. 

Enjoy this Diwali by preparing this easy kaju barfi.

Notes

 In case the dough is soft, add a teaspoon of some milk powder.

While kneading, if the dough looks dry or dense, add a teaspoon of milk to soften it.