Today we complete one month from the starting of the blog, and I am really encouraged by the likes, comments and shares done by the readers over this period. So, let’s celebrate this baby milestone with an Apple Sandesh! This is a cottage cheese based dessert with grated apple stuffed inside. I have very fond memories of enjoying Sandesh in my younger days, as this was an easy dessert which could be made fresh and consumed fresh. In those days, the stuffing would be a clementine segment or better known as oranges in India. I would look forward to this delicious dessert that had a nice creamy texture which you could bite into. The chilled cottage cheese with the tangy fruit inside when mixed with some cardamom and sugar creates a very delicious and mouthwatering dessert. I thought I would experiment with grated apple , and it turned out to be an equally classy dessert, enjoyed by all at home including guests in town!
Recipe: 10 pieces of Sandesh
Cooking time: 30 min.
Chilling time: 2 hours.
Ingredients:
- 1 large Apple ( I used Fuji Apple. Stamen also works well.)
- Fresh Paneer or Cottage Cheese 1 cup or 100 gms in weight.
- Sugar 3/4 cup sugar
- Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp.
- Lemon juice 1 tbsp ( I prefer Fresh Lemons to Limes, as they have sweeter taste)
- Saffron 1/2 tsp.
- Milk – 1/3rd cup.
For Making Fresh Paneer
- 1 quart of 4% fat or whole milk
- 3 tbsp lemon juice ( not lime)
Method:
For Making Fresh Paneer
- In a deep pan(nonstick preferred), put the milk to boil on medium flame.
- When in starts boiling, add 2 tbsp lemon juice and stir, keeping the flame high.
- The milk should curdle in a minute or so, if it does not , add some more lemon juice.
- As soon as the water separates, remove from flame and drain it in a strainer.
- Let it cool for about 15 minutes in the strainer.
For Making Sandesh
- Remove the skin of the apple and grate it fine.
- Take a shallow pan and heat on a medium flame.
- Add grated apple, lemon juice and 3 tbsp sugar and mix well and cook for 3 minutes, stirring continuosly.
- When done, it should make the mixture dry of liquid and apples well cooked.
- Let it cool for 15 minutes.
- In a broad flat pan, take the cottage cheese and using your palm, knead it thoroughly for 4-5 minutes, till the texture is smooth and soft.
- Add the remaining sugar, cardamom and mix well.
- Take another broad pan and put it to heat on medium flame.
- Add the cottage cheese mix on it and reduce the flame to slow- medium.
- Stir and cook for 7-8 minutes on slow flame, ensuring it looses its liquid and starts to form like a lump.
- Remove from flame and let it cool for couple of minutes.
- Knead again for a couple of times.
- Make 8-10 round balls of equal size.
- Take one round ball, flatten it in your palm.
- Take approx. 1/2 tsp apple stuffing and put it in the center.
- Enclose the stuffing from all sides.
- Shape it into round ball using both palms.
- Make a dent in the center with finger.
- Repeat this for all 8-10 pieces of cottage cheese.
- Drizzle some saffron melted milk in the dents of the round of the balls.
- Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
- Serve cold.
Tips
Remember to strain the seeds from the lemon juice. If the cottage cheese feels very dry, you can add few drops of milk to smoothen.
You can control the fat intake, by opting to go for low fat milk or low fat cottage cheese, with slight impact on taste.
Variation with oranges/clementines – Peel the thin skin off the clementine segments. Make a larger circle from the initial round segments, so that the orange segment can lay flat, with room to be folded over. Cover the segment from all sides so that the C shape of segment is outlined. Chill and serve.
Instinct Factor
Kneading with equal pressure of palm to have smooth texture.
Feel Factor
A dessert that has a smooth texture and filled with fruit of your choice! The chilled fruit enclosed in the sweetened cottage cheese is just irresistible. Cottage cheese is light and so why not consume more than one!! For the adventurous, the filling choices are unlimited including mangoes, strawberries and blueberries to name a few. Use of cottage cheese aids in weight loss and protein intake according to SF Gate http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/cottage-cheese-healthy-eat-1575.html
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