The holiday season is here! Yes the holidays begin early in our Indian household since Diwali, the festival of lights is usually around end of October or beginning of November. The dates of Diwali change every year since it’s based on the Hindu calendar. There are two important things to remember about Diwali – One, it’s a festival of lights (yes, lots of earthen lamps or divas throughout the house and two, lots of sweets!
I have been continuing both of the above traditions in our home every year. I make a lot of different homemade Indian sweets and savory snacks and distribute them as a platter to our close friends. Since the past few years, I have been trying to create AIP versions of a lot of the traditional dairy based sweets.
Barfi is such a type of sweet which is in the form of a dense bar usually made from milk and / milk solids. Coconut Barfi is made using freshly grated coconut or desiccated coconut. However it also contains milk and refined white sugar. Because of the white sugar used, coconut barfi is usually snowy white and looks beautiful! I knew it would be challenging to create a snowy white coconut barfi without white sugar. Hence I decided not to go that route. LOL! I knew that maple syrup (my favorite sweetener!) would give it a golden hue and so I decided to further complement that color by adding saffron for flavoring. Traditionally cardamom is used for flavoring coconut barfi. But in my AIP version, I thought saffron would be perfect!
There was another reason for using saffron. One of my friends had gifted me this beautiful saffron tin last month. So I thought it would be perfect to use that in this barfi! So here it is – my saffron flavored coconut barfi, that is super yummy! It is also so easy to make! Hope you enjoy it! Happy Diwali!
I also made a video for this recipe. Check it out below:
You may want to check out other Diwali sweets I have shared over the years:
Grain free Gujiyas (Paleo, AIP, Vegan)
Chocolate Coconut Truffles (Paleo, AIP, Keto)
Sweet Potato Kheer (Paleo, AIP, Vegan)
Kaju Barfi with Honey || Kaju Katli || Cashew Nut Fudge (Refined Sugar Free, Vegan, Paleo)
Walnut Barfi || Walnut Fudge (Paleo, Vegan)
- 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- ¼ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 3 cups shredded coconut (I like 'Let's do Organic' brand)
- ½ tsp crushed saffron threads
- Additional 1 tbsp of coconut oil
- Line a 8 inch by 8 inch square brownie pan with parchment paper. Keep aside.
- Heat a medium size stainless steel saute pan. Add the coconut oil, coconut milk, maple syrup and salt. Stir slowly to mix. Add 2 cups of the shredded coconut and stir carefully to incorporate with the liquid mixture. Slowly add the 3 rd cup of shredded coconut and mix again carefully to get all the coconut mixed with the wet ingredients. Continue to stir on low heat for another 2 minutes until you get a fully cohesive mixture. Turn heat off.
- Place saffron threads in between two parchment paper sheets and lightly crush them using a pestle or a rolling pin. Add the crushed saffron into the coconut mixture and add the additional coconut oil and stir again slowly while the mixture is still hot.
- Dump the above mixture into the parchment lined pan. Use the back of a spoon or a cup to spread the mixture evenly in the pan.
- Refrigerate for at least one hour before cutting into squares. Place back in the refrigerator until serving.
