Pantua

Course: Dessert                        

Cuisine: Bengali (Indian)

Preparation time: 10 minutes              

Cook time: 45 minutes(excluding waiting time)

Servings: 12 pieces

Ingredients

• 200g or 1 cup chenna (I used homemade but you can also use store-bought)
• 100 g or ¾ cup mawa (I used homemade but you can also use store-bought)
• 2 tablespoons of wheat flour
• 2-3 tablespoons of milk
• 2 cups of sugar
• 2 cups of water
• 1/8 teaspoon or a pinch of baking soda (see Notes)
• 3-4 cardamom pods
• Oil for deep frying

Making of Mawa at home

1. Melt the butter in a pan. Now, turn the flame off and let it cool for 1 minute.
2. To the pan, add the milk powder and milk and mix. Now, turn on the flame. On a very low flame, gently keep on mixing till the mixture starts leaving the pan.
3. Turn off the flame and let it cool.

Directions

1. Take the chhena in a plate and mash properly with your palms till it becomes soft and smooth.
2. Now, mix the mawa to the chhena and mix them properly together.
3. Add the wheat flour and baking soda to the mixture and mix everything together.
4. If you find the mixture too dry, add milk to the mixture gradually little by little. (I added about 3 tablespoons). (See Notes)
5. Divide the dough into equal sized balls. This should be done carefully, such that there are no cracks in the pantua.
6. Take a pot and to it add the sugar, water and cardamom pods.
7. Bring it to boil such that the sugar dissolves. The syrup should give you the feel of honey when you put one drop between your fingers.
8. Now, turn off the flame and keep it aside.
9. Take a pan/kadai for frying the pantua and add oil to it.
10. Heat the oil. The oil should not be smoking hot.
11. Gradually, drop the pantuas to the oil and fry them on medium low flame. (see Notes)
12. Fry the pantuas on all the sides till they turn brown in color.
13. After the frying is done, remove the pantuas from oil with a slotted spoon and gently drop them in the syrup.
14. The syrup should be hot, neither cold nor boiling when you drop the pantuas in them. (If you think that the syrup has gone cold you can heat it up for few minutes but do not boil it)
15. Leave the pantuas in the syrup for couple of hours to soak up the syrup.
16. I like my pantua hot. If you also like them hot, just microwave them for a minute before serving.

Notes

1. The baking soda helps in softening the pantua. But do not add a lot of baking soda to the mixture. If more baking soda is added the pantuas will break while frying in the oil.
2. The dough prepared should not be very hard, else the pantuas will also be hard. So if you find your dough hard, add milk to the dough to prepare a soft dough.
3. If the pantuas are fried on a high flame, the inside of the pantuas will not cook and will eventually not absorb syrup. It will remain dry and hard at the centre.