Milk Cake/ Kalakand/ Malai Barfi

Malai Barfi....have you ever heard of this?

I'm sure you must have, if you love sweets to the core like me. Malai Barfi aka Kalakand aka Milk Cake is a Rajasthani dessert prepared from freshly home-made paneer and Khoya/Mava. 'Mishri Mava' is a slightly softer and wet version of this with more quantity of milk added. I remember how I used to love all these since childhood but never even thought of making them by myself. After marriage and coming to a place where you hardly get to see the real ones, I was highly inspired to try them and to my wonder, I successfully made them and gulped the whole plate. :))

 Do try this if you love Khoya/Mava Barfis and love the authentic milky taste. Also, if you have some extra paneer and looking for an easy dessert, this could be the one you'd like to hit upon.

KALAKAND/ MILK CAKE/ MALAI BARFI:

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 60 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients: 

1. Home-made Paneer/ Chhaina: 1 and a 1/2 cups (prepared from 1 litre milk)

2. Milk: 3/4 litre (standard one)

3. Sugar: 5 tbs or as per taste

4. Rose water: 1 tbs

5. Almonds, Pistachios: for garnishing

6. Ghee: for greasing the plate

Method:

1. Prepare paneer at home by adding some curd/lime juice to the milk and boiling it. Do not add too much else it will turn sour. Add just that much as is required to curdle it slightly and get finely granular paneer.
2. Separate the paneer from the water by hanging it in a cloth and holding on for an hour. I usually use a steel sieve to do so and it is quite helpful, too. Also, I prefer to rinse the paneer with cold water before use to avoid any sour effect that might be lingering upon.
3. Now take this finely granular paneer in a heavy bottomed pan and add milk to it.
4. Bring this to a boil and then simmer it.
5. Let this boil till the milk and paneer blend well and the milk is almost reduced to 1/5 of the original quantity. By now you can see a granular creamy texture which is a little wet in consistency. 
6. Keep stirring in between to avoid any paneer/milk sticking at the bottom.
7. When you see that the milk has almost all evaporated, infact has turned to rabdi/khoya, add the rose water followed by the sugar. This should be slightly soft/wet if you want tender barfis.
8. Mix them well and turn off the heat.
9. Now grease a plate with ghee and pour this mixture on it.
10. Embellish with almonds and pistachios.
11. Refrigerate/freeze this for 4 hours (suggested only when you have kept the mixture a little wet).
12. After taking out, wait for 5 minutes for it to get soft and then cut into small cubes. Serve chilled if you like it like candy/kulfi. If you serve this after keeping out for some time(some 15-20 minutes), it will start leaving milk and will become extremely soft and tender; will actually go tit bits in your fingers.
13. Enjoy the ultra-soft, melting sweet in your mouth. ( This will taste half the way like 'Chum Chum'.)
14. If you want perfectly hard barfis, then heat that mixture for some more time till it almost forms a lump and leave the sides, then cool it in the greased plate and there's no need to freeze.You can cut them in cubes/pieces on cooling.

Tips:

1. Avoid the market paneer as it is harder than the required consistency.
2. If the paneer looks sour and coarsely granular on curdling, rinse this with water and knead it with your palms to make it softer and fine. 
3. Keep it a little less sugary to enjoy the original milky taste.
4. If you don't have rose water, you could also use some cardamom powder.

 Submitting this recipe to:
My event: Cooking Made Easy With Cheese/Paneer
Cakes, Cookies and Desserts 

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