Kalakand - Milk Fudge

Kalakand is an exotic and traditional sweet made from milk and sugar, ideal for Holi, Navratri and Diwali. It is most popular in Western India and is known as Mawa mishri in Rajasthan and Pal Khoa in South. This recipe is very easy to make, traditionally the sweet is prepared by boiling milk till it thickens, alum is added to the thickened milk and further cooked till it reaches granular stage, at this stage sugar is added and cooked till it leaves the sides of pan or light golden in colour. 

Kalakand is very close to my heart as I love this sweet a lot, my grandpa was a big fan of kalakand and whenever he used to visit us at Hyderabad, it was a custom that he would have kalakand almost everyday. Anand Sweets Kalakand was very famous and I would bet that there was no other place where you would get that succulent and juicy kakaland, I learnt this sweet from Anand Uncle owner of Anand Sweets. He said that the key to the great and juicy kalakand is cooking in slow flame, continuously stirring to get smooth granular.

Sending this post to :

• Gayatri of Gayatri's Cook Spot and Asiya's page for the event Walking Through the memory lane WTML
• Foodabulous Feast Event organized by Preeti of Simply Tadka and hosted by Swetha's Vegetarian Cuisine
• Spotlight - Festive Treats organized by Riappyayan and hosted by Chandrani of Cuisine Delight Blog for the event 

My recipe is sticking to our tradition so i have done the good old way to make this sweet. 

Preparation time : 10 mins

Cooking time : 1 hr

Makes : 250 gms / 8 peices

Ingredients : 

• 1 litre / 4 cups full cream milk
• 1/8 tsp alum powder (phitkiri)
• 2 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp ealichi powder
• 15 pistachios silvered
• 1/2 tsp ghee to grease pan

Method : 

1. Boil milk in heavy bottom pan or non stick pan on medium flame till it reduces to half or thickens. This will take approx 20 mins.
2. Add alum powder dissolved in 2 tbsp water to the milk stirring continuously till it becomes granular.
3. Cook till it reaches mawa texture i.e. till the moisture evapourates and become semi solid.
4. At this point add sugar, ealichi powder and  cook for 8 - 10 mins on slow flame. 
5. Once the mixture leaves sides of pan, transfer it to greased tray, level the surface and sprinkle pistachios.
6. Let it cool, it takes 2 hrs to set or you can keep in fridge for an hour for quick set. Once set cut into desired shapes. 
7. Enjoy the yummy and delicious sweet.