Rose Bahaar

Once I mastered the Kaju katli recipe, I realized the possibilities were endless! I continued my experiments and came up with more preparations, using the delicious, simple kaju mava! One of my favorites is this one – Rose Bahar – easily the tastiest one in any mithai platter.

Adding just a little bit of food color helps it stand out in a mithai box. If you can accept in fancy chocolates, its ok to let mithai have its moment and be vibrant and stand out too 🙂 But its totally optional. Also, I try to use natural colors when possible, in my opinion, not only are they safer but also give a more natural looking shade. the only challenge is, it can change the flavor if overdone, so be careful!

Without further ado, Let’s go to the recipe! The technique is similar to that of the Kaju Katli. The sugar syrup and cashewnut powder ixture is the base of this mithai as well and many other mithais that can be built with it. Once you master this, you will be inspired to innovate and create new and interesting mithais! Another favorite of mine using the same base is Kesar-Pista Roll 🙂

you will need:

Cashew nut powder – 300g – use the recipe in Kaju Katli – until the step where the ball of mixture is kneaded to a homogenous ball

Sugar – 225g

Water – 128g

Gulkand – 55g

coarse crushed almond or cashewnuts or flour – 50 g

Chopped nuts – cashewnuts, pistachios and almonds – 80 g total

liquid glucose

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

food color – optional

Rose petals, pistachio slices – for decoration/ topping

Procedure:

Making the cashew powder:

• This is the most important step in the process. Select whole clean cashews – its tempting to use broken pieces for this as its all going to be powdered anyway! However, whole cashewnuts are ususally superior quality, cleaner, lighter in color and have a better body and flavor – so use whole or halved cashewnuts as much as possible
• Sun dry the nuts for a few hours in hot direct sun to get them to be crunchy. I am not against using other drying methods such as low temperature toaster or microwaving for a few seconds, but sun-drying (if/when available) is the best way to do this without having any impact on flavor
• once the cashew nuts are dried break them in smaller pieces either by hands or chop them with a knife – you will know depending on how easily they break with your hands, that they have dried enough.
• Grind the broken cashewnuts in a grinder ON PULSE MODE – do not grind on continuous mode as this will result in a buttery paste instead of a powder and will not work for this recipe
• Make sure to patiently grind pulsing in quick bursts to make as fine of a powder as you can
• Sieve this ground mixture and reprocess the larger pieces left after sieving one more time – sieve again. Only do this step twice as with repetitive grinding, they start getting oily. Save the pieces that you couldn’t grind to a fine powder (that remain on top of the sieve) – these can be used towards the crushed/ chopped nuts needed in this recipe (90 g)

Making the sugar syrup

• Once you have the cashew powder ready, you can start the next step – which is making the sugar syrup
• in a heavy bottom pan, preferably non-stick, mix together the sugar and water and start heating on low-medium flame
• Continue heating and stirring gently until sugar dissolves and mixture starts to boil and starts to thicken
• take a drop on your finger and check consistency by tapping it between your thumb and index finger – we need to continue cooking until you get a thick, stubby, single string that’s waxy (not clear, transparent and long)

Final steps:

• to the syrup, add gulkand, food color, cardamom powder, and mix well
• Next add the cashew powder and the chopped nuts and turn off the flame
• Keep mixing in the warm pan until the mixture becomes a ball that leaves the sodes of the pan easily
• Grease a baking tray and spread the mixture in it while its still warm
• mix a little bit of water in glucose syrup and create a glaze – brush this glaze on the surface of the mixture
• then sprinkle rose petals and pistachio flakes on top
• Let the mithai set for at least 4-5 hours
• cut square pieces and its ready to dazzle on your mithai platter or box!