Over the last few months, Jehanne and I have become good friends and you probably remember her delicious empanadas. I met her less than a year ago after I started blogging. When we chat on Facebook, it often feels like I know her since childhood and she is not someone I’ve never met. When she asked me to guest post a Bangladeshi recipe on her popular blog, The Cooking Doctor, I was thrilled and immediately accepted the invitation. Many savory and sweet recipes came to mind and it took me few days to decide what I should present to my wonderful friend and her readers. Finally, I thought what could be better than Bangladeshi sweet Gurer Sondesh, a fudge made of fresh, homemade ricotta, for my sweet friend, Jehanne.
Bangladeshis spend a lot of time thinking, preparing and eating food. For Bangladeshis, food is all about love and cooking and feeding evokes great sense of pride. Bengalis are also very proud and famous for sweets or ‘mishti’ as we call it.
Mishti occupies an important role in Bangladeshi culture regardless of religion and region. It is customary to distribute sweets during festivals, social and religious ceremonies. Besides the many festivals that color the life of Bangladeshis, we always find a reason many times in a year to distribute sweets – birth of a child, an engagement, a new business, passing of an exam…you get the idea. No hospitality is ever complete without serving sweets.
Chana is key to authentic Bengali sweets, so it is very important to know the tricks and tips of making soft chana. If gur, also called molasses from date sap or jaggery, is not available, feel free to use regular or brown sugar.
Gurer shondesh is one of the easiest yet authentic mishti in my book. Although I am not promoting frozen food, my busy life calls for a lot of freezing. Like any Bengalis, I like to serve sweets when I have guests and friends over, so I often freeze these shondesh(well, only if there is few pieces of leftover). Once thawed in the refrigerator, the taste does not deteriorate but the texture hardens a little. If you are time pressed like I am, feel free to freeze them airtight in a ziplock bag and wow guests when they show up in a short notice.
- 2 cups chhana
- 2-3 sticks of cinnamon, half inches each
- 1-2 green cardamom
- ½ cup gur a.k.a molasses/jaggery
- ¼ cup sugar
- Knead chhana cheese on a clean surface with your heel of the hand by pressing it across the surface until smooth. About 5-6 minutes.
- Break the gur into small pieces.
- In a thick bottomed or non-stick pan, heat gur in medium flame for about a minute. Add chana.
- Add sugar and stir constantly until the mixture is very sticky and a mass pulls away from the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Remove from heat. Let cool.
- Divide into even portions to make smaller bite size flatten balls or use molds to give different shapes. You may also use a small cookie cutter to give different shapes to shondesh.
Use a thick bottomed or non-stick pan.
This are so beautiful.. they would impress and must taste yummy! xx
They are absolutely delicious. Thank you, Barbara.
Came here from Jehanne’s place Lail. Loved reading the post and of course, the Gurer shondesh sounds something I must try 🙂
Thank you for coming over, Priya. Gurer shindesh is a must try. I hope you get to try soon, dear.
Will have to head over to her blog for the recipe, this looks delicious and beautiful.
Thank you!
Such a beautiful fudges! would love to try them (all)!
Different shapes but same scrumptious taste, Daniela. Thank you 🙂
What gorgeous sweets! I’d love to have some parked in my freezer for special visitors 🙂
They are pretty easy to make, so give them a try sometimes, Liz. Thank you.
As beautiful as they would taste delicious 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thank you, Uru.
These are my favourite! Your’s look better than any sweet shop. Love anything with gur!
Flattered Sonali. Thank you so much.
Can’t tell you how much I appreciated your tips on making soft chana. I’ve experienced a few batches of “rubbery” ricotta and wondered why… now I know. Many thanks! Your fudge looks wonderful and the history and hospitality behind serving sweets to guests is near and dear to my heart. Love your lily photo, too!
Oh, Kim, my pleasure. You have no idea how many batches of rubbery ricotta went to the trash in my kitchen 🙁 until a friend told me these tips. Thank you for such a sweet comment.
I am thinking you use a mold to make those sweets, am I correct?
Yes, Norma. I used traditional molds to make the decorative ones. The square ones are cut using a cookie cutter. You can make small balls or just cut using a butter knife also. Thank you.
wow…yum yum yum gurer sondesh…makes us drool over those food clicks…look so well browned and perfect in time for celebrating autumn…thanks for sharing 🙂
Drool worthy they are. Thank you Kumar.
thank u so much Lail for such gorgeous sweets, I am so honoured to have u over on my humble space :-)..cant wait to try out your cuisine in person! xx
The pleasure is all mine, Jehanne. Thank you for the invitation. I hope you try the sweets for Eid.
Thanks for posting my favourite Sandesh
Sitara Ahmed
They are my favorite too. Thank you!
That was a beautiful guest post . I read it from both Jehanne and your blog 🙂
Thank you, Manju.
What gorgeous Mishtis! They look insanely beautiful, real and inviting 🙂
Lovely post and recipe and pictures 🙂
Thanks a lot, Nusrat. Divine mishti which I believe a favorite of most Bangladeshis.
These are absolutely gorgeous!!!! Oh! How I would love to have some!!!
You are welcome to stop by and have some. Thank you.
Oh my goodness. My mouth is watering just seeing this post. This looks simply amazing.
Thank you, My friend.
OMG! These cookies are absolutely gorgeous. I am so sharing them!
Thank you, my friend. I’m glad you like them.
These shondesh are so so gorgeous — love having you over at Jehanne 🙂
Thank you, Kiran.
absolutely gorgeous clicks. This is a favorite.
Mine too, Simi. Thank you!
This looks fabulous! Thanks for your nice comment on our blog – happy to have found yours this way.
These are so beautiful! I really miss good Bengali sweets. They’re so hard to find here in the US. I really have to try making these. 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
I hope you’ll give it a try, Puja. Shondesh is not that hard. Thank you!
These desserts looks delish!
This looks absolutely wonderful–and what fun getting to read about the cultural importance of these types of sweets! This has definitely been bookmarked. Wonderful blog 🙂
Thank you for the kind and heart warming words. I am glad that you loved learning about the cultural importance of these mishti(sweets). Hope to see you around again. Have a wonderful week ahead.