Cook Kaju Katli - Cashew Barfi (Indian Diwali Dessert Recipe)

Kaju katli recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Makes: 14 pieces

Ingredients

Cashew nuts	1 cup(levelled)
Sugar	1/2 cup(heaped)
Water	1/4 cup
Milk	1 tblsp
Ghee	Just for greasing

Method

1. Powder the cashews in a dry mixer. You have to be careful here, just grind it in a stretch, don’t stop in between and grind. You will be sure able to see the powder in the transparent lid, so keep grinding until you get fine powder.This will not take much time. Also never grind the cashew which is cold,taken from the fridge,grind it when it is in room temperature. When I ground 1 cup of cashews, I got more than a cup of cashew powder, but I used 1 cup,heaped(like a mountain) cashew powder. There was some 2 tblsp left for me.

2. Boil sugar with water and keep stirring. Keep little water in a small bowl and just pour few drops in the water to check the consistency. If you pour few drops, it should lay a fine thread that doesn’t gets dissolved in water immediately when you touch.

3. At this stage,low the flame add the powdered cashew and keep stirring.Say for 3-4 minutes in low flame and your mixture gets thick and starts boiling, switch off the flame. Smear ur hands with water and test by rolling a small pinch of the mixture in between ur fingers. You should be able to form a non sticky ball. This is the correct consistency.

4. Keep stirring in the pan itself with the ladle and the mixture turns more like a dough.When the mixture is still warm,take it to another clean platform/countertop and keep kneading. Mine was a bit dry, so I sprinkled some milk and kept kneading.The dough was grainy till then, but after kneading the dough really became smooth. I used gloves for kneading,so if you want u can use little ghee while kneading.

5. Roll the dough into thin layer and cut it diagonally to make pieces.You can first draw lines lightly with the knife tip and then cut into diamonds to get perfect shapes.

Notes:

1. I used milk only as my mixture was dry while kneading. If its fine then no need to add milk while kneading.
2. If you add milk while kneading,shelf life is less,so keep refrigerated.
3. Use less water to make sugar syrup to get the consistency quickly. While making sugar syrup,keep the flame in medium if you are nearing the consistency.
4. If you add cashew powder before the sugar syrup reaches the consistency, then the dough will be sticky. So the sugar syrup consistency is important.
5. While powdering,if you grind for more time,the powder sticks and gives a coarse looking powder. But that’s ok,it will be smoothed when you are kneading. But note that coarse look on result of over grinding – is different from the real coarse powder. So don’t get confused.
6. Till the end your mixture will not be that smooth,but when you knead the  mixture turns to a smooth dough. So don’t panic like me ;)

Your Kaju Katli is ready now to enjoy! Just melts in our mouth!! My kid call this ‘Diamond sweet'.

source - http://www.rakskitchen.net/2011/08/kaju-katli-diwali-sweet-recipes.html