barfi an Indian sweetmeat made principally of dried milk (khoya, see milk reduction and indian sweets) with various additions. The name comes from the Persian word for snow, presumably because plain barfi is white and might be thought to resemble snow. In this plain form, barfi is among the simplest of all Indian sweets. It is common, however, for its already pleasant taste to be improved by adding ingredients such as coconut, carrots, pistachios, or white pumpkin, and by spicing with cardamom.
The prepared mixture is simmered until thick, left to cool, and cut into small cubes. The same mixture formed into flat round tablets may be called pera in Bengal and Nepal (echoing the Afghan term sheer pera).
