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EveryCow

Milk sweets

Basundi

Milk reduced to a sweet, pourable cream with cardamom and nuts, a festival dessert of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka.

Basundi is milk simmered until it has thickened and turned a soft cream colour, then sweetened and scented with cardamom, nutmeg or saffron. It is thinner than rabri, with the skins stirred in as they form rather than collected. Served chilled in bowls with chopped almonds and pistachios, it is a dessert of western India, eaten with puris at festival meals.

What goes in

Whole milk: 71%71%Sugar: 14%14%Cardamom and nutmeg: 7%Almonds, pistachios and charoli: 7%4parts
  • Whole milk1071%, Reduced by about half.
  • Sugar214%, Stirred in once thick.
  • Cardamom and nutmeg17%, Grated in at the end.
  • Almonds, pistachios and charoli17%, Scattered on top.

Rough parts by weight. The ring shows each input's share of the product.

Made step by step

Each drawing shows the operation for that step. Quantities and timings differ from house to house and herd to herd; this is one traditional way, in outline.

  1. Step 1: Boil Bring the milk to the boil in a heavy pan.
  2. Step 2: Cook Simmer it gently, stirring in the skin as it forms.
  3. Step 3: Cook When it has reduced by about half, add sugar and cook a little longer.
  4. Step 4: Set Stir in cardamom and nutmeg, then chill.
  5. Step 5: Serve Serve cold in bowls with nuts, alongside hot puris.
  6. Whole milk: 71%71%Sugar: 14%14%Cardamom and nutmeg: 7%Almonds, pistachios and charoli: 7%
    Finished Basundi, by share.

Festival bowls

In Maharashtra and Gujarat basundi appears on the festival thali alongside shrikhand and puran poli, and at weddings and family gatherings. Cooks begin early, because the milk needs a long, gentle simmer. A pinch of charoli seeds is a common Maharashtrian touch. Many cooks make it a day ahead so that it is properly cold for the meal.

Variations

Sitaphal basundi, folded with the pulp of custard apple, is a seasonal favourite in Maharashtra in the autumn months when the fruit is in market. Angoor basundi carries small balls of chhena in the thickened milk. In northern Karnataka, around Belagavi, basundi is part of a wider family of milk sweets that also includes kunda.

Where it is used

With purisFestival thaliWedding dessert

The breeds behind it

GirDairy breed of neighbouring Saurashtra.DeoniDual-purpose breed of the Marathwada plateau.KankrejGujarat breed kept for milk and work.

Also part of it, and being written: Krishna Valley (Breed of the Krishna basin in Maharashtra and Karnataka.).

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Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text and drawings by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. The shares are a rough, illustrative ratio, not a recipe: every family and dairy makes it differently. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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