Chocolate barfi (or sometimes spelled burfi) was a favourite of mine when I was a child and is now a favourite of my children. This is the first time I made these barfis, so I was a bit apprehensive of how they would turn out as the recipe as taught to me by my father in law is really simple. How can something cooked so quickly and simply taste so great? But believe me they tasted better than any barfis I have ever eaten. I changed the original recipe given to me and reduced the sugar as the chocolate layer tends to be very sweet.
300 grams cooking chocolate (you can use any milk chocolate -gI used 2 bars of Green & Black’s Cooks Organic Milk chocolate)
Method
1. Add three quarter cup of water to the sugar and slowly bring to boil until the sugar has melted. This should take under 10 minutes on a high.
2. Once the sugar and water mixture starts to feel sticky (Don’t allow it to become stringy or stiff); add the milk powder to the sugar mixture, stir and add in the milk and ghee.
3. Mix well and once mixed, turn off the heat. Add the saffron and cardomom powder now. ( Soak the saffron in a tablespoon of milk for 5-6 minutes as this gives the barfi the flavour and the colour).
4. Grease a dish with some oil and turn the barfi mixture onto the dish. Spread the mixture using the back of a spoon and smoothen it.
5. Allow this mixture to cool until it solidifies. I usually leave it overnight.
6. Once the barfi has cooled, it’s time to layer it with the cooking chocolate
7. Cooking chocolate is best melted by using indirect heat. Cut the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a heatproof bowl and place it in a shallow pan filled with hot water. Keep stirring the chocolate to avoid it scorching.
8. Once melted, spread it evenly over the barfi and let it cool for at least 6-8 hours.
9. Once cool, cut the barfi into bite size squares and store on an airtight container. Our barfi’s turned out to be so delicious that they got eaten quite quickly by friends and family. If you manage to save any barfi – you can store them for a week in a cool place.
If you want to give these chocolate barfis as a gift to more friends, you can use beautiful packaging to show your love. You can buy the chocolate wrapping foil with a pattern or you can go a step further and decorate a simple home wrapper with customized stickers from BPS.com where the stickers can be personalized, so be creative and design your own labels and patterns for your friends and make your gift of these chocolate barfis look sensational.
A classic Indian celebration sweet, chocolate burfi is a delicious crowd-pleaser. This recipe is adapted from one taught to me by my father-in-law who made these in his Indian mithai shop in Tanzania.
Course Dessert
Cuisine Indian
Keyword barfi, burfi, mishti, mithai
Servings 20slices
Author Mina Joshi
Ingredients
4cupsof full cream milk powder
1cupof sugar
1teaspooncardamom powder
2-3pinchesof saffron
1tablespoongheeclarified butter
½cupof milk
300gramscooking chocolateI used 2 bars of Green & Black’s Cooks Organic Milk chocolate
Instructions
Add three quarter cup of water to the sugar and slowly bring to boil until the sugar has melted. This should take under 10 minutes on a high heat.
Meanwhile, soak the saffron in a tablespoon of milk for 5-6 minutes. This step gives the barfi both its key flavour and colour.
Once the sugar and water mixture starts to feel sticky, add the milk powder to the sugar mixture. Stir and add in the milk and ghee. Don’t allow the sugar mixture to become stringy or stiff or the recipe won't work!
Mix well and remove from heat. Add the saffron-infused milk and cardomom powder, then mix again to distribute. This is your barfi mixture.
Grease a oven-proof dish with some oil. Turn out the barfi mixture onto the dish. Spread the mixture evenly across the dish using the back of a spoon.
Allow this mixture to cool until it solidifies (I often leave it overnight).
After the barfi has fully cooled, you can top it with chocolate as described below. Don't try to layer the chocolate on top until it has cooled completely.
To prepare the chocolate layer, you need to melt the cooking chocolate. You can do this in the microwave, but I prefer doing it over the stove as it's easier to monitor. Cut the chocolate into small pieces and put it in a heatproof bowl and place it in a shallow pan filled with hot water. Keep stirring the chocolate to avoid it scorching.
To melt chocolate over the stove, cut the chocolate into small pieces (1/2 cm) and place them into a heatproof bowl.
Fill a shallow pan with hot (just boiled) water and put the heatproof bowl of chocolate pieces into it. Keep stirring the chocolate pieces as they start to melt to distribute the heat evenly.
Once your cooking chocolate has melted completely, pour it over the cold barfi and spread it evenly. It then needs to cool, for around 6-8 hours depending on your room temperature or quicker in the fridge.
Once completely cool, cut the chocolate barfi into bite size squares and store on an airtight container.
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I am a busy working mum who aims to make quick and healthy authentic vegetarian and vegan dishes for my family. I am also a face to face and online cookery teacher, recipe developer, restaurant and product reviewer. I share all recipes with step by step instructions.
