Kaju Burfi / Cashews fudge

Don't know what it is with me and the cook books. I have so many but still when I see a good cook book, I want to flip through the pages. I was at my friend's place when I saw the book 'the food of INDIA' by Murdock Books. I immediately asked if I could borrow it and she agreed. I flipped through the pages and there weren't too many dishes that I needed the recipe for in it. There was this Kaju burfi which, even when I knew how to make for some reason never made. This recipe caught my attention for one reason only. Most of the Indian sweets have good amount of ghee in it. This one doesn't. Also, quantity of sugar is pretty less and the goodness of the nuts make it almost irresistible. This probably is the same as Kaju Katli which, I haven't made yet.

There was the use of decorative silver sheets which, I neither have nor would want to use. I omitted cloves from the recipe and used just the cardamom.

One year back -  Cranberry Soup/Curry
Ingredients:
Cashews - 3 1/3 cups (I used broken cashews and measured)
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Dry milk powder - 2 cups (I used non fat)
Water - 1 cup
Saffron - few strands (optional)
Cardamom - 4 powdered
Ghee / Clarified butter - 2 TBSP (You could easily use canola oil)

Method:
In a skillet, toast the cashews. Don't let them get dark. You want them to have a light toast. Set aside to cool. When cool, powder them in a food processor or a mixie/blender. If it starts clumping, you can add a bit of dry milk powder that is part of the recipe to avoid. Transfer it into a bowl. Stir in the remaining milk powder to the cashew powder. Mix the canola oil or ghee to this along with cardamom powder.
In a pan, heat sugar with 1 cup of water. Stir occasionally to dissolve all the sugar. Once it starts simmering, lower the heat to medium and set the timer for 5 minutes. You could add the saffron strands if using to the sugar syrup or use it on the top of the burfi at a later stage.

Meanwhile either grease a plate with some ghee or line a baking pan with wax paper. This mixture fits a 11 X 8" pan. When the 5 minutes have passed since the syrup started simmering, turn off the heat and pour it on to the bowl which has milk powder and cashew mixture. Mix quickly and dump it on to the prepared pan. Press either with a spatula or take another piece of wax paper and place on the top of the mixture and press with your hands to push to the entire pan and to even out the layer. Remove the top wax paper.  If you want to use saffron strands as decoration on the top of the burfi, press them now to the burfi. Let it cool completely before cutting into pieces. Store in air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a month.

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