Chocolate Sandesh

Milk based sweets had remained a big part of Indian dessert. But there has also remained a huge confusion regarding the discovery of chenna or cottage cheese in India. There had been zero evidence or no mention of the process of cuddling of milk in India before the colonial period. It is often believed that Indians learned to make the cottage cheese from the Portuguese and then used it to make various kinds of sweets. Traditionally and in any ancient scripts there is mention of evaporated milk or kheer, butter, yogurt and cream but there had been no mention of chenna or the cottage cheese. Even according to food historians traditionally people considered milk as pure and the process of cuddling the milk, in which the cheese separates from the whey was considered as a sin. As per the research the sandesh, the very basic form of Bengali sweets historically perhaps used to be made up of khoya or evaporated milk and milk solids.

 Much to the trivia Bengalis become very insecure with this invention details as that drags all the credits of making chenna and then, the crown jewel “rasgulla” from their hand and they land into the lap of someone else. So let us not worry us with these gory details and let’s concentrate in our today’s recipe. Chocolate and Bengali sweets emerged as one after Cadbury conducted a very innovative competition among most of the prominent sweetmeat shops of Kolkata some 4-6 years back. Till then Chocolate Sandesh among other many more sweets with a chocolaty twist had remained one of the most loved and popular.

Chocolate Sandesh

Makes 12

Ingredients:

1 and ½ litre of whole full fat cow milk

2 limes

1 tbsp Dutch processed cocoa powder

4 tbsp powdered sugar

Some slivered almonds to garnish

2 tbsp chocolate syrup

Method:

Let the whole milk come to a boil.

Put the flame to the lowest and stir in the lime juice.

As the milk starts to cuddle switch off the flame.

Stir slowly until you see the whey separating from the cheese.

Drain the water and collect this cottage cheese in a cheese cloth.

Run cold water through the cottage cheese / chenna to get rid of the citrus flavour.

Squeeze the cloth really hard to drain as much water possible.

Take the chenna on a flat board. Add the powdered sugar and cocoa powder to it.

Start mixing with your hand and knead with the back of your palm.

Do this for around 3-4 minutes or until the chenna start to take the shape of a lump and you can see your palm greased with the fat from the chenna.

Place a non-stick skillet over the stove top. Switch the flame to the lowest.

Put the kneaded chenna in the skillet and start stirring.

You need to stir fry the chenna for 3-4 minutes or until the chenna starts coming off the skillet.

Place the chenna on a plate and let it cool down.

When the chenna is cold enough (but not completely cold)to handle make little balls out of the chenna dough.

Cool these balls of cottage cheese complete before adding a drizzle of chocolate syrup and then garnishing with slivered almonds.