Badam Peda – soft n chewy
So here I am – back to my dear space – from a different world altogether. When I left behind my big kitchen in Delhi with all my gadgets and fancy props, I was nearly sure I wont make it to Aroma of Spices again. My fears were confirmed when I landed up in a small town in Canada, with a student apartment kitchen – 6 plates, 6 spoons and fewer cooking utensils. Now that I look at the past eight months, while the kitchen feels as much my own as was my older one – irrespective of size, I realize I have been cooking more than I did in the past so many years. Thanks to no avail to Indian food restaurants – we were eating fresher and healthier food. I reasoned this was a bigger reason to blog – plus I have started to discover different ingredients which I have started to incorporate in my cooking and am really excited to share my finds with friends!
So here is the first one – badam peda made without blanching almonds. I found this blanched almond flour on sale and could not resist picking it up. Back home, I just used it the traditional way and the results were awesome – soft chewy badam peda. With just 15 minutes of cooking time, it is a must try for anyone who can find this flour in the store.
Found this in Walmart!
Ingredients:
2 cups of blanched almond flour/ ground almonds
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
3 – 4 generous pinches of cardamom powder (optional)
1 tbsp pistachio slivers (optional)
Method:
1. Mix the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed pan. Heat till small bubbles begin to appear on the surface. Should take 5 to 7 minutes on a medium flame.
3. Stir gently and let it come to a rolling boil. No need to check for string consistency etc of the syrup.
4. Pour in almond flour and cardamom powder and stir well to avoid lumps. Keep stirring for a few minutes and you should notice the mixture getting a little thicker.
5. Put a little drop on a chilled plate and test to see if it hardens slightly. You should be able to roll it into a loose ball.
6. If it does, switch off the heat and move the pan away from the hot surface.
7. Let it cool on its own. I forgot about it till I had cooked entire dinner.
8. Just spread the pistachio slivers on the dough. Pull out small balls of the dough, roll and flatten a bit with with your palms using your hands.
9. Store in the fridge. 2 cups of flour gave me 15 bite sized pedas. They are soft and chewy – totally worth the fifteen minutes of time and five bucks you spent on it!
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