Cornflake Kheer
Toasted cornflakes cooked into sweet milk pudding with cashews and cardamom. One pot, one boil.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 154
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 11 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dessert
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cornflakes | 2 cups | crushed to a coarse meal in the bag |
|---|---|---|
| Whole milk powder | 3/4 cup | stands in for the fresh milk |
| Sugar | 1/3 cup | |
| Ghee | 1 tbsp | shelf-stable, carry in a small screw-top tin |
| Cashew pieces | 1/4 cup | |
| Cardamom powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Melt the ghee in the pot over low heat. Toss in the cashews and stir until they go pale gold, about a minute.
- Add the crushed cornflakes and keep stirring. They toast fast and burn faster. Pull the pot off the flame when they smell nutty.
- Pour in 400 ml of water and bring it to a bare simmer.
- Kill the heat. Whisk in the milk powder a spoonful at a time so it does not clump, then the sugar, cardamom, and salt.
- Let it sit two minutes. The cornflakes soften and the whole thing thickens on its own. Add a splash of water if it goes past pudding into paste.
This is a stovetop kheer built from a source recipe that used fresh milk. Milk powder replaces it, which is the only real change: reconstituting in the pot means you carry the dairy dry and add water at camp. The sugar and fat ratios stay put.
Toasting matters more than it looks. Ghee-fried cornflakes hold their structure in liquid instead of dissolving into sludge, so you get a pudding with texture rather than sweet paste. Cook the flakes past golden and the whole pot tastes scorched. Watch them.
Packing
Crush the cornflakes at home and bag them with the milk powder, sugar, cardamom, and salt. Cashews and ghee ride separate: the nuts stay crunchy and the ghee stays out of everything else.
Variations
- Swap jaggery for the sugar if you want the darker, mineral edge.
- Crushed rusk or plain biscuits work in place of cornflakes and thicken harder.
- Coconut milk powder instead of dairy milk powder makes it vegan and dairy-free.
https://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/17473/cornflakes-payasam