Malai cham cham recipe | Bengali sweet cham cham | Chomchom recipe

Chomchom recipe is an old Bengali sweet recipe and it is not only popular among Bengalis but is equally popular throughout the nation. This sweet is prepared in different ranges with different colours and texture. They are mostly white, yellow or light pink in colour. Each variety tastes outstanding but is different from each other. Malai cham cham recipe is one of the varieties of the chomchom recipe.

Malai cham cham recipe has got an extra element which makes it different from other chomchom recipes. It has an additional thick cream, malai. It makes the dish richer and yummier. Malai cham cham is moist, super soft in texture and white in colour.

As a bong, I have been brought up eating rosogolla, Sandesh and chamcham. Above all, I have a sweet tooth. So, I can say it confidently that I have tasted almost every variety of chomchom recipe till now.

When I was in India, I have never tried to prepare Malai cham cham recipe at home. But after coming to the UK, I started craving for my regional sweets. Then I have started learning to prepare perfect Bengali sweets at home. I often prepare rosogolla at home for my 3 years old little one because she is a huge fan of it.

Malai cham cham recipe requires little bit of preparation. So, I always prepare it on festive season or any special event. This dish requires only few basic ingredients like milk, lemon juice, sugar and mawa to get prepared. The difficulty level of preparing this dish is moderate. There are three separate parts to prepare this dish.

Malai cham cham recipe with step by step photos and instructions have been provided in the ‘Instruction’ section of the recipe. Here, I have included all the tricks and tips to prepare perfect chamcham recipe. If you follow the steps precisely then you will get perfect soft and juicy Malai cham cham which can even be better than the market bought ones.

How to make Malai cham cham?

To prepare the malai cham cham recipe, first I have curdled the milk to prepare fresh chenna for the sweet. Always use full fat milk to prepare Bengali sweet recipe. I have used lemon juice to curdle the milk. You can also use yogurt or vinegar for the same.

After curdling the milk completely, add cold water into it. Then strain it with a muslin cloth and wash it with water to get rid of the sourness of lemon. Squeeze the chenna for couple of times before tying it tightly. After this, hang the chenna for at least half an hour to filter out the excess water but not more than one and half hours. The Chenna should be dry enough that water should not drop from it. On the other hand, the Chenna should be moist enough that you can made smooth cylindrical shaped Chenna without any lines or cracks.

Knead the chenna with little bit of semolina and sugar and make a soft and smooth dough with it. Make equal sized small cylinders with the dough. Cook them in sugar syrup for 10-15 minutes. Then take the sweets out of the syrup.

On the other hand, prepare the malai with milk, mawa, sugar and a pinch of cardamom powder. Cardamom powder enhances the taste and flavour of the dish. If you don’t have cardamom powder, you can use whole cardamoms too. But discard them after preparing the malai. Cook the malai in low flame until you get the desired consistency. I always prefer malai of moderate consistency.

Note: The sweets cannot absorb too thick malai and at the same time too runny malai can spoil the taste of the complete dish.

Then apply pressure on the cooked sweets to squeeze out the excess sugar syrup and dunk them into the malai. Sprinkle grated mawa and a pinch of cardamom powder on the top of the sweets. Allow the sweets to rest for 5-6 hours into the refrigerator.

Ingredients:

• Full cream Milk, 1 Litre
• 1 Lemon
• 1 teaspoon Semolina (Rava), to prepare the chenna dough
• 1 teaspoon Sugar
• 2 tablespoons grated Mawa, for topping on sweet
• 3-4 chopped Pistachios, for garnishing

• 2 cups Sugar
• 4 Cups Water

• 1 cup Full cream milk
• 5-6 teaspoons Sugar, as per taste
• 3 tablespoons Mawa
• ¼ teaspoon Cardamom powder

1. Take 1 litre milk in a heavy bottom pan. Put the flame in medium high and let the milk boil.
   Tip: While boiling the milk, put the flame in medium and stir occasionally. Otherwise, the milk will stick to the bottom of the pan and a burning smell may get induced into the milk.
2. Once the milk starts boiling, put the flame on lowest.
3. On the other side, cut the Lemon into two pieces. Squeeze out the lemon juice into the milk with the help of a lemon squeezer. Stir it slowly and let the milk curdle. Stir for 1-2 minutes in lowest flame until the water gets separated completely.
4. Switch off the flame and add 1 cup of cold water into the pan to stop the chenna to get cooked further. Stir it.
5. On the other hand, take a large bowl and place a sieve on it. Put a Muslin cloth on the sieve. Pour the curdled milk immediately to the Muslin cloth. Add 1 more cup of cold water into it and wash the chenna.
6. Stir the Chenna gently for a minute with the help of a spatula to cool it off. Gather the corners of the cloth. Squeeze the excess water and then tie a tight knot of the cloth. Hang the Chenna for at least 30 minutes.For shaping the chenna for sweet
7. After 30 minutes, put the Chenna on a large plate. Break the Chenna with the help of fingers. Add 1 teaspoon fine Semolina and 1 teaspoon sugar into it.
8. Put pressure of your palm to break the grains of Chenna. Gather them at a place and again knead it in the same process for 4-5 minutes. Knead it until the dough becomes soft and smooth. Make sure there are no grains.
9. Divide the dough into 10-11 equal portions. Take one small portion at a time in your hand and make a small cylindrical shape for the sweet with the Chenna portion.
10. Put it on the plate and rotate it to smoothen its body. Make sure there are no cracks in the shaped chenna portions. Repeat the process and shape the sweet with rest of the chenna.
    Note: Cover the shaped sweet with a damp cloth until the syrup is ready.

    For making the sugar syrup

11. Add water and sugar into a large wide pan and put the flame on high.
12. Once it starts boiling, check whether it has any dirt inside the syrup. If you observe any dirt, then add 1-2 tablespoons milk. While the syrup starts boiling, the dirt will come on the top like froth. Discard the dirt with the help of a spoon. If there is no dirt, then skip this step.
13. Boil the syrup for 3-4 minutes. Put the flame in low and dunk the cylindrical shaped Chenna into sugar syrup one by one immediately.
14. Put the flame on high and cover the pan. Let them cook for 10 minutes. Don’t stir the sweet in between. They are very soft and may break. While they get boiled in the sugar syrup, they will rotate automatically.
15. After 10 minutes, the size of the sweets will be double in size.
16. Put the flame in medium low and cook it for another 10-12 minutes with cover.
17. Switch off the flame and allow it to rest.
18. Take another pan to prepare the malai and add 1 cup of milk into it. Put the flame in medium until the milk starts boiling. Stir in between.
19. Add 3 tablespoons of mawa into the milk and stir it properly. Cook the milk and mawa together for 10-15 minutes in medium low flame until you get the perfect creamy texture of the malai.
    Note: The consistency of the malai should neither be too thick nor too runny. It should be smooth, rich and creamy in texture.
20. Add sugar, cardamom powder into the malai and stir it. Cook it for another couple of minutes in low flame and switch off the flame. Transfer the malai in a flat container and wait until it cools down.
21. On the other hand, take out the sweets (Step 34) on a separate plate. Take each sweet on your hand and press it between your palms to squeeze out some sugar syrup from it. Then transfer the sweets into the malai filled flat container. Sprinkle some grated mawa and a pinch of cardamom powder over the top of each sweets.
22. Refrigerate the sweets to rest for 6 hours.
23. Chop some pistachios and sprinkle on the malai cham cham before serving.

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