Gajarer Sandesh or Layered Carrot Fudge: Nobo Borsher Mishtimukh

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Subho Noboborsho or Happy Bengali New Year to all my fellow readers once again. As it is Bengali New Year celebration I’m sharing traditional Bengali recipes in my last few posts. Few days back I shared a round-up of authentic Bengali recipes for your convenience. For this year’s special menu I choose Lachha Paratha with Mutton Rezala for main course and Mangsher Singara or Mutton Samosa for snacks. Now it’s time for our showstopper, the Dessert: Gajarer Sandesh or Layered Carrot Fudge.

Originally I’m from eastern part of India but I live in western part of India; far away from my home, my culture. Here I have nothing in common; specially the food habit is completely different. Here, my only life saver is a Bengali shop in the city. Basically it is a Bengali sweet shop but we get most of our traditional things from here including few evening veg snacks items. Due to the distance once in a while I get the chance to visit this place to enjoy my evening munchies. Few weeks back I was there for my regular stuffs and few tiny white cubes caught my attention. It had little red strips all over it. I couldn’t resist myself from asking about it. And I came to know it was a sweet named Gajarer Sandesh (Carrot Fudge) tastes like carrot flavored sweet cheese; melts in your mouth.

I returned home with a good sized box filled with the sweets. After the box got empty I thought why not try this at home. It will be a good dish for New Year celebration as well. I started working on it and finally decided what I need to do. I changed few things in the original sweet which I had in the shop to give it a diversity. The shop version had uncooked cottage cheese with tiny strips of carrot and little sugar for the mild taste. But I cooked the cottage cheese with milk powder, condensed milk and grated carrot. Then I added an extra layer of cooked grated carrot, condense milk and milk powder to give the sandesh or sweet a new texture and rose essence for the flavor. I ended up adding pistachio on top for garnishing.

Here is my show stopper Gajarer Sandesh or Layered Carrot Fudge recipe for you all.

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 20 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Yield: 12 cubes

Ingredients:

For cottage cheese-carrot layer:

Cottage cheese: 200g

Finely grated carrot: 1 cup

Milk powder: ½ cup

Condense milk: ½ cup

Rose essence: 2 drops

Ghee: 1-2 drops for greasing

Pistachio slivers: for garnishing

For carrot layer:

Finely grated carrot: 1 cup

Milk powder: ½ cup

Condense milk: ½ cup

Rose essence: 2 drops

Ghee: ½ tsp + 1-2 drops for greasing

Preparation:

Take the cottage cheese in a nonstick pan. Pour the condense milk in it. Stir with a spoon. Add the milk powder. Take another flat pan or palate to dump the sandesh for layering and shaping. Grease the pan/palate with 1-2 drops of ghee or oil.

Place the pan on medium low flame and stir continuously to avoid sticking to the bottom. This mixture will become liquid completely. So don’t panic it is going in the correct direction. It won’t take more than 2-3 mins.

Add grated carrot and stir continuously for 4-5 mins or until carrot is done. By the time the liquid will also evaporate and will leave a large lump. When the mixture will not stick to the pan any more or will leave the pan smoothly, switch off the flame and add rose essence. Transfer the mixture to the previously greased pan. Level it with a spatula and keep aside to settle. If you have sandesh molds you can use that too.

While the sandesh it resting prepare the carrot layer. This can be done either in microwave or on gas oven. I used microwave as I was working on both layers simultaneously.

For microwave version:

Heat the ghee in a microwave safe bowl for 30 secs. on High (900W). Add grated carrot and microwave for another 1 min on High (900W).

Stir the soft carrot with a spoon. Add condense milk in it and mix well. place the bowl back to the oven and microwave for 2 mins on High (900W).

Mix half of the milk powder with the mixture and place it back in the oven to microwave for 5-6 mins on High (900W). But remove the bowl and stir it every 1 min. at the end you will get moist but dense carrot halwa. Add rest of the milk powder and rose essence with it.

For Gas oven version:

Heat ghee in a nonstick pan and add grated carrot in it. Sauté for 1-2 mins. pour the condense milk in it allow it to cook for another 4-5 mins or until carrot is almost done. Stir the mixture continuously on medium high flame. Once done add milk powder and mix well. Remove from flame and add rose essence.

Now place the carrot halwa on the sandesh layer.

Level it with spatula and keep aside to set. Cut into cubes and serve with pistachio slivers on top. This Gajarer Sandesh or Carrot Fudge tastes best when warm. But if you want to serve it as a cold dessert refrigerate for 1 hr and then cut into pieces and serve. It will be easier to shape them perfectly that way and they will not be like my messy sandesh.