Indian Sweets have many many options of Burfis. Burfis can be fudge like or candy like bars that can be made from grains, bean flours, coconut, nuts, milk solids and more. Burfis in general depend on dairy for ghee (clarified butter) or milk (milk solids, milk powder, condensed milk etc). There are also options that are by default dairy-free. Every year I vegan-ize a few options for the Indian festivals.
This year we have a fudgy condensed milk Besan Burfi (Chickpea flour fudge) made dairy-free with a condensed non dairy milk! Just 5 main ingredients and ready in 25 minutes if you roast the flour while the milk mixture thickens! The non dairy condensed milk uses almond milk + ground cashew. You can also soak the 3 tbsp whole cashews for a few hours then blend in with the almond milk and proceed. The mixture will thicken slightly faster than the ground cashew version.
There are many variations of Besan Burfis depending on family recipes and regions. They are also called other names (Burfi, Mysore Pak, Mohanthal) depending on the method, consistency etc. Besan (gram flour) or chickpea flour can be dry roasted, roasted in the fat, roasted with some other flours or with dairy. The burfi can use dry sugar, sugar syrup, sugar syrup added at a particular time, other sweet syrups based on jaggery or milk and on and on for different textures and flavor profiles. The resulting mixture can be shaped into Burfi bars or into round Ladoos. We know the common theme here, sweet + besan (pronounced bay-sun or bae-sun).
Make some Indian or fusion sweets or savory snacks for Diwali and drop by your neighbors (preferably unannounced :)), and share some happy stories of the year! Happy Diwali!
More vegan Indian Sweets for the festival season
- Fudgy Coconut Ladoo – GF
- Chickpea flour Ladoo – GF
- Saffron Almond Burfi – Kesar Burfi,
- Kaju Katli – Cashew Fudge – GF
- Amaranth coconut Burfi – GF
- Gulab Jamun – GF option
About 15 more options in my book. You can use flavors like cardamom, saffron, vanilla, kewra or rose in the burfi.
Steps:
Make the fudge mixture. Transfer to parchment, even it out using s spatula or another parchment.
Slice into squares.
Stick some slivered nuts on top (optional). Cool and store.
Besan Burfi with Condensed Milk (Dairy-free) - Chickpea flour fudge
Ingredients
For the roasted Besan/chickpea flour:
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 cup (120 g) besan or chickpea flour
For the condensed non dairy milk:
- 1 cup (250 ml) almond milk or soy milk or other not too thin non dairy milk
- 1/2 cup (102 g) +1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp refined coconut oil or use vegan butter
- 2.5 tbsp cashew flour grind cashews with a bit of starch or flour. or without. pulse till somewhat evenly ground/just starting to get buttery, and use
- a pinch of salt
Other:
- Flavor additions: 1/4 tsp ground cardamom 5 strands of saffron, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp rose water or other
- slivered almonds or pistachios for garnish
Instructions
Roast the besan/chickpea flour:
- Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add besan or chickpea flour, preferably sieved if using besan. Mix and roast for 10 minutes. Stir every 20-30 seconds once the skillet is hot. If the flour starts to brown too quickly, reduce the heat. The overall mixture should change color slightly and smell nutty. To make oil-free, dry roast the flour. it takes the same time. You can roast the flour while the condensed milk is thickening.
Meanwhile make the condensed non dairy milk:
- In a skillet heat non dairy milk + oil + sugar over medium heat. Cook for 10 minutes or until boiling well for a few minutes.
- Add cashew flour, salt and whisk in. Reduce heat to medium-low and continue to boil for 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens to just about condensed milk consistency. Because the mixture is hot, it might seem runny, but if you take some in a spoon and let cool for a minute, the mixture thickens to a caramelly condensed milk consistency. Add any flavor additions like cardamom at this point and mix in. ***
- Add the roasted flour and mix into the condensed milk over medium low heat. Mix well by dragging to break the lumps if any and incorporate with the wet. This is a good time to get help from the eaters who are hanging out around the kitchen. **If you know your besan/chickpea flour from experience does get lumps, sieve the roasted flour before adding.
- The mixture will thicken and start to feel stiff and start to leave the sides within a minute or 2.*
- You can also add in 1-2 tbsp chopped nuts and currants at this point and mix in. You can also add 1 to 2 Tbsp powdered sugar and mix in, if you like sweeter burfi. (Traditional burfi is very sweet).
- Drop the mixture onto parchment. Use another parchment or greased spatula to even it out. Cut into pieces using pizza cutter while still warm. Press chopped or slivered nuts on top (optional)
- Cool completely, separate the pieces and store. While the mixture is cooling, treat yourself or your kitchen helpers to the burfi bits left in the skillet.
Notes
Nutrition
** Besan can get small lumps that end up unbroken in the burfi and taste raw (and awful). If your batch of besan is prone to lumpyness, sieve and use for each step. I prefer Chickpea flour to besan for this reason. Besan (gram flour) is flour of brown chickpeas and is more finely ground than the chickpea flour. (garbanzo bean flour) available in the US. Read more about their differences here.
Troubleshoot: If the burfi ends up being too chewy (like candy), well its candy then, or reheat the burfi with additional non dairy milk and mix in to make besan halwa (pudding).
Mary says
November 5, 2015 at 3:20 pmOMIGOSH You are so brilliant! I love finding uses for chickpea flour <3 Thank you!
Richa says
November 5, 2015 at 3:29 pmlol there is tons of chickpea flour recipes on the blog. I run out of it within weeks!
Laura says
November 5, 2015 at 3:32 pmI love that you made your own condensed milk. Is there any reason you chose to make cashew flour as opposed to using almond flour or all purpose flour?
Richa says
November 5, 2015 at 3:37 pmyes. almond doesnt dissolve into the milk easily or work well as a thickener. Cashew mixes in well, adds some rich volume and thickens. You can use regular flour as a thickener and maybe another 1/2 tbsp oil.
Camille says
November 5, 2015 at 6:34 pmWhat kind of starch are you grinding the cashews with?
Richa says
November 5, 2015 at 6:50 pmany starch of flour will work. about 1-2 tbsp per 1/2 cup of cashews. it helps the cashews grind well without clumping up into cashew butter.
Jamie Dedes says
November 6, 2015 at 5:24 amCongrats on your nomination at Goodreads. You got my vote. Thanks for sharing all the great vegan – often gluten-free recipes. ????????????????????????????
Richa says
November 6, 2015 at 8:37 amThanks!!
Jessica Blanchard says
November 6, 2015 at 5:53 amI can’t wait to surprise my husband with this recipe. He’s originally from Mumbai, and has slowly come over to my plant-based way of eating. But he still loves Indian sweets. And also Mango kulfi.
Richa says
November 6, 2015 at 8:37 amAwesome! There is a mango kulfi recipe in my book.
Jessica says
November 11, 2015 at 6:07 amI made the burfi for my yoga students last night. An early Diwali treat.
The recipe was a huge hit. A couple of Indian students said they couldn’t tell the difference.
Thank you!
Richa says
November 11, 2015 at 10:07 amyay!! Awesome!!
pragati says
November 8, 2015 at 3:42 amHello Richa! This is such a yum recipe. Normally, there is so much ghee added to besan ladoo or barfi..this method is worth a try..I am not sure about the coconut oil because I have never used it.
But I am going to give this a shot!
Richa says
November 8, 2015 at 10:55 amThanks, you can use a different oil or vegan butter. refined coconut oil doesnt taste much like coconut and adds the fat needed in the vegan condensed milk.
Maha says
November 8, 2015 at 8:49 pmWhat if I can’t find starch? Can it be skipped? Any alternatives?
Richa says
November 8, 2015 at 9:20 pmyou can grind the cashews with starch or other flour or just grind by pulsing them in a small blender. all of the cashews might not grind well without the starch/flour. just use the ground part. cashews become pasty really quickly, so keep an eye on them.
you can also soak the 2.5 tbsp whole cashews in the almond milk for an hour then blend well until the cashews are blended into the milk and proceed. the mixture will thicken slightly faster
Marie-Claire says
November 13, 2015 at 12:23 amHi Richa!
You really are very clever. I made these and they were a big hit. My kids were very happy to take them to school for snack and then have more when they got home. Thanks for making vegan food, so….yummy tasting and healthy.
Cheers,
Marie-Claire
Richa says
November 13, 2015 at 12:31 amAwesome!! I am so happy that everyone loved them!
sam says
July 19, 2016 at 8:14 pmhi, how long will this last if not refrigerated b in air tight container? how long will it last in fridge?
Richa says
July 19, 2016 at 11:32 pmany covered container will do. In an open container or plate the fudge will dry out a bit after about a day or 2.
Deepanjali says
October 6, 2016 at 1:31 amHey.. this is brilliant, will try for sure. Can I use coconut milk instead of almond milk?? If I can.. then I past whenever I boil coconut milk it separates please advise
Richa says
October 27, 2016 at 10:14 amcoconut milk should work fine. The milk is blended up with cashews so it thickens well so it will not separate.
Humra says
October 27, 2016 at 5:48 amAny chance you can use Agave Nectar instead of sugar – my family loves Burfi, but they are diabetic, so want to make a version where their blood sugar doesn’t spike so much!
Richa says
October 27, 2016 at 10:18 amyou can possibly use agave and substitute some of the milk with it. So 1/2 cup agave and 1/2 cup non dairy milk. I think the result will be quite chewy though as agave tends to get chewy.
Have you tried my besan halwa? The texture of the halwa will not change much with agave. use 1/3 cup agave in that with 1/2 cup hot water.
http://www.veganricha.com/2016/10/besan-halwa.html
Janaki says
March 3, 2017 at 10:41 amHi, Besan Burfi looks awesome… going to try soon. I am wondering if you could help me find a recipe for making vegan butter at home. Since most Indian sweets are made of butter, I am looking for an alternative. Thanks for your help in advance.
Richa says
March 3, 2017 at 11:10 amThere are many on the web. https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=vegan+butter+recipe&*
Vegan baking butter, miyoko schinner’s vegan butter and nina’s aquafaba vegan butter are great. In general you want to use refined coconut oil and blend it with a small amount of non dairy milk and salt until it emulsifies and use that. You can also use refined coconut oil directly. For Indian sweets, i use refined coconut oil or regular safflower/canola oil depending on the recipe.
Maris says
May 20, 2017 at 1:01 amHi there,
Just love your site & recipes!
My family & I are not completely vegan yet, would it be possible to just use condensed milk instead of making my own, would it ruin the recipe?
Richa says
May 23, 2017 at 2:20 pmI dont recommend using dairy. I also havent used in more than a decade, so i dont know how it will behave
Elva Bayley says
October 12, 2017 at 5:23 amI don’t have rosewater but I have dried rose petals. How would I use these to flavour the burfi?
Kamile says
February 27, 2018 at 6:04 amHi, can I use half grind chickpea, half grind oats? Becauce I can’t find anywhere to buy chickpea flour, so I grind it by myself (but it has that odd smell 🙁
Richa says
February 27, 2018 at 11:26 pmthe roasting should help that smell. Make a half batch of the recipe with chickpea flour
Caitlin says
February 28, 2018 at 10:55 amHi! Could I use olive oil as the fat for the condensed milk? Many thanks for all the hard work you put into your blog – it’s awesome.
Richa says
February 28, 2018 at 11:07 amolive oil adds a lot of flavor, maybe use other neutral oil like sunflower or canola
Arv says
October 18, 2018 at 2:28 pmThese look great. Diwali is coming up again. I am wholefood plantbased (no oil) for health reasons. Could I do this recipe without the oil? Should I sub in something?
TIA.
Richa says
October 18, 2018 at 7:50 pmYes, just dry roast the flour until fragrant and when you notice a slight change in color. Takes about the same time with or w/o oil.
Arv says
October 19, 2018 at 4:43 amGreat. Thanks Richa. You are a star! Can’t wait to try this recipe now with the dry roast method.
Tammy Makadooj says
November 6, 2018 at 2:59 amHi !
Just made these and turned out so awesome! Just as good as the regular one. I used coconut sugar so the fudge is darker but healthier 😉
Richa says
November 6, 2018 at 1:38 pmawesome!
Caroline says
November 21, 2018 at 12:17 amHello Richa,
So glad I found you! Could you substitute the besan for coconut flour? Have you ever tried it? Would love to know. 🙂
Thank you!
Richa says
December 29, 2018 at 10:55 pmit wont work in this recipe. you can substitute grain flours such as wheat or oat
Kamal says
February 12, 2019 at 10:55 pmMany many thanks for this recipi
I will try tomorrow all ready to go and sure let you know how did it taste😍
Reny says
October 8, 2019 at 2:46 pmHi Richa,
Is there a substitute for cashews in this recipe? My son is allergic to cashews but he can eat almonds.
Richa says
October 8, 2019 at 2:53 pmuse a canned condensed coconut milk. or try my 7 cup burfi which uses water https://www.veganricha.com/2017/10/vegan-7-cup-burfi-chickpea-flour-coconut-fudge.html
Ruby says
October 26, 2019 at 7:26 pmCan I freeze these after making them? If so, how long will they be good for in the freezer or in the fridge?
Richa says
October 27, 2019 at 12:10 am5-6 days in the fridge. i havent tried freezing, should be ok for a month
Ru says
May 15, 2020 at 7:04 amWould it work out if we didn’t add oil to the condensed milk?
Vegan Richa Support says
May 15, 2020 at 7:13 pmYes it will work and will make it a little more dense or candy like, whereas if you did use oil or vegan butter you will end up with a more chewy caramel texture.