Basundiબાસુંદી
⏱ Prep 5m🍳 Cook 50m🍽 Serves 6🌿 Vegetarian
Video: Hebbars Kitchen (YouTube)
Basundi is Gujarat's silkiest milk dessert — whole milk reduced to half its volume over a patient flame, sweetened with sugar, and perfumed with cardamom and saffron. Served cold in small clay pots at celebrations and religious feasts, it rewards the slow stir with something that feels entirely luxurious without a single complicated technique.
📍 Make it in Plano
This recipe is the same everywhere — but where you buy the ingredients and eat the dish is local to you.
Finding Desi spots near Plano…
Ingredients
- ▪Whole milk (full-fat)1.5 litres
- ▪Sugar5 tbsp, or to taste
- ▪Green cardamom (elaichi), freshly powdered½ tsp
- ▪Saffron strands (kesar / કેસર)a generous pinch
- ▪Warm milk (for blooming saffron)2 tbsp
- ▪Pistachios, blanched and slivered2 tbsp
- ▪Almonds (badam), blanched and slivered2 tbsp
- ▪Charoli seeds (chironji / charoli)1 tbsp
🌍 Cooking abroad? Substitutions
- Charoli (chironji) seeds add a mild, nutty finish and are available at Indian grocery stores; substitute with a few extra blanched almonds if they are hard to source.
- To speed the reduction, stir in 2 tbsp of condensed milk once the milk has halved — this thickens it quickly. Reduce the added sugar accordingly.
- A wide, shallow pan (like a flat-bottomed kadai) reduces the milk much faster than a deep saucepan — the greater surface area matters here.
Method
- 1Bloom the saffron: soak the strands in 2 tbsp of warm milk and set aside for 10 minutes.
- 2Pour the 1.5 litres of milk into a wide, heavy-bottomed pan or low-sided kadai. Bring to a full boil over high heat, stirring constantly to prevent the bottom from scorching.
- 3Reduce heat to medium. Continue cooking, stirring and scraping the sides and base of the pan every 2–3 minutes. Fold the cream layer (malai) that forms on the sides back into the milk rather than letting it collect and burn.
- 4After 30–35 minutes the milk will have reduced to roughly half its volume and turned a pale golden colour with visible cream threads throughout.
- 5Add the sugar and stir until completely dissolved, about 2 minutes. Then add the bloomed saffron with its milk, the cardamom powder, and half the nuts. Cook for 5 more minutes.
- 6Remove from heat. Taste and adjust sugar. The basundi will thicken further as it cools.
- 7Transfer to a serving bowl or individual kulhads (clay cups). Refrigerate for at least 2 hours until cold and set. Serve topped with the remaining slivered pistachios and almonds.
A Desi.Net original recipe · part of our Indian Cuisine library. Confirm details and adjust to taste.