Instant Badam Barfi

Badam (almonds) and Kaju (cashew) barfi are amongst my favorite Indian sweets. I tried many times to make this in my kitchen and it was a disaster. The reasons for the disaster - I couldnt wait long enough for the milk and sugar to solidify or didnt grind the nuts properly. I almost gave up on making barfi at home until I noticed the instant barfi recipe in "Neelam Batra's" 1000 Indian recipes book at my friends place. It sounded super easy and I had to try it. The results were good - the consistency/texture of the barfi was perfect though in the taste department I think it falls a little below the original barfi recipe. I tweaked the amount of sugar and milk powder reported in the original recipe. Also, the "how to" doesnt include any use of butter/ghee - without the butter the mix is too dry to have barfi texture. For all the instant recipe lovers, here we go

Ingredients (makes about 15 barfis):
1. 1.5 cups roasted almonds - ground into fine powder
2. 3/4 cup powdered sugar or use splenda
3. 1/2 cup instant dry milk powder (available in the cake aisle in grocery stores)
4. lots of ghee or butter(about 4-5 tbsp)

Combine ingredients 1-3 (dry ingredients) and add 2 tbsp of ghee and water until the dry mix forms a dough (like a chapathi/roti dough). Knead the dough with the rest of the ghee. The dough can be rolled onto a flat surface and cut into the traditional diamond shape pieces or as shown above rolled into balls and pressed down with dry fruits (raisins or cherries). Infact as I write this, I think even a chocolate filling in the middle of the barfi will taste wonderful! I haven't used the silver leaves for garnish - which could make this instant dessert look even more pretty.

Few observations:
1. The nuts (pistachios, almonds or cashews) must be ground to a fine powder for the barfi to have perfect texture.
2. The barfi will dry out if ghee or butter is not added. I havent tried it but heavy whipping cream/condensed milk could be added instead of water