Chenna Poda Recipe

Chenna poda recipe is exceptional milk sweet made with paneer. Cardamom and cashewnuts add so much flavour and texture to the soft and dense cake.

Paneer is one of my favourite ingredients to make sweets. The Bengali and Odisha sweets are my most favourite. Do you like paneer sweets? Then this is definitely for you.

Chenna Poda Recipe Origins

Chenna poda literally means baked cheese (source: Wiki) Usually chenna poda is baked in Chulha, which is similar to man aduppu in Tamilnadu. But nowadays ovens make it easier to bake. We bake chenna poda on low heat for a long time to get that caramelized finish without burning it.

The first time I made Chenna poda which is years back, I added some sugar at the bottom of the pan, heated it to caramelize it and then added the dough. I omitted the step this time.

Chenna Poda – Not your usual cake

You might call this a cheesecake as it is made with paneer, but the texture is not like your regular cake or cheesecake. It is dense, heavy and very similar to any Indian mithai and is also very rich. A small piece makes you feel full. And the preparation is also very easy. You can put together the dish in just five minutes, if you have the paneer ready.

Using soft paneer is quite essential for the final result. Even if you are going for store bought paneer, use malai paneer which is soft textured. Or you can also make it easily at home. Please check my recipe below if you are interested in making paneer at home. Click on the image for recipe.

As there is no leavening in the dough, the cake won’t rise much. It will slightly puff up but also will go back to its original size when cooling.

The finished cake looks so gorgeous. The slivered almonds and pistachios add so much beauty to the final cake. The raisins and cashew nuts add crunch. You can get all these from Amazon itself. I am linking them to the Amazon page.

Chenna Poda Video demo

As usual, I made a short video for the recipe demo. Please check it out in my Insta page. If you like it, follow my profile for many interesting updates regarding baking.

Chenna Poda Recipe

Gayathri Kumar

Chenna poda is exceptional milk sweet made with paneer. Cardamom and cashewnuts add so much flavour and texture to the soft and dense cake.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 50 minutes mins

Course Dessert, Sweets

Cuisine Indian

Servings 8 Servings

Ingredients

  

• 400 g Soft malai paneer
• 150 g Sugar
• 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
• 30 g Sooji/ Rava
• 30 g Chopped Cashewnuts
• 2 tbs Raisins

Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 160C.
• Mash paneer until soft and dough like.
• Add sugar, cardamom powder, sooji and cashew nuts and mix well.
• Line a 6” round tin and keep ready.
• Transfer the paneer mix to the tin, press with a spoon to level and add chopped pistachios and almonds.
• Bake in preheated oven for 40-50 minutes or unitl golden in colour.
• Remove from oven and allow the chenna poda to cool completely.
• Remove from the tin, slice it and serve.
• Store remaining in an air tight box in fridge.

Keyword Chenna Poda Recipe