Instant Badam Milk Powder - Step by step - Friendship 5 Series

    Happy to post my first entree to the "friendship 5 Series" . This is an interesting series, where we post 5 recipes per month on one theme. The thought of making some recipes will always be in our minds, but some or the other we will postponing . That particular thought made me to think about this event. So we are going to post recipes on the theme " Home made powders" this month.

      When we think of home made powders there are so many of them, we would have been buying it from shop. Though those store bought powders are good, but not too good. They are not economical too. So making at home is too good ,economical and fresh . Today's recipe instant badam milk powder is very easy, nutritious and tasty. I have tried store bought badam milk powders. They don't taste good. They have preservatives too. Its easy to prepare the badam milk powder.Badam milk can be prepared within 5 minutes for our guests, if we have this powder at home. Kids will love the flavour.

Ingredients:
1.Almonds (Badam) - 1/4 cup or 20 pieces
2.Cashews - 10 pieces
3.Pistachios - 2 tbsp ( crushed)
4.Dried Dates - 4 (seedless)
5.Saffron - a pinch
6.Cardamom - 2

Method:

* Since I didn't have dried dates with me, just dried some fresh dates. Cut the dates into small pieces and keep in your counter top, overnight. It will dry beautifully.If you don't have time, then just dry roast them on  a  tawa.

* Take a pan, heat it well. Now turn off the heat and drop the saffron strands in it. This will make the saffron strands to toast. It will be easy for us to powder these strands.Don't try to roast the saffron strands in direct flame, then it will start to blacken quickly.

* Take 1/4 cup sugar to add it to the blender. Amount of sugar depends on how much sweet tooth you have. If you find the sugar level is les, you can add to the milk, when you are about to prepare "Badam milk".

* Now cool the saffron strands and transfer it to the blender along with almonds,pistachios,cashes, dried dates sugar and cardamom pods. Pulse them to form a smooth powder.Store this powder in a air tight container or a ziploc and store it in refrigirator .

To prepare Badam milk !!!

  When we are about to prepare the badam milk, just heat the milk very well. It should be thickened to some extent. Then add a spoon or more to the milk and stir. Adjust sugar to your taste. Serve hot or chilled. I loved both. In the below picture, the first cup is light in colour, because I added one tsp of badam milk powder. But in the second cup, I have added more than 1 tsp and hence the dark colour. So it depends how much deep colour you want your badam milk to be.

    In the below picture, the first cup is made out of 2 tsp of badam milk powder. The second glass has only 1 tsp of badam milk powder. The more we add the powder, the darker colour we get.

Notes:

* We can add some dried fruits like prunes to the mix. We can alter the amount of cashew or pistachios, but make sure the amount of almonds should be more.

* The badam milk powder should be kept in refrigerator .

* We can also blanch the almonds and toast them in a pan. We can also toast the other ingredients in a pan or in a microwave.

* Add the sugar according to your taste.

* The saffron and cardamom can also be added ,while preparing the milk. 

* It stays fresh for about a month in the refrigerator.

Linking this to "Friendship 5 Series " started by me and Geetha Achal