Gluten Free Diwali Sweets - Badam Burfi (Almond Treats)

Are you excited about Diwali as much as I am??

🪔 Diwali, the festival of lights, is just days away. Every year, we celebrate this holiday with family and friends, yummy dishes, and desserts. 🪔

🪔 This year, it will be a bit different because of COVID-19. We are only celebrating within our family and keeping the group small. However, I'm still planning to make yummy dishes to enjoy the festivities. 🪔

My sister and I 💓 classic Indian sweets like Kaju Katli or Kaju burfi which is made with cashews. I never thought 🤔 about making the nutty burfis at home. 

Almond Burfi

My mom decided to give it a try. Instead of making Kaju burfi, she made Almond burfi. She also wanted to make a sweet that is easy and requires few ingredients and calories 😀. 

Costco to the rescue 👍! She found Almond flour at Costco and made the sweet without making the flour herself. Read below to see how easy it is to make this yummy dessert. 😋

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 cups Almond flour (we used Kirkland brand)
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup room temperature water
• 1/4 cup Mavva/Kova (milk powder) optional if not use 1&1/2 cups of almond flour
• 6 to 7 cardamom, seeded and powdered
• 1 tsp of ghee (clarified butter)
• 4 to 5 pistachios, finely chopped 

Procedure

1) Heat water and sugar and cardamom powder in a medium non-stick saucepan over low-medium heat. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. 

2) Slowly add the almond flour, mavva, and ghee and stir continuously until the water is absorbed and the mixture is not sticking to the fingers when tested. It took about 9 minutes until the mixture came together. 

3) Remove from heat and immediately press the burfi dough onto wax paper evenly that is rubbed with ghee to help make it non-stick. Make sure there aren't any bumps. Use a rolling pin gently to press down and adjust to even sides to a rectangle shape.

4) Then, sprinkle the pistachios all over pressed burfi dough and press them down gently with the rolling pin. We evened out the edges so we could cut burfi dough into diamond shapes (as shown below). 

5) Cover the cut burfis with wax paper and put it in the fridge for 15-20 minutes to set. Then place the burfi pieces onto your favorite plate or serving dish and enjoy! 

🪔 From my family to yours...Diwali Mubarak 🪔

A Special Surprise, Just in Time for Ugadi!

It's always a delight when relatives come to visit, especially during the holidays. My grandma arrived a few days ago and just in time for Ugadi.  She makes the journey every year even though she's aged quite a bit. It's always a delight to see her nonetheless. 

I don't mean to sound childish but I always get excited when my grandma unpacks her things. She always comes bearing gifts...they are usually sweets and savories of all kinds. 

I collected all the sweets together to show you guys. Most of the Indian sweets are made from rice and lentil flour. 

The top plate shows all the sweets I grew up eating. Pootarekulu (also known as paper sweets) is a popular sweet from East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh. Powdered white sugar or brown sugar is stuffed in between the thin sheets made from rice flour. 

Next to Pootarekulu is Pheni, which is shredded, flaky rice flour roasted in ghee. It is usually eaten with sugar and hot milk. We eat this from time to time for breakfast. We put a handful in a bowl, mix in sugar and pour hot milk on top. It is really yummy. 

Next to pheni is cashew nut brittle made with cashews and jaggery (Indian brown sugar). Last but not least is Arisalu, which is behind the brittle. These thin, round patties are popular in Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and are made from rice flour, brown sugar, and ghee. Arisalu are one of my sister's favorite Indian sweets. 

The bottom plate has an assortment of sweets made from lentil flour, rice flour, nuts and dates. Some of these sweets are Kaju Kattli, Milk peda, Mysore Pak, Bandar Laddu, Kajja, and Balushahi. Milk or doodh peda has become one of my favorite sweets. They pedas are heavenly and I can easily eat all of them in minutes. 

The first thing we do on Ugadi is pray and eat Ugadi pachadi. I did just that before leaving for work.  After work, I came straight home and indulged in more Ugadi specials like Halwa poori (a popular sweet from Telangana), and Green Mango Pulihora that my mom made. 

Wishing you Happy Ugadi from our family to ours!!