As America the beautiful celebrates her 239th birthday, I hope the stars and the stripes align to have some fun and festivities with your friends and family on July 4th. No celebration is complete without sweets in my book. So here’s a quick and fabled Bengali Sandesh recipe that you can make in no time. Soft, smooth, melt in the mouth, divine Sondesh. You have to taste only once, and you’ll be forever addicted to this Bengali sweet. I’ve previously shared an authentic and traditional version of Shandesh recipe using homemade chana and gur. This version is a quick and easy one with store brought ricotta cheese to save time in the kitchen.
Sandesh or Shondesh is available in Bangladeshi or Indian department stores in the U.S. However, the ones you get in stores in the U.S., are tasteless and nothing compared to the original taste. Often flour or corn flour is added to chana making the taste awful and taking the entire essence of Shondesh out of place. They are hard and way far from melt in the mouth. Using store bought ricotta makes it easier to prepare shondesh without slaving in the kitchen and gives you a very close authentic taste.
For those of you observing Ramadan, this shondesh recipe takes you out of the kitchen very quickly. Once shondesh cools down, they are easily portable making an excellent dessert choice for your Iftar picnic. Get your picnic blanket, some quick and easy iftar, shondesh for dessert and head out to an iftar picnic to enjoy the fireworks.
- 2 cups chhana or ricotta cheese
- 2-3 sticks of cinnamon, half inches each
- 1-2 green cardamom
- ¾ cup sugar, adjust per taste
- In a thick bottomed or non-stick pan, add ricotta, spices and sugar.
- On medium low heat, 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 using the star mold to make smaller bite size shapes. Enjoy, share and savor!
You can Garnish shondesh with pistachios, rose petals, or saffron.
Ricotta can get overcooked and become too crumbly to be molded if high heat is used. The crumbly cheese is still edible but not moldable.
Cool the shondesh and store in air tight containers in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.
Great idea to use your cookie cutters for sandesh. It’s one of my all-time favorite sweets………reminds me of all the summer vacations that I spent at my grandparents’ house in Kolkata.
So glad to hear Sadaf. I didn’t know you have Bengali ties. Sandesh is one of my all time fav dessert too. Hope you are all settled in after your move.
Ohh, yes! My favorite spices. These look like melt in you mouth treats.
Gina
Shondesh really is melt in the mouth. Luxurious and delicate. Thank you Gina.
I come from a Sylheti family, so the typical shondesh we have are made with morchar gur and rice flour and deep fried. I really want to try the different varieties, they look a little similar to rasogulla?
Never heard of the deep fried shondesh. I am intrigued!! This shondesh tastes more like a thick custard or mousse. It lacks the syrup of Roshogolla so the taste to me is quite different. I hope you give it a try sometimes.
Thank you for stopping by.
I tried making it exactly as mentioned BUT mine got crumbly ..are you sure we need to cook it for 25 minutes ??? I kept flame medium low and followed steps but sisndi turn out as a mass but has some liquid and ricotta is crumbled . Did you mean just mix it till it gets kinda sticky and then take off from flame and let it cool ??
I got confused with what is mentioned in your recipe sheet , cook time : 25 mins ,total time : 25 mins.
I hope I can make it better . This was my first time and m already sad