Coconut Burfi - Thenga Burfi - Coconut Fudge - Diwali Sweet - Vegan Option

Coconut Burfi is a sweet made with just a very few ingredients. Main components are coconut and sugar cooked with some water. It is flavoured mildly with cardamom. You add a little bit of ghee (clarified butter) at the end for added flavour. If you want to make it Vegan you can skip it as well. It is one of the rare sweets made without ghee. Most indian sweets are drenched in ghee.



There is an incident that comes to my mind every time I think of coconut burfi. We grew up in a very close knit community where we would all eat from each other's houses (uninvited). So if a sweet or savoury is made in a house all the neighbourhood children got a share of it when they pop into the kitchen. But with coconut burfi, i once took it to a little extreme. One of my neighbours made it so well that I popped in to her house every 10-15 min to eat them. Well, I kept at it till I made sure that the entire box was empty :-)



Usually it is made with freshly grated coconut. When doing that make sure that you grate only the top white part and not the bottom brown bit. I actually made these with Frozen coconut and believe me, if I do not tell you, you will not be able to tell the difference. So for those of you sitting in foreign countries with no access to fresh coconut, do try it with a good quality frozen coconut. Take the required quantity. Thaw in microwave for 1.5 min and you are all set.

Ingredients (Makes 16 pieces)

Coconut Grated 2 cups
Sugar 1.5 cups
Water little over 1/2 cup
Cardamom Powder 1/4 tsp
Ghee (Clarified Butter) 2 tsp (optional)

Method of Preparation

1. Grease a 7*7 square tin. Or any plate.

2. Heat a Thick (Heavy) bottomed pan or a non stick pan. Add the sugar and water to it.

3. Boil till you reach the 1 string consistency. (Take a slightly cooled drop of sugar mix on your index finger. Touch with your thumb. Separate the fingers. If the sugar forms a thread it means you have reached 1 string).

4. Add the coconut and mix well on medium flame.

5. Keep stirring till the water mostly evaporates and the mixture comes together.

6. Add the ghee and cardamom powder.  Mix well.

7. Transfer to the plate. Even out the top. It will be a little moist at this stage. Do not worry. It will solidify as it cools.

8. Let it cool for some time (about 10 min).

9. Mark lines on it to cut the burfi. Do not cut fully or separate them at this stage.

10. Let it cool completely. Cut into pieces and store in an airtight container.