kalakand recipe | How to make easy kalakand sweet at home

Kalakand recipe – learn how to make an easy kalakand sweet at home with step-by-step pictures. Kalakand is a famous North Indian sweet prepared with evaporated milk, sugar, paneer, and cardamom powder. Instead of evaporated milk, sugar-free condensed milk also can be used here. Even fresh chenna can be used instead of paneer. This scrumptious sweet is easy to make at home with a few simple ingredients. You can see this sweet in any sweet shop as a grainy milky white burfi decorated with chopped dry fruits. Diwali or Holi is the best occasion to make this dessert. It is similarly popular in Bengal, Bihar, Ajmer, Kashmir, and Punjab.

Kalakand is also described as an Indian milk cake (in English). It is easily made at home with some simple ingredients like full-fat milk, homemade paneer or chenna, sugar, and cardamom powder. And lastly garnished this sweet with chopped almond and pistachios. Here, I didn’t add sugar at the beginning to prevent it become hard or chewy. This is the most important trick I applied here to make it perfect. Here I’ve also shared how to prepare the paneer in a quick and easy way for making this recipe. 

A few years back, I prepared this recipe with my suddenly curdled and turned it into chenna (ricotta cheese). Though this ricotta cheese-based sweet was little time consuming but tastes great and that is the old method of making this indian mithai. Which I will discuss in my other post.

For making it at home, first I made the paneer or chenna from 1-liter full-fat milk. Then boil another 1 lit milk till it reached its one-fourth portion or thick evaporated form. Knead the paneer well and put the soft smooth paneer into that evaporated milk and cook for few mins. Lastly, add sugar and cook for few more mins to get this perfect indian kalakand. 

It is a most common sweet in my kitchen. As Krishna Bhagavan prefers milk-based sweets, so this year I decide to offer this burfi to my Lord on this Janmashtami. However, for making its instant version cook the milk powder in milkmaid till getting thick. You may try this on any occasion, for any puja or to welcome your guest.

Even you may try some quick sweet recipes from my website

• Milk peda or Doodh peda recipe
• Malpua recipe
• Milk powder gulab jamun recipe

Happy Janmashtami to all of my readers. Prepare this quick and easy sweet at home. Please write down your valuable feedback in the comment box below.

kalakand recipe | Easy kalakand sweet | Milk cake recipe

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30-35 mins

Served in: 35-40 mins

Course: sweet / dessert

Cuisine: North Indian

Servings: 12 pieces

Author: Moumita

Ingredients of kalakand

For making paneer

• 1-liter full-fat milk
• 1 tbsp lemon juice + 1 tbsp water
• 2 cups of water (at room temperature)

For making this sweet

• 1 liter Milk(full-fat milk)
• 200 gms Paneer(from 1 lit milk)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp cardamom powder

How to make kalakand recipe with step by step pictures

Preparation

• Heat 1 lit full-fat milk on medium-high flame. Bring the milk to a boil.
• In the meantime, cut a medium-sized lemon and take out the juice, and add 1 tbsp water to the lemon juice. dilute.
• When the milk froth starts to rise up, slow down the flame to lower the heat and add the lemon juice to the milk.

• Stir the milk, when the milk starts to curdle, immediately turn off the heat.

• Once the greenish whey will be totally separated from the milk.
• Then strain the milk through a cotton cloth or muslin cloth-lined strainer. As shown in the pic.

• Then slowly add 1-2 cups of water to it. Stir the chenna to remove the sourness of the lemon and to release its heat.

• Then take all the edges of the cotton cloth together and make a pouch of it.
• And twist the mouth of this pouch hard, as much as you can.
• But don’t squeeze any other part of this pouch. As shown in the pic.

• When the continuous flow of whey will get stopped and only starts dripping, stop squeezing.
• Then twist the edges of this pouch from both sides ( as shown in the picture below).
• And tightly make a knot with the twisted edges. (as shown in the pic below).

• Now put the pouch on the strainer and put a heavy weight on it to remove the excess water. As shown in the pic below.

• leave the weight for 15-20 mins. As shown in the pic.
• After 20 mins, fresh homemade paneer will be ready for making kalakand sweet.

Making kalakand

• For making kalakand, again heat 1 liter of full-fat milk on medium-high heat. Bring it to a boil.

• Stir the milk and scrape the sides of the pan frequently with a spatula. As shown in the pic.

• Also frequently stir the bottom of the pan to avoid it from burning.
• Let the milk gets evaporated or be reduced to one-fourth (which means around 250 ml) of its actual portion.
• Or when milk is in the stage of forming rabri. As shown in the pic.

• Or when the bottom of the pan will be easily visible while stirring. As shown in the pic.
• This is the right time to add the paneer to the evaporated milk.

• In between, I have already mashed the paneer with the help of my palm heel.
• Already turned the paneer into a soft smooth dough. As shown in the pic.

• Now add the paneer to the pan.

• Then completely mix the paneer with the evaporated milk and stir it continuously.

• Cook the mixture for 3 mins by continuous stirring. And continuously scraping the side of the pan.

• After 3 mins, add 3/4 cup sugar to this mixture. Mix it nicely.

• Once the sugar melts down, the mixture releases water and looks a little syrupy at this stage.

• In this stage, don’t stop stirring to avoid burning. Keep stirring as it will be thick so quickly.

• After 5-6 mins with continuous stirring, bubbles will start forming all over the surface. As shown in the pic.

• Then add the cardamom powder and mix nicely and immediately turn off the heat.

• Make sure moisture should remain in the mixture. As you can see moisture around the mixture in the pan. So don’t let it become more dry.

• Now take a tiffin box or cake tin, and grease well with ghee. Then pour the mixture into the cake tin or tiffin box.

• Then use the spatula to spread the mixture evenly in the greased tin or box.

• Now sprinkle chopped almond and pistachios all over the top of this sweet.
• Then little press the nuts down with a spatula or with your fingers. As shown in the pic.

• Now put it in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2-3 hours. Though I put it overnight.
• Take out the sweet from the refrigerator, and first separate all sides with a knife from the cake tin or tiffin box. As shown in the pics.

• Then cut it into square-like burfi and slowly take it out from the tin or tiffin box one by one. Keep it on another plate.

• Now, this sweet kalakand burfi is ready to serve. Celebrate this festive season with this mouthwatering Indian dessert.

Tips

• Don’t add the sugar at the beginning or while adding the paneer. Always add the sugar later to avoiding become hard or chewy.
• Always add the cardamom powder, at last, to keep the flavor intact.
• From 1 lit of full-fat milk, about 200 gms of paneer can be collected. Though that sometimes varies due to the quality of the milk.
• Must mash the paneer before adding it to the evaporated milk.
• Even you can prepare the paneer last night of making the sweet on the next day. Put the paneer in the refrigerator in an airtight container.