Traditional Bengali sweets are one of the major star factors of Bengali culture. Bengali sweets are unique and rich in their flavours and taste. Like any other Indian culture, Bengali’s also start any prosperous festival or special moment or celebration with sweets. In Bengali, sweets are called “Mishti“, and having the sweet on special moments is called “mishti mukh“. The varieties of sweets available in Bengal is uncountable. Every state of Bengal, even the states of the neighbouring country of India, which is Bangladesh, also has special sweets and flavours that are different. Bengalis have varieties in sweets for every occasion, season and a different star ingredient. One of the most famous Bengali sweet or Mishti is “Sondesh“. Sondesh (Sandesh) is a simple sweet made out of milk made chenna (also known as cottage cheese). The traditional Sondesh does not require many ingredients and can also be made in many flavours as desired. Today’s recipe is the traditional and simple one.
Ingredients used to prepare Sondesh/Sandesh:
- Milk – 1 & 1/2 litre
- Powdered sugar – 1/3 cup (can be added more or less as per taste)
- Lemon juice – 1/2 tbsp
- Cardamom powder – 1/3 tsp
- Muslin cloth
Step by Step method to prepare Bengali sweet Sondesh/Sandesh:
- Place the milk on a large pan and bring it to a boil.
- Once it starts boiling, add the lemon juice. Adding the lemon juice will make the milk curdle, where the milk starts separating from the water and changes the colour into light green.
- Once the entire milk curdles up, take the muslin cloth and drain out all the water from the curdles of milk. Once all the water is drained out and the milk in the maslin cloth is a bit cooled down, tie up the cloth and press the portion where the milk curdles to drain any leftover water.
- Once there is no water left, take out the chenna (the curdles of milk) on a big plate and knead it like dough for some time.
- After kneading it for about 5-6 minutes, add the sugar and cardamom powder and knead again. Continue to knead until the dough becomes smooth in texture with no lumps.
- When it is well kneaded, cut it or roll it into ball shapes or in any shape you want, and it is ready to serve.
