Baked Sandesh

For the final day of Holiday Bakes, I have a traditional Indian Sweet in a baked form. This is a long pending post, though I baked it only this week. My sincere apologies for delaying this post for so long. Only when I checked it now to read the email, did I realize so many months have simply passed away and I thought it was just a few months!

Pratibha Jain wrote me to many months ago about a cookbook that she compiled for Indu Bokaria. The cookbook, “Recipes from a Diary” by Indu Bokaria, the Sandesh Artist, is a collection of Indian recipes showcasing her artistically prepared Sandesh and its different forms. The book has some amazing Sandesh on display.

I am not very fond of sweets and even very less when it comes to Bengali sweets. In fact, I started eating them only when I made Ras Malai. That led to many other explorations, all of which we enjoyed.

So it was inevitable that I prepare Sandesh. I made the basic version and a fusion with chocolate as well. However, the ideas that I found in this book were simply amazing.

Sandesh, also known as sondesh or shondesh, is a traditional Bengali sweet. Basic sandesh can be prepared by rolling fresh crumbly paneer with sugar into balls. With this basic recipe, one can quickly adapt to many different forms and ingredients to make it into an elaborate festive dish.

Pratibha was telling me that Indu Bokaria was a Sandesh Artist. So when I was reading the book, and checking out the recipes, I decided I should make a sandesh from the book. I finalized on the baked version as it called for ingredients that I had on hand right away.

The Baked Sandesh is very rich as well as it packs paneer with nuts. Hubby dear almost said the baked version tasted like Junnu or kharvas. Since I have never tasted Junnu, I couldn't comment, however, I enjoyed this dessert. Though I had this in the refrigerator, I preferred the warm one. So I MW for 30 secs before serving.

So here's the recipe for Baked Sandesh from “Recipes from a Diary” by Indu Bokaria, the Sandesh Artist.

Disclaimer:
I have not received any compensation for doing this review. I have received a copy of the printed book and all copyright lies with the author, Indu Bokaria. The recipe is reproduced here, though in my own words,  with permission.

Thanks to Pratibha for introducing such a lovely book for us to enjoy!

Ingredients Needed:

Homemade paneer made from 1 and 1/2 liter of Milk
Almonds - 20 nos
Dry Nuts - Mix of Pistas, Almonds, and Cashews - 1 cup
Sweetened Condensed Milk - 1/2 cup (adjust to your sweet preference)
Roasted Peanuts - 2 tsp
Fresh grated Coconut - 2 tbsp (recipe calls for desiccated Coconut)
Cardamon powder a pinch
Milk Biscuit crumbs - 2 tspHow to make the Baked Sandesh

Soak the almonds overnight to peel off the skin and grind to a smooth paste with a few tbsp of milk. Keep it aside.

Make fresh paneer at home and if using lemon, run it in water to remove the citrus flavour. Let it drain to remove the whey.

Finely chop the nuts and power to fine.

The recipe also calls for desiccated Coconut. I could have easily dried it in MW, however, I didn't think it would affect the final taste, so used fresh coconut. See notes*

In a bowl, take the coconut, almond paste, the crumbled paneer along with nuts powder (save some for topping). Mix everything well.

Slowly add the condensed milk. Check for sweetness and add cardamom powder.

In the dish, you are going to bake, fill with the paneer mix. Next, layer it with roasted peanut powder. Next with nuts powder.

Finally with milk biscuit crumbs.

Preheat the oven at 185 C. Bake for 10 mins.

The sweet is quite firm after baking.