Easy Orange Basundi / Indian Milk Dessert

Basundi is an Indian sweet especially popular in Western Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. It is a sweetened condensed milk made by boiling milk on low heat until the milk is reduced by half.  With the sharing of recipes in magazines and the advent of the internet, Basundi is now a popular dessert in many Indian households. This used to be a favourite of mine when I was a post graduate student in Madras as it was known back then. There was this restaurant near our hostel that served the most delectable Basundi and whenever we hostellites felt homesick, we would make a beeline to the place and indulge in our favourite dessert for the princely sum of Rs 2.50 only!!! Over the years, I seldom made this dessert until a friend sent me the recipe of Orange basundi and immediately my taste buds went nostalgic and I was prodded into making it again.

The recipe is a very simple one, since I have dispensed with boiling the milk until it is reduced to half. Invariably, whenever I attempted to make desserts that required reducing the milk, I would end up multi tasking and forget about the boiling milk and have a big mess to clear up. So one day, I decided to experiment with milk powder and evaporated milk and everyone loved it. From then onwards, I used this short cut method and saved myself a lot of time.

The Recipe:

1 cup evaporated milk or low fat milk; 1/2 cup milk powder; 1 tbsp zest of orange; 2 tbsp almond meal; a pinch of saffron; 1 orange, segmented.

Whisk milk, milk powder and almond meal together. Add zest and gently stir. Transfer to bowl.  Arrange orange segments on top.  Scatter saffron mixed with 1 tbsp warm water on top.  Serve cold.

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