Seven Cup Sweet
Seven Cup Sweet
Ghee, sugar, milk, coconut and gram flour come together in this delightful dessert that has always been a childhood favorite for me! A huge hit among my kids too, this recipe is one of those easy recipes that I use whenever I have to whip up something sweet for family or friends at short notice.
Ingredients (makes around 20 medium sized pieces):
- Gram flour (besan) (1 cup)
- Grated coconut (1 cup)
- Milk (1 cup)
- Ghee (1 cup)
- Sugar (2 cups)
- Cardamom powder (1 pinch)
Note: You may have noticed that the above ingredients add up to 6 (and not 7) cups. The actual recipe demands 3 cups of sugar, but I find that it makes the end product excessively sweet. But feel free to add as much sugar (between 2-3 cups) as you please.
Method:
- Sieve the besan and dry roast it in a heavy bottomed vessel on low to medium heat. Keep stirring constantly to ensure that the besan doesn’t burn. Turn down the heat, based on your comfort level. When the raw smell of the besan goes away and it turns a golden color, turn off the heat.
- Grease a plate with a little bit of ghee and keep it aside.
- Add sugar, coconut, milk and half the ghee to the roasted gram flour and cook on medium heat.
- When bubbles start appearing, add the remaining ghee.
- When the mixture starts leaving the sides of the vessel, turn off the heat and transfer the contents to the greased plate.
- Once the mixture cools down, cut to pieces of desired size.
Variation (white sugar-free version):
- Ingredients are the same, except reduce the amount of ghee to 3/4th cup, replace 2 cups of white sugar with 1 cup of brown sugar and 1 cup of jaggery.
- Method is the same. The burfi won’t be as tough as the white sugar version, it will be softer. You may refrigerate the pieces for about 15-20 minutes after cutting them, if you want them to retain their shape better. Once it cools down completely, the burfi will retain its shape well, so after a few hours itself, you will see a change for the better.
- The taste of this burfi is so different from the white sugar version! It is soft and almost has a melt-in-the-mouth sort of feel to it. A good change from the traditional version, for every once in a while! Obviously, no white sugar is a win-win anyway.
Tastes (Rasa):
Sweet (gram flour, ghee, sugar, coconut, milk), salt (none), sour (none), bitter (none), pungent (cardamom), astringent (none).
Doshic Influence:
This is a highly kapha increasing dish. All the ingredients are highly nourishing and strengthening. The sweet taste is great for both pitta and vata constitutions. But kaphas need to be careful about consuming too much of this. Since the ingredients are so nourishing, this is great for people who are weak and need more grounding, heavy and nutritious foods. It is strength imparting and nourishing, but shouldn’t be consumed in excess. Addition of ghee as the fat makes the dessert more tridoshic in nature. Coconut is nourishing, yet energizing and boosts the metabolism. It is very good for pittas and is very cooling for the liver. It has some kapha aggravating qualities in excess. Only people with an adequate digestive fire (agni) can digest this, so this is contraindicated in cases of weak digestion, even if the person is suffering from weakness, debility etc. Adding cardamom helps in enhancing the digestibility and flavor of this dessert.
Effects on the Mind (Gunas):
In moderation, seven cup is sattvic due to its mild, sweet and nourishing nature. In excess, it will end up becoming tamasic in nature.