SANDESH / BENGALI NOLEN GURER SANDESH ( COTTAGE CHEESE FUDGE WITH DATE PALM JAGGERY )

Sandesh is the most popular Bengali Sweet which is made with paneer  and sugar. It contains minimum ingredients but is a really tasty sweet. No matter the occasion, Bengali people always have Sandesh in their celebration.  There are many types of Sandesh available in West Bengal. Today I am going to make  Sandesh made from Date Palm Jaggery;it is a very special kind. Date Palm Jaggery is only available during the winter in West Bengal. When I was in Delhi I used to go to CR Park from Dwarka just for this sweet. This light dessert will render you speechless.

 Serving -12 Sandesh

Ingredients

1 liter Milk

½ tbsp vinegar

 1-2 tbsp sugar (optional)

4 tbsp gur (Date plam jaggery )

½ tsp cardamom powder

Chopped pista for garnishing

Procedure

Boil the milk in a heavy bottomed pan and bring it to boil completely. Reduce the flame and add vinegar to the boiling milk and stir properly. Keep stirring until the whey completely separates. Now switch off the flame, add ice cubes and allow it to melt completely.

Take a muslin cloth and pour the curdled milk, wash paneer well under cold running water and squeeze the cloth that was used for straining to extract water and hang it for   2 hours.

After 2 hours take the paneer and squeeze to remove any water left inside the paneer. Now take a plate and start kneading with your palm. Mash the paneer to least 15 – 20 minutes to make it smooth. (As shown as picture)     

Now add the sugar and again knead till all the sugar melts in (another 2-3 minutes).

 Finally add the jaggery (gur) before kneading the dough for another couple of minutes.

Take this in a non-stick pan and on a very low heat cook this for 5-7 minutes. Do this by stirring the dough continuously.

Now take out the warm paneer and add cardamom powder, 

immediately shape with molds or shape into balls... Sprinkle some pista for garnishing.

Enjoy the Authentic Bengali Sweet Sandesh

Notes

You can make this sandesh only with sugar instead of gur. If you don’t have molds, just give a square or round shape.

Store in covered container in fridge, this stays good for 2-3 weeks if kept properly.


If you don’t get this particular jaggery use kesar to make normal sandesh.