Basundi

Basundi is a dessert from western India made by reducing milk and sweetening it. It is popular in Gujarat, Maharashtra and parts of Karnataka. Rather than being cooked down until firm, the milk is finished at a pourable thickness, with the thin skin that forms on its surface mixed in as fine pieces and aromas such as nuts and cardamom layered over it.

Basundi from Salem, Tamil Nadu. Photo: Thamizhpparithi Maari, 2015. Reduced-size version from the distributor used; no content changes after retrieval (source, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Reducing the milk and stirring the skin back in

When milk is kept heating in a pot, a thin film forms on the surface and the sides. This film is called milk skin. For basundi, rather than lifting this film off and stacking it in large layers, the cook keeps peeling it off or breaking it into small pieces and returning it to the milk. While the water is reduced, the milk skin is mixed finely throughout.

As the milk reduces, the solids on the bottom scorch more easily. Rather than just stirring now and then, the cook adjusts the thickness while also stirring back in the milk solids that cling to the sides of the pot. Some versions use cow’s milk and others use buffalo milk, and the mouthfeel changes with the fat content of the milk and the way it is reduced.

How it differs from rabri

Rabri from North India is also a dish of sweetened, reduced milk. However, whereas rabri is thick and built from stacked layers of large milk skin, basundi usually has fine milk skin and retains a pourable thickness. Although the ingredients are similar, the way the skin that forms on the surface is handled leads to the difference in texture.

In methods using buffalo milk, there are also examples in which the film that forms on the surface is pushed to the rim of the pot and stirred back in as fine pieces once the milk has thickened. The difference is not whether milk skin is formed, but whether it is kept as large layers or scattered as fine pieces.

Sugar is added partway through or toward the end of reducing the milk, and the aroma is rounded out with cardamom, nutmeg, saffron and the like. The basundi is finished so that it does not become too thick while hot, taking into account its consistency once it has cooled.

Modern methods using condensed milk

Today there are also quick methods that combine sweetened condensed milk with milk. Instead of reducing milk for a long time, this method uses milk that has already been concentrated. The fine, grainy texture of reduced milk and the smooth finish obtained with condensed milk are not necessarily the same. Both are made as basundi.

Adding fruit or floating small sweets

Basundi also includes sitafal basundi, to which custard apple pulp is added, and angoor basundi, in which small rasgulla float. Adding fruit spreads its flavor through the dessert, and floating soft, round sweets in it offers a texture different from that of the fine milk skin.

Sitafal basundi and the fruit. Photo: Zeel Patel, 2014, location unknown. Original image used (source, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Puri and the after-meal bowl

Besides being served chilled and scattered with nuts, basundi is sometimes eaten warm with a fried bread called puri. In addition to scooping it with a spoon, you can dip bread into it to enjoy the sweet milk. In the home of Hayley Dhanecha, a cook with roots in Gujarat, cold basundi and freshly fried puri are set out together on the thali for special occasions. When she makes it in the UK, adding fresh cream at the end of reducing the milk to boost its richness is a technique she inherited from her mother.

Puri being fried in Kolkata. Photo: Ravi Dwivedi, 2022. Reduced-size version from the distributor used; no content changes after retrieval (source, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Glossary