Kaju Katli - Indian Cashew Fudge

I’ve never made fudge before and so it might be natural to start with a more traditional chocolatey fudge.   Of course, this is not what I decided to do.  Pregnancy has put me off sweet things and I know with Christmas coming up I’m going to have lots of chance to eat chocolate whether I want to or not.   Well actually, I always want to, it’s only afterwards that I regret it.   But what else is Christmasy besides chocolate?    Nuts of course,   and so I set about finding a recipe for a nutty fudge.  I came across this recipe on Richa’s blog, Hobby and More and I knew straightaway that it was the one I wanted to make.  The fudge was cut into cute little diamonds with a pistachio on top of each piece.  Richa has been blogging for about 4 years and her blog focuses on healthy vegan recipes, many of them Indian.  This particular fudge could also be made with almonds or peanuts or with a different spice instead of cardamom.   Because it looks so pretty, it also makes a great homemade Christmas present.

One of the reasons I decided to make fudge this week was so I could take part in Tina’s Crazy Cooking Challenge at Mom’s Crazy Cooking.  The idea behind it is that each month there is a theme and bloggers search other blogs to find a recipe to make and post about.

I was amazed that my finished fudge looked exactly the same as in the original picture.  Taste and texturewise, I would describe it as being similar to marzipan but with a subtle hint of cardamom.  I found as I was mixing in the ground cashew to the sugar, that the mixture began to solidify before all the cashew was mixed in and so I added about 1/2 tbsp of water and that allowed it to keep a soft dough-like texture and for all the ground cashew to be added.

Ingredients

120g raw cashew nuts

100ml water

3 1/2 tbsp caster sugar

1 cardamom pod

How to make Indian Cashew Fudge

1. Put the water and sugar in a small saucepan and leave to boil.   Don’t stir or it will crystallise.

2. Put the cashew nuts in spice grinder or blender and grind to a powder.

3. Remove the seeds from inside the cardamom pod and crush to a powder using a pestle and mortar.

4. Stop boiling the sugar when it begins to form threads when you dip a spoon in.   Take off the heat.   Add a pinch of the ground cardamom.    Then the ground cashew and stir in quickly.   It should be the consistency of a thick dough.  Add a splash of water if it won’t all combine.

5. Put the dough onto greaseproof paper and flatten until it is about 1/2 to 1 cm thick.   Leave to cool for half an hour in the fridge.

6. Cut into diamond shapes and top each one with a pistachio.   Store in a cool place.

To see what other people have made for the fudge challenge click on the link below:

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