Recipes: Chef Ranveer Brar's Chocolate Barfi, Elaichi Peda

Take your celebrations a notch higher with these enticing homemade desserts.

Chef Ranveer Brar's Chocolate Elaichi Peda uses crushed Marie biscuits instead of khoya or mava (solid milk).

Chocolate Barfi takes under 30 minutes to make, from start to finish, and can be rustled up before your guests arrive.

Chef Brar, who graduated from the Institute of Hotel Management, Lucknow, has worked with the Taj in Goa and Radisson in Noida and spent a stint in Boston running his restaurant Banq, that served fusion French-Asian food.

Chocolate Elaichi Peda

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 150 ml chocolate syrup
• 300 gm Marie biscuits
• 150 ml condensed milk
• 1 tsp green elaichi or cardamom powder
• 50 gm desiccated coconut
• 10 gm sliced pistachios
• Butter or ghee, for moulding

Method

• In a food processor or blender, crush to a fine powder the Marie biscuits.
  Transfer the crushed biscuits into a mixing bowl.
  Add the chocolate syrup, condensed milk, cardamom powder.
  Mix the ingredients thoroughly to form a dough.
• Apply butter or ghee on your palms and divide the mixture into equal portions.
  Form smooth round balls and flatten to resemble pedas.
  Tuck the desiccated coconut and pistachios into the centre and pat close.
  Refrigerate a few hours and serve chilled.

Editor's Note: For low sugar peda, use unsweetened chocolate syrup and coconut cream instead of evaporated milk.

For a vegan version, substitute evaporated milk with coconut cream and use vegan chocolate syrup. Hershey's chocolate syrup is, for instance, vegan.

Chocolate Barfi

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients

• 120 grams mava or milk solid, preferably the feeka or thin variety
• 40 ml chocolate syrup
• 20 ml water
• 80 gm + 40 gm crumbled sevaiya, that has been sauteed in ghee (or substitute with sprinkles, preferably white or chocolate, or use grated desiccated coconut)
• Vanilla essence
• Almond and pistachio slivers, for garnish
• Vark or silver foil, for garnish

Method

• In a frying pan over low-medium heat, combine the mava, chocolate syrup with the water.
  Add 80 gm of the sevaiya or sprinkles, vanilla essence and mix well to form a thick mixture.
  Take off heat and transfer into a 6-inch ring mould.
  Add the remaining sevaiya and set.
  Garnish with the nuts before serving.

Editor's note: To reduce the sugar content in this recipe, opt for unsweetened chocolate syrup and add stevia powder. Each brand of stevia has its own stevia for sugar substitution ratio provided on its packing.

Chef Ranveer Brar is an author, MasterChef India judge and restaurateur with over 25 years of experience in the food industry.

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