Easy to do Coconut Burfi recipe. Thengai burfi as its called in Tamilnadu, this is a delicious never fail dessert sweet. Burfi made with milk. With step by step pictures.
Beginners Recipe! Easy to do 4 ingredient Coconut Burfi recipe. Coconut Barfi made with milk. Indian desserts can be daunting and difficult. But this one is such a winner. I had this Coconut Burfi back home at Vinodh’s place this time when we had gone for his sisters wedding. His elder sister Padma akka had brought these wonderful burfi’s. It was the soft and fudgy oooey gooey kind. She always brings some little nibbles for the family all the time. She is a great cook. I had these and I loved it so much. First, I had one, then another and then some. It was irresistible. It was so good that the big box of burfi which was supposed to have been our big family’s dessert was over even before we started lunch. Her recipes are a huge hit among us. She loves to entertain and I have seen her cooking for 20-30 people with such ease, it feels that she is cooking only for four. A very high energy person who is always on the move doing something. She describes this burfi as one pot burfi. Its really hard to mess up as this recipe is very forgiving. Here is an awesome Coconut Burfi recipe.
Things to keep in mind while making this Burfi
If the mixture is furiously bubbling up while cooking, reduce the flame to low and cook on low flame.
The timing may not be exact as each and every stove is different. Its only an approximate gauge. Look for the texture as mentioned in the picture at each stage.
Be Patient! Remember, Indian Sweets are a labor of love.
Note on Fresh Shredded Coconut: Please shred only the white part of the coconut meat being careful not to scrape out the brown outer skin. The brown part is hard and does not give a smooth mouth feel for the burfi. So spend time to get rid of the brown skin. Shred the coconut and set aside. We will need 3 cups. I used about 1.5 big coconut for this recipe.
The Recipe
Take a wide pan and add in the milk, sugar and fresh shredded coconut. Keep the pan on stove and start stirring on medium flame. If the milk boils over, try to reduce the flame to low for a couple of minutes and increase the flame again. Keep stirring.
It will start to bubble up after 15 minutes. The mixture will be watery at this moment. If at any point of time, the milk boils over, try to reduce the flame to low for a couple of minutes and increase the flame again.
After 30 minutes, add in the ghee and continue to stir. The mixture will slowly start to thicken up. Lot of patience. Lot of patience. Remember, good things take time.
After 45 minutes, the mixture would start drying up. It will be gooey at this stage.
After one hour, the mixture would have dried considerably and there would not be any liquid left. It will be like the consistency of wet sand. Switch off the flame.
Apply ghee to a quarter sheet pan and dump the hot coconut burfi mixture on the sheet pan and spread it evenly with a spatula. Allow it to cool for one hour.
Mark with a knife and gently remove each piece to a serving plate or a storage container.
The burfi will keep in the refrigerator for up-to a week. Serve cold or at room temperature. You can sprinkle finely shredded pistachios as a garnish.
Happy Cooking!
- Measurements Used - 1 Cup = 250ml
- 4 cups (1 liter) Milk
- 3 Cups Fresh shredded Coconut (white part only)
- 2½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons ghee
- 1 tablespoon ghee for sheet pan
- Shredded Pistachio for garnish
- Take a wide pan and add in the milk, sugar and fresh shredded coconut. Keep the pan on stove and start stirring on medium flame. If the milk boils over, try to reduce the flame to low for a couple of minutes and increase the flame again. Keep stirring.
- It will start to bubble up after 15 minutes. The mixture will be watery at this moment. If at any point of time, the milk boils over, try to reduce the flame to low for a couple of minutes and increase the flame again.
- After 30 minutes, add in the ghee and continue to stir. The mixture will slowly start to thicken up. Lot of patience. Lot of patience. Remember, good things take time.
- After 45 minutes, the mixture would start drying up. It will be gooey at this stage.
- After one hour, the mixture would have dried considerably and there would not be any liquid left. It will be like the consistency of wet sand. Switch off the flame.
- Apply ghee to a quarter sheet pan and dump the hot coconut burfi mixture on the sheet pan and spread it evenly with a spatula. Allow it to cool for one hour.
- Mark with a knife and gently remove each piece to a serving plate or a storage container.
- The burfi will keep in the refrigerator for up-to a week. Serve cold or at room temperature. You can sprinkle finely shredded pistachios as a garnish.
Just wondering if u forgot to mention cardamom, or does this sweet not require any additional flavoring?
Excellent narration. Thank u so much. Though
basically I am an electrical engineer , my first and foremost interest only on cooking, especially making sweet. I am already master in making mysorepak ( my mum used to temple me). So planning to prepare for deepavali. My wife’s very favourite sweet is dis.
Hope will make it perfect. Will send u feedback after making.
Thanx once again.
It looks yummy n mouth watering. But can we use dry coconut for same. Will it taste good?
Love ur reciepes.. Tried coconut stew for appam and tomato rice with coconut milk and paruppu poli , all were awesome.. Great reciepes and thanks for ur recipes.
Could u pls clarify when sugar has to be added in coconut burfi please..
You can add everything in the beginning!
Is the ‘fresh’ coconut the green or dried brown nut? How do you shred it?
Have messaged you 🙂
Hi Suguna,
This looks delicious. I am planning to make it for a bigger crowd for chathurthi. Can we do it the opos way. I know only the sugar syrup hack. How to go about with rest of the ingredients?
Hello , doubled the recipe and made it . Came out very well . It’s addictively delicious. Thank you for sharing the recipe .
Thank you Indrani.
Hello ,
Very delicious recipe. Please clarify below
1. Should boiled and cooled milk to be used or raw milk?
2. Should the stirring be continuous without taking off hands? No 5 minutes few minutes excuses?
Thanks
Priya
Hi Priya, raw milk is fine as you are cooking for a long time.
Point 2. haha 5 minutes is ok. But have an eye now and then as milk solids can scorch easily.
Thank you so much.
Haven’t tried this recipe before.
I’m sure it’s yummy
It is very yummy. I love burfi very much. Its a great treat for me. Thank u so much mam.
Thank you so much. Really glad that you liked it!
my burfi came out too hard. could you tell me how to soften it? thanks,
The cooking should stop when the consistency of the burfi is that of wet sand. If the cooking continues, the burfi becomes hard. May be watch for the consistency next time.
thank you for your tip. but is there anyway to fix the ones that i already made? i made a lot 🙁
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks,
Hi. I made this burfi today and it turned out super yummy. Very much happy with d burfi. Thanks fr sharing this wonderful recipe to all of us. U make our lives easier and soulful with delicious food.. lots of prayers and love from Coimbatore.
Thank you so much Sundari! Your words mean a lot to me. Happy Deepavali to you and your family!
Hi Kannama: After the roaring success of tomato chutney that I tried last week, I am so excited about trying every recipe on your blog! Regarding this coconut burfi, i love that it is simple even if time consuming. One clarifying question- would frozen coconut work (I live in US and sometimes good coconuts are not so readily available)or will the taste and texture be not to the mark? Thank you so much for all your stupendous work.
Yes Studentsim. You can use frozen coconut. Thaw and proceed with the recipe.
Hi suguna
Thank you for the wonderful recipe, came out very well!! 🙂
Thank you!
Hi,
I wanted to try your burfi . I wanted to reduce the quantity . If I take 2 cups of milk can I add 1 cup of coconut? Will that work
Tnx for this wonderful recipe
The original recipe has
4 cups (1 liter) Milk
3 Cups Fresh shredded Coconut (white part only)
2½ cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons ghee
1 tablespoon ghee for sheet pan
Shredded Pistachio for garnish
You can just Halve the recipe exactly.
Hi
I tried ur coconut burfi it was awesome. It really encourages us to cook n serve love with food keep going
I am great follower of ur page
Thank you so much Anu!
Hi suguna,
Can we prepare it with dry coconut without skin(koppara thengai)?
Dry coconut doesnt work well for this recipe.
Thanks for this awesome detailed recipe kannamma. Tried for the first time. It tasted awesome and consistency was perfect. Soft and juicy. The store bought ones used to be dry. But your recipe again created that magic.
Thank you. Its so awesome isn’t it. Its a family favorite.
Hi, we made coconut barf but it’s too soft. How can we fix it so it’s barf consistency. We left to dry for more than 2 hrs but is soft like spread. We made it from milk and condense milk.
Thanks
There is no condensed milk used in the recipe spatel. May be you can simmer in a pan for another 10 more minutes to thicken up!
Hi Suguna,
Thanks for your reply. I will try with skimmed milk next time and let you know how I go.
Happy Deepavali to you & to your family.
Regards
Neela
Happy Deepavali to you & to your family Neela!
Hi Suguna,
i tried this recipe today. But it didn’t end up in white colour like yours. You mentioned that it will reach the consistency of wet sand. But it didn’t come up for me like that. Since i kept it in the stove for a little while to get that consistency, it ended up in a caramel colour. But still I didn’t get that consistency. I used the same measurement what is in your recipe. Don’t know why I didn’t get that white colour. Please advise.
Thanks
Neela
Hi Neela, you need to keep continuously stirring else it will burn at the bottom. May be that’s the reason why the mixture turned caramel.
Suguna again a great recipe. Thank you for the specific and encouraging directions. We are planning our Deepavali celebration and my boys requested a sweet. I have never made Indian sweets. This appears quite doable. I love the idea of it as a meditation too. Also is the milk whole milk or can I use another fat content?
Thank you again.
Thanks Elisabeth. I used whole milk for the recipe. There is not much of fat (compared to other indian sweets) going in the recipe other than the little ghee. So go for whole milk.
Hi Suguna,
Thanks for your prompt reply. As you mentioned, I was stirring continously only. But after I sent a query to you, I realised that I used full cream milk. Here in Australia, full cream milk is really creamy and in the final stage, cream stayed behind with the coconut and never gave me a wet sand consistency. Since I tried to leave it in the stove for little longer to get that consistency, it became caamelised, I think. Don’t you think like that too? Otherwise, it taste nice only.
Thanks
Neela
Yes Neela, maybe that’s the reason.
Sugu sis. Vanakkam. Had been thinking of coconut burfi to make for diwali. But didn’t have d recipe. Its like SECRET OF SUCCESS working deary. My paati used to make lovely burfi and wheat halwa every diwali. She would call thatha for cutting the fudge, as you say. He would do it like meditation.I would sit beside him and watch . Those were the days. …and I am just trying to give at least ten percent of our childhood happiness to my boy. Your blog does a lot of help…A LOT. I fell in love with your blog. There are trillion websites. Why KC happened to me… Happy diwali wishes to each and everyone in your Real Super Big family.
Thank you so much Andal. I am so happy that you remembered your grand parents. Food is nothing but memories as they say! Thank you so much for your words. It means a lot to me. A very Happy Happy Deepavali to you and your family too.
Came through Kannur Food Guide and I can’t stop browsing… First of all, I love your homely blog name, sounds really cute… 🙂 These coconut burfis look absolutely delicious for all that hard work… I wouldn’t really mind sitting and having that complete plate all by myself… Will keep coming in for more…
Thank you so much Rafeeda. Kannamma is my real name! 🙂 Your words mean a lot to me. happy cooking.