Besan barfi –
Besan barfi is gram flour fudge, it has very soft and mouth melting texture. Besan barfi is generally prepared with besan(gram flour), clarified butter (ghee) and sugar. Gram flour or besan sautéd with clarified butter and sugar syrup added to the barfi for sweet taste. Besan barfi is a very common sweet in India, especially during winter. It is usually garnished with sliced or chopped almonds and pistachios. In this recipe I will show you foolproof recipe of making besan barfi/gram flour fudge step by step with photos.
Gram flour is frequently used ingredient in Indian cooking, whether it is breakfast like dhokla, khandvi, pancake or snacks like onion fritters, puri, namkeen, sev, papdi and sweet dishes like barfi, laddo, mysore pak, son papadi besan is essential ingredient in Indian cooking, so you will find it very easily at any home.
Besan barfi is very common to prepare during festival, because it tastes delicious and can be prepared with easily available ingredient and very quickly, we prepare these barfi every year during festival like diwali, rakshabandhan or holi. During diwali there are lots of sweet and savoury dishes are prepared. Guests comes home for sharing wishes, sweets and gift and we need lots of snacks ready which we can offer to our guest.
This diwali is special because after marriage this is my first diwali in India and I am preparing lots of savoury and sweet dishes and besan barfi is at the top of my list. My brother is visiting us on bhai dooj(5th day of diwali celebration on this day we celebrate bonding between siblings). On this day of the festival, sisters invite their brothers for a sumptuous meal often including their favorite dishes/sweets. Any savoury and sweet dish prepared with gram flour is my brother’s favourite and he is very much fond of besan laddu and especially besan barfi.
Various ways of making barfi –
There are many ways to prepare barfi. Some people make it by using milk, milk and besan mixed together with ghee and it is sauté in hot pan until turns dark in colour and becomes fragrant, and lastly sugar syrup is added to besan mixture. It is also prepared by adding mawa and condensed milk, but this version of besan barfi can not be kept fresh for long time, because of the use of milk product. Some people prefer to make it with rava to give it that coarse texture. Besan and rava saute in ghee and sugar added to the mixture. Besan barfi and mysore pak both are prepared by using same ingredients but technique of making both recipe is different.
Ingredients and Method of preparing besan barfi –
For making this delicious yet simple recipe we need very few ingredients from your kitchen. This barfi tastes amazing and it can be prepared very quickly and the secret of giving it the right texture is you have to be very quick with all the process.
I am using besan or gram flour, clarified butter and sugar for making this barfi. Traditionally it is prepared with these three ingredient. To give it more rich flavour, people sometimes like to add mawa and also cardamom for flavouring. Even I tried quite few times before getting perfect texture that can keep barfi soft for longer time.
When i tried first time I did very silly mistake and forgot to grease baking tray, so after setting the barfi, when I tried to take it out from tray it was completely stuck to the tray and it broke while taking out.
Other very important point, I did not switch off the stove while mixing sugar syrup into the besan mixture and I continued cooking while mixing both ingredient and that caused my barfi to turn very hard, so always remember to switch off the gas/heat during mixing process.
Timing and sugar syrup consistency are two very important factors that you have to keep in mind while making this barfi. While roasting gram flour in the clarified butter stir both ingredients continuously on low-medium heat untill it starts changing colour and is aromatic. Switch off the heat. Now start making sugar syrup, it should be perfectly cooked, we want it one string consistency only so do not over cook it, and add it to the besan mixture, when both sugar syrup and besan mixture come together immediately transfer mixture to the baking tray to set besan barfi.
Shelf Life –
Because besan barfi/ gram flour barfi is made with gram flour, clarified butter and sugar and it does not contain and milk product so it has better shelf life. Some people also like to add mawa but then shelf life of these barfi surely reduce, but here in my recipe I didn’t use any milk product or any perishable product so you can keep it fresh for longer.
Important notes –
1. Keep ready the greased baking tray or any other utensil for placing the barfi mixture.
2. If you do not have baking tray you can use any other utensils like square glass container or thali(big plates).
3. Besan/gram flour should be cooked properly, else barfi will have the raw taste.
4. Do not over cook sugar syrup( not more than one string consistency). Over cooked sugar syrup can turn barfi hard.
5. When clarified butter and gram flour mixture cooked remove it from stove.
6. For garnishing you can add any nuts of your choice like pistachio, almonds, cashews or chironji.
I have prepared more recipe for diwali like coconut barfi, instant peda, namak pare, ribbon pakora, karela mathri, mysore pak, kaju katli, rasmalai. Click on the name to get full recipe.
Watch video –
Printable recipe
Besan barfi recipe step by step with photos –
1. Take a pan, heat on low medium flame.
2. Add melted clarified butter if its hard let it melt down completely.
3. Add gram flour to the clarified butter mix both ingredient well. Continue stirring is important because gram flour is have tendency to burn easily so cook on low heat and stir continuously.
4. Continue stir mixture, when it turn little darker in color and become aromatic switch off the heat.
5. Keep it aside. Now we will make sugar syrup.
6. Heat a pan add 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup water stir continuously until the sugar dissolves.
7. We want just one string consistency sugar syrup, do not boil it more then that else barfi will turn hard.
8. When you get 1 string consistency sugar syrup turn off the heat and immediately transfer the sugar syrup in to the ghee and gram flour mixture.
9. Mix it well and when all ingredient comes together, without wait immediately transfer it to the baking tray.
10. Spread barfi and level surface with spatula, shake it or tap it gently against your counterpart, so that mixture can evenly settle in to the pan.
11. Sprinkle some chopped pistachio on the barfi and slightly press them with spatula, do not touch the mixture with your hand it might be hot.
12. Let it rest for 10 minutes and cut barfi in to desired shape and size.
13. Delicious, smooth and soft barfi is ready, you can store them in to airtight container.