
Proso Millet Jaggery Burfi
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min · Servings not given in the source
Make
Ingredients
- proso millet flour — 1 cup
- powdered jaggery — 1/2 cup
- ghee — 2 tsp (plus a little to grease the plate)
- water — 1/4 cup
- cardamom powder — 1/8 tsp
- almonds — 1 tsp (sliced)
Method
- Smear a plate with a little ghee and set it aside.
- Heat the jaggery with the 1/4 cup water until the syrup reaches one-thread consistency, and set it aside.
- Warm a little ghee in a pan and roast the millet flour until it smells nutty.
- Pour in the jaggery syrup with the cardamom and stir quickly.
- Add the rest of the ghee and keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes, until the mass pulls away from the pan.
- Spread it on the greased plate, press the almonds on top, let it cool and cut into squares.
Tips
- General practice: strain the jaggery syrup if the jaggery has grit in it.
Fresh atta: grind small, use soon
- Millets keep for months as whole grain; flour is best ground as it is needed, because it turns rancid. (FAO, Sorghum and millets in human nutrition (1995))
- Bajra changes fastest: its grain stores for months, but its milled flour has a very short shelf life. (ICAR-IIMR scientists, Food Chemistry Advances (2023) (DOI 10.1016/j.focha.2023.100190))
- In an Indian study, untreated bajra flour stayed within the quality limit only about 2 days at room temperature. (ICAR-IARI, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2016))
- Ragi flour keeps better than foxtail, barnyard or bajra flour (it carries less fat). (Planta (2024), review)
- Keep atta closed and cool: bajra flour kept best in polythene and worst in gunny sacks; grains should be dry and in airtight containers. (Chaudhary & Kapoor, J Sci Food Agric (1984); ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines (2024) (DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2740351113))
- Going off shows first as smell and taste — sour, musty or dusty, then bitter. (Lai & Varriano-Marston, Cereal Chemistry (1980))
So: buy the grain, grind a week’s worth at a time — less for bajra in summer.
Recipe from ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Millet Recipes (2021), PDF p. 141 (printed p. 139), written in our own words.