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.