Saturday, December 29, 2012


Western twist to festive sweets


KOLKATA: The top mishti brands of the city have taken up the challenge to beat the cake wallahs this season with an array of firang flavoured goodies. Chocolate and notun gur are fusing with cottage cheese to bring out some of the most lipsmacking sweets ever.

Be it Balaram Mullick, Banchharam, Bhim Nag or KC Das, the doyens in the sweet world of Kolkata have come out with innovations like nolen gur-er souffle, notun gur-er truffle sandesh, baked plum cake.

"Times are changing and we cannot expect the new generation to come looking only for sandesh, rossogolla and khirer chop. Today's kids are educated differently and more used to a western lifestyle. Our challenge is to keep kids coming to us, so we constantly experiment with our sweets," shared Sudip Mullick of Balaram Mullick.

For the notun gur-er truffle sandesh, white Belgian chocolate is imported to make the covering for the melted heart of nolen-gur patali. Again, a traditional sandesh is stuffed with dry fruits and then baked almost like a cake to make the baked plum cake sandesh. Real souffle cream is used outside a kanchagolla that is filled with molten notun gur.

Bhim Nag, the sandesh king, is going the traditional way this New Year and plans to bring back some stunning lost favourites. Monohora, for example, will smell and taste of nolen gur and cardamom. The gur-er barfi with a liberal mix of crushed cashew nuts and monoranjan are being introduced just for this festive season.

"Monoranjan looks like the groom's headgear and we are re-introducing it after decades. The magic lies in the portion of gur and cottage cheese, the temperature in which they are mixed and the final garnishing," said Pradip Nag.

KC Das has come up with a bell-shaped sandesh made of chhana but with a heart made of pure chocolate sauce. It has also made new savouries for the season. So you have the singara Italiano where the stuffing is a mix of American corn, capsicum and mozzarella cheese, flavoured by oregano. "We are happy that the young and old are both lapping it up," said Dhiman Das, of KC Das.

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