Chocolate Sandesh(चॉकलेट सन्देश)An Indian Sweet

Chocolate Sandesh

Bengal is a state of culinary delight. Vegetarian, non-vegetarian, sweets you name it and it is there. But Bengali sweets are one which has made it to the taste buds of each and very Indian, or may I say world over these sweets are sought after. Sandesh, Rasogolla, have become synonymous with Bengal.

Today I am writing about Sandesh. Sandesh an authentic Bengali sweet has undergone variation and has evolved with the changing time and changing taste of the new generation. Earlier it used to be Sandesh made with sugar and paneer or made with palm jaggery and paneer. But now huge number of flavors and tastes have evolved, like chocolate Sandesh, Kesar Sandesh, palm jaggery stuffed Sandesh ……

Traditionally Bengali sweets are made from cow milk but if cow milk is not available then for sandesh buffalo milk also can be taken. Making sandesh require a perfect Paneer (Cottage cheese), thus instructions and tips are very important. Also cooking of paneer has to be done on low heat to make sure the fat doesnot separateout rendering the cheese britle and un-usable. So I must say precission and patients is must to make this sweet.

Paneer has immense nutritional value, only draw back is that it is too rich in sodium.

I being a chocolate buff love chocolate Sandesh though palm jaggery stuffed Sandesh are my first love.  Since making Sandesh does not require frying, neither they are syrupy sweet thus they bring all the nutrients of cottage cheese with slight bitterness of chocolate and mild sweetness from sugar.

My daughter-in-law Indira comes from a family settled in Kolkata. She is a total fish and Sandesh lover, not only she loves eating them but also cooking. While making these Sandesh she was the boss of the kitchen, while I was the photographer.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Making Time: 40-45 minutes

Servings: 500 gm sandesh (Approximately)

Nutritional Facts: (Approx.)

Calories 1000

Fat 31 gm

Protein 67 gm

Carbs 15 gm

Dietary fibers 29 gm.

Calcium 412 mg

Iron 15 mg

Sodium 1618 mg

Vitamin A and Vitamin B5

Ingredients Required For Making Chocolate Sandesh:

• 2 L Full Cream Cow Milk 
• 2 Lemons
• 100 gm. Cocoa powder unsweetened (We used Nestle's brand)
• 100 gm. Brown Sugar/white sugar
• 4-5 Drops of vanilla Essence
• 2 Teaspoon Instant Coffee (Optional)
• 50 gm Dark Chocolate chips

Directions To Make Chocolate Sandesh:

• Squeeze the juice of lemon and sieve it to remove the seeds. Keep aside the juice for further use.
• Take milk in a thick bottom container and heat it till it comes to boil.
• Switch off the heat and stat adding fresh lemon juice half a spoon at one time and stir continuously.

Adding Lemon Juice With heat Switched Off

• The moment milk splits stop adding the lemon juice and stir the milk. Cheese will separate leaving clear liquid behind (Whey).

Curdled Milk

• Strain the cheese using a muslin cloth. Tie a tight knot making a bundle of cheese in the cloth. Dip the cheese bundle of muslin cloth in water to remove the whey and lemon juice.

Cottage Cheese Being Strained

Cottage Cheese After Being Hung

• Hang the cheese bundle for 10-15 minutes so that all excess liquid dips off, leaving nice creamy cottage cheese in the cloth.

Cottage Cheese For Sandesh

Cottage cheese For Sandesh

• In a grinder mixture take:
• Cottage cheese
• Cocoa powder
• Sugar
• Blitz till a smooth mixture is formed.

Cheese-Cocoa-Sugar Mixture

• Put this cocoa, cheese mixture in a thick bottom pan and cook on low heat with constant stirring for about 8-10 minutes.

Cooking on Low Heat

• The mixture while cooking will become dark and start to thicken up. The mixture when ready will start leaving the edge of pan. 
• Take out a little bit of this mixture and try to roll it on your palms, if it does not stick to the palms and makes a nice shiny ball then the mixture is cooked, it sticks then cook for few minutes. Test before removing from heat.
• Over cooking will cause fat to separate out and the mixture will become grainy.

After 10 minutes Mixture Ready fro Molding

• Add vanilla essence and mix nicely.
• Put the cooked mixture in molds and allow them to set.
• This mixture can be shaped by hand and also stuffed with chocolate chip, walnut.
• When cooled to room temperature, remove from mold and press chocolate chip on them.
• Presto Chocolate Sandesh are ready.

Chocolate Sandesh

• Since I did not have the traditional molds for Sandesh thus used chocolate molds. Traditional molds are bigger and come with classic shapes.

Tips:

• If cow milk is not available then buffalo milk can be taken. 
• It is very important to pay special attention while making the cottage cheese, because it is the hero of the dish. Milk should not be kept heating while lemon juice is being added. If heated while curdling the milk the cottage cheese will become hard and grainy, not fit for making Sandesh.
• Do not strain directly on the strainer as cheese tends to stick to the strainer, cloth straining makes it easier to handle and wash the cheese after straining.
• Do not cook on high heat as excess heat may make the coco-cheese mixture dry and chewy.
• Excess of lemon juice spoils the texture of Cottage cheese, so stop the moment milk curdles. Stir for two three minutes so that the lemon juice mixes uniformly, causing complete curdling.
• Do not discard the whey. It makes a fantastic easy to digest drink. Cool it and sweeten it to your taste and have a glass full. Yummy.
• Whet can be used to make dough for roti / bread by replacing water, milk.
• Bottle ful of whey can be stored in fridge and use it to curdle the milk.

Suggested variations:

• Diabetic people can enjoy this sweet by replacing sugar with sugar free.
• If using white sugar, make bura first this will result in better sandesh

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/11/bura-dry-grainy-powdered-sugar.html

• The amount of sugar and chocolate can be adjusted according to individual taste, I like little bitterness of chocolate and not too sweet Sandesh.
• Dark chocolate of your choice can be taken, if taking bars then grate them before mixing with cottage cheese else possibility of lumps of chocolate in the mixture are there.
• Walnut, Pistachios, Almonds, and Cashew can be stuffed between the two layers while molding the Sandesh.

• I love coffee taste with chocolate thus always add 2 teaspoon of instant coffee.. This enhances the color and gives wonderful taste to the Sandesh.

Whole Wheat Flour Pineapple cake

Pineapple Cake

Whenever I pass near the cart selling ripe juicy pine apple I cannot but resist of thinking of Pineapple cake. The one we get in market are full of artificial flavor and color which desists me from buying them from bakery. I love my food as far as possible free of chemicals which are harmful and add no value to the food we eat. The cake which I am presenting today is free of artificial flavor and color. It is made in whole wheat flour, chunks of pineapple and juice of pineapple thus is packed with nutrients and fibers. The color may not look as good as you get in bakeries or are sold by many home bakers but the taste is certainly better and it will be guilt free eating as you will know that it is not going to cause any harm to you and your loved ones as it is free of artificial color and flavor.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Baking Time: 40-45 minutes

Servings: makes 750 g. cake (approx.)

Nutritional value: (Approx.)

• Energy 2000 Cal
• Fat: 100gm
• Cholesterol: 775mg
• Sodium: 200mg
• Potassium: 1100mg
• Carbs: 125 gm
• Fibers: 39gm
• Sugar: 100gm
• Protein: 24g
• Vitamin A, Vitamin C, calcium, Iron

Ingredients Required For making Pineapple Cake:

• 150 gm. Whole wheat flour
• 3 Medium size eggs
• 1 Teaspoon baking Powder
• 1/2Teaspoon baking soda
• 100 gm. Butter (I use Nutrelite butter)
• 1 Pinch of Salt (If using white/unsalted butter)
• 150 gm. Castor sugar (I prefer less sweet so use 100 gm. only)
• 200 gm. Diced pieces of Pineapple
• 150-200 ml. Fresh Pineapple pulp

Directions For making Pineapple cake:

• Remove all peel and spiky things from pineapple.
• Cut the pineapple to slices and core the slices.
• Cut the slices to 1cm (Approx.) pieces.

Pieces of Pineapple for Cake

• Keep 200 gm of the pieces away for further use.
• Pulse the remaining slices and the core of pineapple to get thick pulp.
• Mix
• Flour
• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Pinch of salt (if using unsalted butter)
• Sieve 3-4 times.
• Separate egg whites from egg yolk.
• Whisk egg white to stiff peaks.

Whisked Egg White

• Cut the chilled butter to small cubes and add sugar to it.
• Whisk till it becomes creamy.
• Add egg yolks one at a time and whisk to get frothy, creamy mixture of butter, sugar and egg yolk.

Creamy mixture ready for Flour and Pineapple

• Add the pieces of pineapple to flour and mix so that all pieces get coated with flour mix.

Pineapple pieces in Flour mixture of Cake

• To the (butter + sugar + egg yolk mixture) add (flour + pineapple mixture) and whisked egg whites alternately and after each addition of flour/egg white mix with very light hands using either wooden spoon/fork or your fingers.
• Add pineapple paste in two instalments. Mix after each addition. Depending upon your batter thickness the pineapple paste requirement may change.
• The last step should be finished fast as the acid of pineapple reacts with baking soda and baking powder.
• The batter should be pourable but not runny or thick which does not get poured.
• Pour the batter in the prepared baking pan.
• Tap two three times to level the surface and remove the trapped air bubbles.
• Bake at 180^oC for about 35-40 minutes, or till the cake is done. Check for the doneness of cake by poking a clean skewer in the cake, if it comes out clean cake is baked.

Baking at 180 C

• Remove the cake from oven and cool it in the rake. Cake is ready.

Pineapple cake

• Cut the cake when it is cooled.

Soft Moist Pineapple cake

Enjoy the fruity, chemical free pineapple cake with tea/coffee.

Tips:

• The size of the eggs thus the liquid content provided by them differ thus the amount of pineapple pulp required may change. Always check the consistency of batter before adding all pulp.
• Eggs and butter should be at the same temperature (Approx.), else curdling occurs.
• If ever the butter eggyoly mixture starts curdling then do not worry either keep working with it or add just a spoon of flour and whisk. 
• The baking time varies with the type of oven used. Keep checking for doneness of cake after 30 minutes.
• If you desire to have the cake pieces cut too evenly then dice the pineapple to small pieces. I love chunks of pineapple in cake.
• To get the yellow color and strong flavor you may use one drop of yellow color and 2-3 drops of pineapple flavor any good brand.
• Whole wheat flour can be replaced by refined white flour (Maida/all-purpose flour). The cake comes out softer and lighter. I prefer whole wheat flour as it is more nutritious and has lots of fibers.
• Place a small bowl with chilled water at the bottom rake of oven while baking the cake this will make sure the top crust does not become hard.
• If the cake is not done but the top is becoming darker, just cover it with a tin foil and bake till done.

Suggested Variations:

• Butter can be rerplaced by olive oil to get less fatty and less cholesterol content in cake. For replacement of butter amount to oil always use 100:60 ratio of butter to oil because butter has water content which is lacking in oil.
• If fresh fruit is not available then tinned pineapple can be used. 4-5 pieces can be diced and 5-6 pieces can be made to pulp. Artificial flavor and color is must if using tinned pineapple.
• Whole wheat flour can be replaced by all-purpose flour. If using all-purpose flour then replace the baking soda by baking powder (1+1/2) the cake will certainly will be lighter and less dense but the goodness of fibers and nutrients will be missing from the cake.
• Use 50 gm. less sugar and soak the cake with the sugar syrup of tinned peneapple this will add sweetness with pineapple flavor.