"Seven Cup" Burfi

"Seven cup" cake/burfi is a sugar based Indian fudge made with chickpea flour, coconut flakes, milk and ghee (clarified butter). Though it looks similar to Mysore Pak, "Seven cup" burfi is a soft, 'coco'-nutty flavored fudge where coconut & condensed milk (from all the boiling of milk) are the dominating flavors. The name "Seven cup" burfi comes from the fact that seven cups of different ingredients are used to make this sweet.

Indian sweets & desserts are mostly sugar/jaggery based and making Indian sweets is all about the consistency of sugar/jaggery syrup. To make any Indian burfi, all you have to do is to keep stirring the mixture of ingredients until you reach the right consistency and voila, burfi is ready. Theoretically, it is that simple & straight. But if you miss it, you either end up with a sticky goo or a crumbly cake that doesn't hold well together.

So, if you can really tell the right consistency, making Indian burfi/cake is really a "cake" walk!

For this burfi especially, you have to keep stirring the mixture until you cannot stir anymore. When the mixture is thick, porous and doesn't stick to the sides of the pan, seven cup burfi is ready! Incase you don't know when to stop, refer to this video.

Though the original recipe calls for 3 cups of sugar, I used only 2.5 cups and the burfi was sweet enough, no complaints! Seven cup burfi makes a great gift to family & friends for all the occasions.

Basic Info

Complexity - Medium

Prep time - 5 mins

Cook time - 20-25 mins

Serves - about 30 one inch squares

Ingredients

Besan / Chickpea flour - 1 cup

Grated Coconut - 1 cup

Ghee (Clarified Butter) - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 3 cups, I used 2.5 cups

Cardamom powder - from 2 pods

Chopped slivered almonds - about a tbsp, optional

Method

Grease a brownie pan with little ghee and keep it aside.

In a thick bottomed pan, heat a tsp of ghee. Add chickpea flour and roast until fragrant. Don't let the flour change its color. Now add grated coconut, milk, sugar, ghee and mix well. 

Stir the mixture continuously on low to medium heat until the mixture thickens, rolls like a ball, slightly porous and starts to leave the sides of the pan. Right at the end just before removing the pan from heat, add cardamom powder and mix well.

Pour this mixture onto a greased pan and sprinkle chopped almond pieces on top right away. After few minutes while the mixture is still warm, use a wet knife and draw lines to make squares/diamonds of desired size. After it cools off completely, break them into pieces. Share and enjoy!!