Indian milk sweet recipes have an important place in my heart. I love them so much. If you check out my sweets page in Recipe index, you will understand what I am talking about. And among Indian sweets, milk sweets are more close to my heart. Amma used to prepare lots of sweets, so I know all about the sugar consistencies, padham or consistency of every sweet she made even from an early age.
She always said that I was her right hand when making sweets and savouries. I knew what she was going to ask and was always ready before she asked. Yes, we had that kind of understanding, so she would only trust me with certain things when it comes to cooking. How cool is that?
My parents live in Calcutta, called as Kolkata nowadays for a few years. I was taken as an infant to Kolkata and I grew up there for three years. So somehow the milk sweets has always attracted me even though I don’t remember my days there.
My everlasting love for milk sweets!
If someone says Bengali sweets, I will be the first person there waiting to taste it. During Amma’s experiments, even though it turns out to be a failure, my dad and myself will finish that sweet off. And whenever I plan any type of sweet, milk sweet will definitely be in the list. Here I am compiling twenty of my favourite milk sweet recipes. Let me know which is your favourite.
Most of the recipes given are paneer based sweets and some are made by reducing milk. Trust me, each and every sweet featured here taste amazing. So if you are delibrating on preparing a milk sweet for your next celebration, then this post will help you finalize it.
This post is so long, but I am yet not satisfied. I had to exclude so many of my favourites as the post is only about twenty sweets. Let me make one more with another set of recipes soon. Until then, enjoy this visual treat!
Indian Milk Sweet Recipes
Click on the name or the picture to read the whole recipe.
1. Rajbhog
If you like rasgolla, then you will love Rajbhog. Rajbhog are bigger rasgollas stuffed with a delicious mawa and dry fruits filling. The making is just like rasgolla. Some also add saffron to the syrup and food colour to the paneer while kneading. It is also made without any stuffing but made larger in size compared to rasgollas.
2. Kala Jamun
Kala jamuns are as the name suggests very dark in colour and are not served with syrup like the regular gulab jamuns. These are on the drier side without any syrup dripping from it. That is what makes it more tasty.
3. Keer Sagar / Angoori Rasmalai
Angoori rasmalai/ Kheer Saagar is a Odisha delicacy similar to Bengal’s rasmalai. But the shape of the rasgollas added in the dish is different. Tiny round rasgollas are added to flavoured reduced milk and served chilled for a lip smacking dessert.
4. Bhappa Sandesh / Icecream Sandesh
There is one word to describe this sweet – Heaven. Sandesh mix is made with softest malai paneer kneaded with saffron and condensed milk and steamed to perfection.
5. Chenna Murkhi
Chenna Murki/ Chhenna murkhi is a Bengali sweet made for special occasions. You just need some cubed paneer and sugar and you are ready to go.
6. Chenna Malpua
The procedure is so similar to all the paneer based sweets. A little flour is used to bind the paneer. Use soft home made paneer for good results. Deep frying gets a little technical here. If you deep fry on high flame, the malpua will burn fast without cooking and they will disintegrate easily. Use medium to low flame and be patient while they are frying. Flip only when the bottom is cooked and firm.
7. Channar Puli
This is a Bengali sweet made with paneer. Though some posts say that it is gulab jamun made with paneer, I felt that it tasted different with more flour in the recipe. The recipe uses sweetened condensed milk in the dough and uses comparatively larger amount of maida.
8. Cake Sondesh
The reason this is named as cake sondesh is the use of vanilla and cocoa powder. Usually we add cardamom powder which gives the authentic sweet flavour. We add vanilla in this recipe which gives a cake like flavour to the sweet. And there are two layers in the sweet. The inner vanilla sandesh and the outer chocolate sandesh. When you bite into it, you won’t feel like eating sandesh.
9. Bhappa Doi and Kaanchagolla
Bhappa Doi is a steamed milk curd preparation. It is basically steamed curd and it is sweetened either with condensed milk or sugar. Kaanchagolla is a type of Sondesh is a no cook one in which warm chenna is kneaded with sugar to make a smooth dough and it is inturn made into small balls. This type of Sondesh is famous in Natore, a town in Bangladesh.
10. Rasgolla and Rasmalai
How can I make milk sweets post without my most favourite of them all. I have uploaded my rasgolla and rasmalai as video in Youtube and not sure why I didn’t write about them. Basically rasgollas are cheese dumplings cooked in sugar syrup and rasmalai is nothing but rasgollas served in a sweet milk based sauce.
11. Thirattu Paal
Thirattu paal is a Chettinad delicacy which is made for Ganesh Chaturti. It tastes so much like paalkova but the procedure is quite different. You need some patience while making this sweet as the milk needs to be reduced on low or medium heat.
12. Rasabali
Paneer patties are deep fried and soaked in thick sweetened milk and served as prasad. This is one of the sweets included in Chapan Bhog for Jagannath.
13. Milk Cake
Think of this as a cousin to kalakand. For kalakand, we cook paneer, mawa and sugar but it is set when it is soft and white in colour, but for the milk cake, milk is reduced to thick consistency like mawa, then lemon juice is added to curdle the mixture and then sugar is added and cooked until dry. So the result is a deep browned sweet, which is slightly tangy and absolutely delicious.
14. Malai Chop / Malai Chom Chom
However you serve a Bengali milk sweet, they look fabulous. This is served out of the malai, but the chom chom would be dunked in the malai and would have absorbed the malai.
15. Kheerer Chop
This chop has a crispy outer covering ad a delicious rich mawa filling inside. As the outer covering is not sweetened, the whole sweet is dipped in sugar syrup to give the sweetness.
16. Goan Milk Cream
Made with condensed milk and cashew nut, this just melts in your mouth and is so rich. Traditionally whole milk and sugar are boiled until thick and then cashew nuts powder added to it. It takes a while to reduce milk, but the easier method is with condensed milk. This comes together within 15 minutes and you need to keep stirring the mix to avoid burning.
17. Kheer-er- Shingara
Shingara is nothing but Samosa in Bengali cuisine. While there are so many savoury samosa recipes, there are also mishti shingara (sweet samosa) recipes in the cuisine. There is also another version of these sweet samosas with paneer filling, but I chose to make it with mawa filling.
18. Chenna Gaja
This chenna gaja is so popular in Odisha, but hasn’t spread in other states. The procedure is not very tough and the sweet is so good. The paneer cubes are deep fried and soaked in syrup and then allowed to dry out. So the sweet is crisp on the outside and juicy inside.
19. Kheer-er Goja
Goja / Gaja are deep fried sweets common in both cuisine. They can be made with paneer, mawa or maida and with the difference in the ingredients, the name changes. This is made with a combination of maida and mawa. I used my home made mawa and the gojas turned out wonderful.
20. Chenna Kheeri
Chenna Kheeri is a simple yet delicious dessert from Odisha. Crumbled paneer is roasted in ghee and then milk and sugar are added and boiled together to get kheer consistency.
I hope you find this compilation helpful. Please let me know in comments, which is your most favourite?
