Two weeks back, a few of my friends from college had come home for lunch. I was meeting two of them after nearly 20 years. Needless to say, we all had a great time filled with silly jokes and non stop laughter, just like our good old college days. I had made a very traditional South Indian lunch, but wanted to make some special dessert. I had lots of milk, so, decided to make Basundi.

Basundi is a delicacy made with just two basic ingredients, milk and sugar. It’s actually sweetened, thickened milk, something very similar to Rabri made in North India. Basundi is made in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

It’s a very rich dessert, creamy and mildly sweet. It’s not difficult to make, but needs loads of patience. But the resulting product is worth all the time spent in making the dessert.

Basundi came out very well and am very happy to say that my dear friends and my family loved it 🙂

Ingredients

Full fat milk – 1+1/2 lit

Sugar – 1/3rd cup

Cardamom powder- 1 tsp

Finely sliced almonds – 1 tbsp

Finely sliced pista – 1 tbsp

Method

Add milk to a heavy bottomed pan. Bring it a boil. Once it starts boiling, reduce the flame and cook till reduced to half and turns pink. Keep stirring and scraping the sides. It will almost take 50 mins to an hour.

Now add sugar and continue to cook on a slow flame for another 30 to 40 mins, till the milk thickens.

Add the cardamom powder, mix well and continue to cook for 10-15 mins.

Garnish with sliced almonds and pista and serve the basundi at room temperature or chilled 🙂