Kalakand Milk Cake Recipe

Made by reducing whole milk with little cream-of-tartar sugar and nuts

Kalakand is a milk cake. When I was growing up in Rajasthan, this used be just a sweetened granular reduced whole milk. On Krishna Janam Ashtami, whenever, I visited Mathura, the same dish was dressed up with nuts and silver foil. Here, I will give you the recipe as it used to be available in Mathura in late 1940s.

Ingredients

1. Whole milk: 1 Gallon
2. Cream of tartar: ½ teaspoon
3. Water: 1 Cup
4. Sugar: 2 Cups
5. Slivered Almonds: ¼ Cup
6. Chopped Pistachio nuts: ¼ Cup
7. Silver foil

Method

Step 1: In a heavy bottom pan, heat milk to about 180º F. Adjust your heat to maintain this temperature. Stir occasionally, reducing milk to about half the volume.
Step 2: Stir tartar of cream to the water. We will call this 'acid water'.
Step 3: Add ½ cup of acid water to the milk being reduced. You will notice milk coagulation taking place. Cook about 6 minutes.
Step 4: Add the remaining acid water. Continue cooking at 180º F till the mixture is reduced to about 5 cups.
Step 5: Add sugar. continue cooking till all the sugar is consumed. The result is sticky paste. It will take about 10 minutes.
Step 6: Pour the mixture in a pan. Level the top with a spatula. Sprinkle nuts. Press the nuts into the mixture with spatula and smooth the top surface, Apply the silver foil. Let it cool. With a sharp knife cut the milk cake as 2" squares.