Sandesh is not just a dessert it’s an epitome of love to Bengali people. Bengali Sondesh is the most famous thing after Mishti Doi (Sweet Yogurt) in my part of the world; here Sondesh is the introduction of dessert platter. In Bengal No festival or ritual is complete without a bit of it. Be it Durga Puja or Poila Baisakh, birthday to house warming doesn’t matter which type of food is there on the table but a pack of sandesh has to be there, all the time. When there is no celebration around we eat sondesh just to remember our soul-food, sometimes as snack too. Yes you can call us, sondesh crazy people.
Chenna er Sandesh or Kheer er Sondesh both are quite easily available in all over Bengal. You can find at least one sweet shop (aka mishtir dokan) in every 1 km. in Kolkata. And if you are from north Kolkata like me finding sweet shops on your left and right seems to be like a natural thing. And these mishtir dokan are like treasure shops, you can find at least 15-20 different types of sweets there including 10 types of Bengali Mishti at the same time. Most popular flavours are Rose, Pista, Chocolate Sandesh, Kesar Sandesh or Saffron Sondesh including seasonal special Aam Sandesh or Mango Sondesh and Ice cream Sandesh or Bhapa Sandesh on summer and Gajorer Sandesh or Carrot Sondesh during winter.
But scene is not even close to similar for those who live outside Bengal. Life is already harsh, not sweet at all! Bengali food can be found only in few big cities in India with 3-5 types of dessert all together. And those who live abroad can only drool over the pictures of sondesh shared by friends and families on social media. Yes Bengali mishti are available in few places but with a cost which is actually huge!
Yes of course we can make it at home any day but not any time. Making sondesh from scratch is a lengthy process and honestly quite tricky one. Every step needs to be perfect, there is no place to rectify errors. if you miss something or mess up with the amounts of ingredients, sondesh will screw you literally (such possessive dessert!) And making chenna at home not only requires patience but also physical strength to stand by the gas for hours and handling hot chenna to process properly. It’s not everyone’s job; at least not mine these days. There was time when I used to make sandesh from scratch on every possible weekends and now I can’t even think of it because of my heat allergy!
This was the time when I knew I had to find a way to make it quickly. And there at this point my Sondesh in TWO minutes was born! Trust me when I’m saying you can make Sandesh in just 2 mins; you can actually make a dozen of it at home from scratch in exactly two mins with my foolproof recipe. This is a ridiculously easy recipe of Bengali Sandesh which can be made in microwave with two basic ingredients. The taste will not be exactly like chenna er mishti but more similar to Khirer Sondesh. And honestly this is the best thing I can do if I have two mins. in my hands.
Watch my elaborated step by step video recipe of ‘2 mins’ Sandesh aka Instant Sondesh.
Read the entire recipe and Notes carefully before you start cooking. Do make sure all ingredients are at room temperature (unless mentioned) and weighed or measured correctly in appropriate weighing machine or measuring instruments such as cups or spoons. Remember these are not regular cups or spoons which is used in daily life.
- Milk Powder: 1 cup
- Cream: ¼ cup
- Cardamom (green) powder: ½ tsp Or few drops of cardamom essence
- Ghee (clarified butter): few drops (for greasing moulds)
- Pistachios: 4-6 for garnishing
- Sugar if required (I did not used any)
- Take milk powder, cardamom and cream in a clean & dry glass bowl and mix together with a spatula until a coarse mixture is produced.
- Microwave the mixture for 30 secs at High of your microwave (900W in my case).
- Take out the bowl and stir the mixture again for 3-5 secs.
- Microwave for another 30 sec at High.
- Stir the mixture again until it leaves the side of the bowl and forms a dough.
- Knead the dough with your palms now like regular roti dough until it smoothens. Once it stops sticking to the fingers cover the dough with cling film to avoid air contact.
- Grease moulds with ghee and take small portion of dough at a time in your palm and roll.
- Press mixture on mould and shape like shown in the video. Remove excess sandesh from mould and keep with rest of the dough. Keep the bowl covered all the time. (see the video for reference)
- Now gently remove the sandesh from mould and keep on a previously greased plate. I used butter paper to reduce usage to ghee.
- Make rest of the it by following same procedure. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
EAT, LOVE & ENJOY! REPEAT!!!
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Hi, I am thrilled to have found your site and especially this easy recipe for sandesh. I avoid it only for its lengthy process, but this seems like magic. I would like to make it buf am confused about which type of cream to use. Is this some kind of sweetened cream or condensed milk? Pls clarify. Thank you
Hi, Thank you so much for such sweet words. You can use any regular full fat fresh cream. I used amul fresh cream only 🙂