Sandesh

Dassana Amit presents Sandesh, also called Sondesh, as a Bengali milk-based sweet made for occasions such as Durga Puja. This account selects her own fresh chenna with palm jaggery, sugar and pistachio topping.

Whole milk is boiled and curdled with the selected lemon juice. The curds are gathered in muslin, squeezed, lightly rinsed in running water and placed under a weight to drain.

The chenna is kneaded until smooth and less granular before palm jaggery and sugar are worked through it. Those same sweeteners melt and release moisture as the mixture is kneaded.

The mixture cooks over low heat with continuous stirring until it comes together while retaining moisture. Once warm or cooled, it is kneaded again, shaped into flattened sweets and topped with the selected pistachios.

This selection follows the author’s refrigerate-then-serve option. The source describes sweet, moist Sandesh and attributes a rustic flavor to palm jaggery; her sugar-only and other topping versions remain separate choices.