Calories in Phirni

Phirni is rice ground to a coarse paste and cooked slowly in milk until it sets. The recipe behind this figure uses 20 g of rice, 250 g of milk and 1.5 tablespoons of sugar for one bowl, which is more rice than the rice kheer in the same set and the same sugar. Lined up from lightest to heaviest, it is 18th of the 20 sweets, above every kheer and below only suji halwa and kesari bath. That describes a full dessert bowl. Phirni sold in a shikora or kulhad is typically a smaller portion, while a restaurant serving finished with cream, khoya or a thick layer of nuts can be richer spoon for spoon.

Carbohydrate supplies 55% of the energy because phirni has both the sugar and a real measure of rice. Fat gives 33% and protein 12%. The fat and most of the 10.1 g of protein come from the milk. Nothing in the recipe is fried and there is no ghee, so the only ways the bowl gets heavier are richer milk, more sugar, or toppings.

At 337 kcal, one bowl is about 16% of a sedentary man's daily energy requirement and 20% of a woman's. Two bowls come to 674 kcal. Phirni usually follows a rich meal of biryani or kebabs, which is exactly when a full bowl is hardest to fit. Half a bowl is about 168 kcal and still gives the taste and the cold, grainy texture people want from it. The 10.1 g of protein is a real contribution, but fibre is only 1 g.

A bowl of this phirni is counted at 31.3 g of sugars, a figure that includes milk's own sugar with the 1.5 tablespoons added, and at 12.6 g of fat, which is milk fat. Ground rice cooked soft in sweetened milk is digested quickly. Anyone whose blood sugar is being managed by a doctor or dietitian should take their advice on whether and how much phirni fits, and should count the whole bowl, not only the sugar.