Apple Basundi - rich, creamy, and decadent Indian dessert! Here is my basundi - thickened sweet milk with the goodness of apple, flavored with cardamom.
1medium-sized apple¾ cup grated (Any sweet variety should work)
¼tspground cardamom
nuts andsaffron strands, and dried rose petals to garnish
Instructions
In a heavy bottom pan, add both the evaporated milk and reduced-fat milk. I used a 12 oz can of evaporated milk and used the same amount of reduced-fat milk.
Bring it to a boil over medium-low heat.
When it boils, reduce the heat and add the sugar. Mix well and reduce the heat to low, and simmer till the milk reduces to half. Keep stirring between and during the process, collect the frothy cream, scrape the sides, and add it back to the basundi mixture. It took me 40 minutes for the milk to thicken.
Now add the cardamom powder and mix well. Parallely, peel and grate the apple. I got about ¾ cup of apple. Add the grated apple to the milk mixtures. Mix it and cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
Let it cool and garnish it with saffron strands, nuts, and dried rose petals and serve warm or cold.
Notes
Use a heavy bottom pan for making basundi or rabdi.
Adding sugar - I added the sugar after the first boil, i.e., after 10 minutes. But you can add the sugar after you have reduced the milk.
You can very well make this basundi without the apple. In that case, add more sugar.
Make sure you use sweet apple variety and grate it just before adding it to the milk. If the peel and grate it before, due to oxidization, it might turn black.
After adding apple, cook it for 3 to 4 minutes at low heat. As we are reducing the milk with sugar, curdling should not happen. But keep stirring it to avoid any mishaps.
You can add flavorings of your choice and serve it warm or chilled.
I used a combination of evaporated milk and reduced-fat milk. You can skip evaporated milk either use whole milk or just reduced-fat milk.