Kesar Malai Sandwich

With so many festivals lined up, I am trying to share new recipes with you all well in advance so that you could plan on making new and delicious recipes for your family and friends. I know it is very easy to buy a box of sweet from the store, but they are not always fresh and not made with so much of care and love for your loved one. When we celebrate a festival, we are bringing in love, happiness and positive energy into our home. You cannot achieve the same with store bought, made in bulk sweets. Although the store bought sweets looks pretty and are professionally packaged, there is nothing like homemade, hand garnished sweet using best quality products.

You will see most of my Indian sweets or Mithai recipe served in my Sterling Silver cutlery. This is because these sweets are first offered to God before getting to taste them. Rich in color, texture, and flavor, none of these sweets have the use of food color or artificial flavorings in them.

Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtmi, Ganesh Chathurthi, Navratri, Diwali... plan your festivals and sweets so that you have time to shop and prep in advance.

This recipe make 7 large Malai Sandwiches

Boil 4 cups of milk in a heavy bottom pan. Add around 1 to 2 tbsp. lime juice for milk to curdle. Turn of the heat. Strain in a strainer lined with cheese cloth or a muslin cloth. Rinse freshly made cottage cheese with cold water and wring it well. Keep it hung for around 30 minutes to get rid of excess water.

After 30 minutes, remove fresh cottage cheese on a plate. Cottage cheese/ Paneer should be dry and crumbly. Knead it with your palm for 5-7 minutes to form a soft dough.

Divide into 7 equal parts and make smooth, slightly flattened balls.

Boil 1 1/2 cup sugar with 4 cups water into a pressure cooker.

Add paneer balls to boiling syrup. Cover with a lid and cook on medium heat till you hear a whistle blow. turn off the heat and let the pressure cooker cool before opening the lid.

Remove each cooked Paneer balls in a plate. Cover and refrigerate for 4-5 hours or a day.

When nicely chilled, cut each paneer patty into half. These can be filled with whipped cream or dehydrated milk or any filling of your choice.  

To make the filling

Mix 1/2 cup mawa/khoya/dehydrated milk with 1/8 cup of sugar. Add 1 tsp. milk and a pinch of saffron for color.

Mix well till the sugar dissolves. Divide into 7 equal parts. Make into patties that can be sandwiched between cottage cheese slices.

OR

You could also heat the mixture and bring it to boil. Cook till the moisture evaporates and leaves the pan. Add 1 tsp. cardamom powder. 1 tsp. sliced almonds, 1 tsp. pistachio slices. Mix well. Let the mixture cool completely and divide into 7 parts to form patty. 

Prepare a surface to assemble. Few finely chopped almonds and pistachios for garnishing. 

This was my mava/khoya mixture. It was slightly runny, but I loved the texture of smooth mawa filling in my malai sandwiches.

I also like to dissolve a pinch of saffron into 1 tbsp warm milk. This gives beautiful color and can be used for garnishing of decorating malai sandwiches.

Place a bit of mawa mixture or your mawa patty between sliced cottage cheese ball.

Decorate with a dab of saffon dissolved milk and garnish with chopped almonds, pistachios and saffron strands. Refrigerate for few hours and serve chilled.

Enjoy your Festivities!!