Almond bites

Almonds are my favourite to say.. Badam katli and Badam burfi are my son's favourite sweets. I make them very often because he loves them. I thought why not give it a twist by trying out something else other than the routine badam katli/badam burfi. This idea came to my mind and after some trials, I got it right. I'm sharing the same thing in this post as well..

Ingredients:

• Powdered almonds - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Water - 3 tbsps
• Dark chocolate - 100 gms, grated

Making Almond bites:

• Take sugar in a pan and add enough water just to immerse the sugar. Do not add more water as it takes long to get required consistency. Cook on low flame stirring the sugar so that it dissolves faster.
• In about 3 minutes, check the sugar syrup between your fingers. If it's 1 thread consistency, it's done. 
  
• Add the powdered almonds to the sugar syrup and mix well until the mixture comes together.Transfer it to a plate greased with ghee and let it cool a bit. Knead the mixture until it's smooth without cracks.

• Take small portions of the almond mixture and stuff into half of each chocolate molds. If desired, the moulds can be greased with little ghee.
  
• Melting the chocolate: Heat little water in a vessel. Keep another vessel over it which fits properly. Take the grated chocolate in the vessel above and let it melt slowly, until no chocolate pieces are seen. Chocolate should be melted this way, indirectly, to avoid burning. Once melted completely, take it out from heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.
  
• After 5 minutes, take the moulds into which almonds mixture is stuffed and pour the melted chocolate over each mould until it's almost full.
  
• Pat the mould twice on to the table, to level the melted chocolate. Remove the excess chocolate by scraping with a rubber spatula.
  
• Pop the mould into the refrigerator for 30 minutes. After 30 mins, chocolate will be hardened. Now, gently take out the almond bites from each mould. Our pretty little chocolate almond bites are now ready.. Note: Silicone chocolate moulds work the best.
  

This recipe is a super hit at my home. My kids couldn't wait until I finished taking photographs of these tiny hearts.. Since this recipe requires very little amount of sugar and with the addition of dark chocolate, it doesn't make us feel too guilty in relishing them.. So, give it a try and let me know how it turned out..