Badam Kheer Recipe

First we will get the almonds prepped and ready for the recipe. Add about half a cup of almonds to a bowl. These are raw almonds. Do not use roasted almonds for this recipe. Soak the almonds in hot water for about 30 minutes. Soaking the almonds will help peel the skin easily.
The almonds should be easy to peel after soaking. Just press the almonds and the peel should come off easily. Peel the skin of all the almonds and set aside. You can store the almonds in the freezer at this stage and use it whenever required. Peeled almonds come in handy for a lot of recipes.
Add the peeled almonds to a blender. Add about half a cup of milk to it. Grind this to a coarse paste.
It’s important that the paste is ground to a coarse texture. It should resemble the texture of beach sand. Do not grind to a smooth paste. Set aside.

Now let’s make badam kheer.
Add about one litre of milk to a heavy bottomed pan. I like to use full fat milk for making milk based desserts. Full cream milk is preferred for this recipe. Full fat milk will give a nice creamy texture to our finished badam kheer. So always use full fat milk while making Indian desserts. After all, fat is equal to flavour.

Bring the milk to a slow boil. Add in a pinch of saffron to the milk. Mix well to combine. The saffron will stain the milk to a faint yellow colour. If you like your badam kheer to be a little brighter, add a pinch of turmeric. Do not add more or the flavour will change. Try to avoid artificial coloring as much as possible. This badam kheer will not be as bright as the ones you get in restaurants as we have not added any artificial food coloring today. Add a little cardamom powder for flavour and grate a dash of nutmeg using a microplane grater. Use very little nutmeg. Nutmeg has a tendency to overpower, so use just a pinch of it. Mix everything well to combine and let it cook for five minutes. Keep stirring else the milk will scorch at the bottom.
After five minutes of cooking, add in the sugar. I used one third cup of sugar for this recipe today. If you like your badam kheer to be sweeter, add up to half a cup of sugar. Mix well to combine. The milk will become a little watery after adding the sugar. Cook the mixture for about 10 minutes.
Now add in the ground almond paste and mix well. Take some milk and add it to the blender and get all the almond paste sticking to the sides of the jar into the pan. Mix well to combine. Cook this mixture for a couple of more minutes. Taste the milk at this stage and adjust the sugar if needed.
Our delicious badam kheer is ready. Once the badam kheer is cool, refrigerate for atleast six hours and serve chilled.