Chocolate sandesh

Take a Bong out of Bengal but you can never take Bengal out of a Bong.A mad Bangali is always crazy for biriyani and mishti (sweets).Sandesh or as we typically call it in our Bong accent 'sondesh' has a very special place in our hearts.Being a bengali myself i cannot vouch much for the fact that a bangali goes gaga for sweets but i can definitely testify my love and loyalty for sandesh.It's not loaded with extra sugar and it's not heavy on your palate,too.It's rather very light like a puff of cloud and it melts in your mouth.In kolkata you do get a huge variety of sandesh starting from a plain one to the one which has little sugar syrups filled in the middle of the sandesh which we call "jol bhora" (jol-water bhora-filled).Chocolate sandesh is yet another delicacy which people buy on special occasions.Now who wouldn't like the cult combination of sandesh and chocolate?

Ingredients serves- 16 pieces

• 1 liter pure cows milk
• 1 tsp of cocoa powder
• 1-2 drops of vanilla essence
• Powdered sugar as needed
• Lemon or curd for curdling the milk
• Sandesh molds (optional)

Method

1. Heat up 1 liter of cows milk on medium flame.Once the milk comes to a boil switch of the gas.
   
2. Let it cool down a bit for at least 5 minutes.Then add the lemon juice or the curd.If you add only lemon juice mix it with equal quantities of water and pour it in the milk little by little.Stir gently while doing so,Once the milk curdles and the whey separates stop pouring anymore lemon juice.If you add curd then it's better to use the thin water that we get from the curd.Here the basic concept of diluting the lemon juice or using the curd water instead of the thick curd is that as i said sandesh is supposed to be soft and light.While making the chenna we don't want anything harsh to curdle the milk.Hence we dilute the curdling agents.A lot of people use vinegar or citric acid,too.But i am yet to use these so can't comment on that.
3. Once the milk curdles pour some ice cubes so that the cooking process stops.Take a muslin cloth and strain the whey out of the chenna(remove the ice cubes,too).You can keep the whey for future use like making dough for roti.At times when you use lemon juice the chenna soaks in the scent or flavor of lemon.Thus once you drain the whey out wash the chenna a bit so that any smell of lemon disappears.
   
4. Squeeze all the excess water out of the chenna properly.
5. Once all the liquid is drained take the chenna on a clean counter and start kneading the chenna with the tip of the palm .This is done so that the chenna becomes super soft and smooth.
   
6. After a minute or so add in the sugar,coco powder,vanilla essence and start kneading it on the counter again.Do this for at-least 6-7 minutes.You will know it's done when you can form a smooth ball without any hindrance.
   
   
   
   
7. Once the chenna becomes soft  we need to cook it so that the rawness of the chenna or cottage cheese goes away.Hence put it on a non-stick pan on a very low flame and cook it for few minutes.like around 3-4 minutes.Don't over cook it.Else the softness of the chenna might get disturbed and it'll appear grainy.
   
8. Once cooked remove it from the heat and let it cool down for a while till its easy to handle.While it's still warn knead it for another minute or so and shape it as you like and your yummy chocolate sandesh is ready.Before you serve to others pamper yourself with one of these and Eat it up! :)