Diwali Special: Mango Burfi

If there was a fruit that I wish grew in my backyard every day of the year, it would be Mangoes. And there’s got to be at least a few ripe ones every day!

Such is my love for mangoes. And when its not mango season, my love shifts to the mango pulp available in cans all year through. Thank God for those companies that make them. I pray recession never strikes them!

So for this Diwali, I wanted a mango something in my sweets just because I had a can of mango pulp sitting in my pantry. And Mango Burfi was an instant thought. No questions asked – I got to work on it. Maybe I should have asked a question on how much patience was needed – the answer would have been “a lot”. And I mean it. A lot. You’ll see what I mean.

The recipe is pretty simple. Boil some milk till thick, add some sweetened condensed milk to it and cook till you get an almost khoya consistency. Add mango pulp to it and cook till it all comes together. Easy, right? Yeah. You bet.

But many easy things in theory are a little difficult in practice. Like your moral studies lesson #1 – Always speak the truth. Yeah Right. Don’t laugh – think of the last 3 times you had to lie to save yourself from disaster…see, I told you. Yeah Right.

But, I’m going to be honest now and tell you that this does take time to make. If you want a quick east instant Mango Burfi, I might bring that to you in the future but this is not it. This takes time – a lot of time. Because you have to keep stirring it in low flame until the whole thick cooks and all the water evaporates. But once it’s done and you take a bite of that small piece of mango burfi – all your efforts are so worth it.

So let’s see how I spent my few hours doing this.

Take a heavy bottomed pan. You could use good quality non-stick if you have. I don’t use non-stick for my cooking at all and kind of replaced all of my cookware with either heavy stainless steel or hard anodized pans.

Add whole milk – about ¾ of a gallon to the pan. Heat in medium high until the milk starts to boil and then reduce the heat to low. From that point, all of the cooking will be done in low heat and that is precisely why it takes time. Medium or high heat will just burn the milk at the bottom and you’ll have to keep scraping little red parts of milk – don’t want that in your burfi, do you?

When the milk is reduced to almost half of it volume, add one can of sweetened condensed milk to the pan. There is no need to add additional sugar as this is sweet enough and besides the mango pulp also is sweetened.  Keep cooking the same way – low heat and stirring every couple of mins.

While this is happening, on another pan, heat up the mango pulp in a low heat until its hot but not boiling.

Also, dry roast some chopped pistachios and sliced almonds and keep aside. This will top the burfi for a tasty bite and a pretty look.

You’ll see that all the milk almost turns into a thick khoya. At this point, add the hot mango pulp in here. And then add about 1-2 tbsp of light corn syrup. This helps is setting the burfi once its done.

Keep cooking until the whole mix thickens up and starts coming together. You don’t have to really stand there and keep watching the burfi while its cooking. I was making my somasis in parallel and hence did not feel that I was stuck to this. Those got done too by the time this was done!

Grease a cookie sheet or a plate with raised sides for cooling the burfi and letting it set. I used my spring foam round 11 inch cake pan. This way, once its done, you just remove the side and it becomes easier to cut it into small pieces.

When the burfi is almost done and you see a solid mass coming together, move it to your greased pan and smoothen the top. Spread it out so that you have at least an inch in height. Smoothen the top with a greased spoon.

Add the roasted nuts on top and gently press them down.

I let this sit on the counter until it completely cooled down and them moved it to the freezer for a couple of hours. Then, take it out and remove the spring foam pan. Using a pizza cutter, cut the burfi into small squares.

And then, just eat, share and eat more.

Who wants this stack?

This was my favorite piece - that's why it got its own photo shoot done!

Enjoy. Peace Out!