Kesar Kaju Katli

Kesar Kaju Katli is one of the most renowned glorious fudge of cashew nuts flavoured with saffron. Whenever festivals are round the corner, Kaju katli is the most sort sweets which comes to mind either to serve the guests or exchange with family friends and relatives. Honestly speaking, the opportunity that made me to make this flawless Kesar Kaju Katli was the visit of one of my very dear respected Sid Khullar Bhaiya. I met him virtually in one of the food forum ( In fact my first food forum that I joined on Facebook called Chef At Large) on Facebook past more than 2 years and wanted to meet him personally. The moment I came to know that he is visiting Bangalore, I could not wait any further and I invited him to share our table for lunch at my home.When he saw this Kaju Katli, the first thing he said was, “ I have not seen Kaju Katli made at home this beautiful and yum”! Trust me, even my hubby said that this is one of best kaju Katli he has ever had.
Even though the procedure is easy, there are few pointers to keep in mind - the sugar syrup consistency, powdered cashews as how fine or thick it is, cooking time ( do not over cook them) and kneading of the Kaju dough. Do make it at home, follow the steps to the “T”. Once you master it I bet you will stop buying those sky high Kaju katlis from market. Make your own hygienic, delicious authentic Kesar Kaju katli at home. Let’s go through how I did it at home…

Ingredients:-
2&¼ cups of Cashews (room temperature)
1 cup, sugar (you may adjust and add more if more sweetness is prefered)
100-110 ml water
2 Big pinch of saffron
100 ml milk
Silver leaf for garnish

Method:-
First, soak the saffron in milk and keep it for 4-5 hours or overnight in a fridge. This will help to develop beautiful natural saffron colour.
In a blender, grind cashews to a fine powder. Cashews should be at room temperature and do not over grind it as the oils released from the cashews will make it a paste while grinding. You may find few coarse grains of cashews while grinding, do not worry.
In a heavy bottom pan, add sugar and water, heat and bring it to boil. Stir for few minutes. once the sugar is dissolved, let it cook to get one string consistency sugar syrup.
Add saffron milk and cook for another 3-4 minutes on high heat stirring it intermittently. Syrup consistency should be of 1-2 string.
Add cashew powder and mix well.
Stir and cook for another 4-5 minutes on medium low flame or until mixture starts getting thick paste consistency and just starts coming together form a lump. Do not over cook it.
Switch of the heat.Take the mixture and spread it on a plate or butter paper and allow it to cool.
When mixture has reached to slight warm temperature, grease your hands with little ghee and start kneading to form a dough.
Place the dough between two butter papers and roll out the dough to rectangle with thickness of 5-6 mm only. You can roll out the dough on greased broad thali or flat plate.
Cut the katlis into diamond shape. I have used Pizza cutter to cut the katlis, which made may job much easier, you can use knife to cut them.If you are using butter papper to roll the barfis, it will easily come out from it, but if using Thali or plate, carefully take out the Katlis using butter knife or Kitchen knife.
Enjoy them whenever you want.This yum Kesar Kaju Katli will stay absolutely well in an air tight container under refrigeration 2-3 weeks.