Ever since I started writing my blog, my kids would continuously ask me to post a dessert recipe in my blog and I was postponing it every time. I normally don’t prepare desserts very often at home, except on festivals and important occasions as I am worried about putting on weight, and I honestly am not a huge fan of sweets. But my husband and kids have a sweet tooth and they always crave desserts after their meal. Today I thought of making a dessert using mangoes as part of my Mango Mania challenge. As the festive season started from this month for us Indians, I thought of making a traditional sweet that can be offered during pooja on the festivals. And here I am, with one of the very popular desserts of India, kalakand with the benefit of added sweet flavors from the tropical mangoes- Mango Kalakand!
Kalakand is a soft melt-in-the-mouth type of milk cake, originally popular in the subcontinent of India, that is traditionally prepared during the festive season. This delicious dessert is rich, soft and grainy in texture. It is prepared by curdling milk and adding it to rich creamy milk or a milk powder, sugar, and topped with nuts like almonds or pistachios. And this mango kalakand is loaded with the extra sweetness and aroma of mangoes too. The color of this mango kalakand doesn’t only appeal to the eye, but entices our sweet tooth as well. And the best thing is, it is one of the easy and quickest recipes among Indian desserts. You can prepare it in advance and store it in the refrigerator to consume for the next couple of days. A completely hassle-free and easy recipe with minimalistic ingredients- milk and sugar. So, let’s have a look at the method of preparing this delicious dessert that will make anyone flaunt for it’s taste.
Click below to see other Mango recipes:
Sweet & Sour Tacos Mango kulfi Mango nutella pancake Mango almond milkshake
Kalakand Recipe:
Boil the milk in a vessel and when it comes to a boil, add an acidic ingredient like lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk. Once the milk starts curdling, turn the heat off and add some ice cubes. This helps the curd to separate from it’s whey. Strain it in a colander, using a cheese cloth or muslin cloth to wrap the curds.
Holding the cheese cloth or muslin cloth tightly, wash it under the tap water to let the sourness of lemon or vinegar reduce and squeeze it well to remove the excess water. And your paneer (Indian cottage cheese) is ready. Do not knead the paneer.
Heat ghee (clarified butter) in a thick, wide pan (preferably a non-stick pan), over medium heat and add the crumbled paneer to it. If you’re using the store bought paneer, make sure it’s fresh and soft. Fresh paneer is the key ingredient of this dessert. The more fresh it is, the more smoother and tastier the kalakand will be. Cook the paneer for about 5 minutes, till the raw flavor is gone and add the milk-mava powder. Milk-mava powder is a short procedure of boiling the whole milk for about 45-50 minutes til’ it comes to almost 1/3rd of it’s previous consistency, and becomes thick and creamy in texture. I wanted to prepare it in the fastest way possible, so I used milk-mava powder, but if you want to do it in a traditional way, go ahead and boil the milk until it becomes thick and creamy and then add the paneer. Keep stirring till the mixture thickens and forms a soft dough-like consistency.
Set the heat to low and keep stirring for about 5 minutes. Add some cardamom powder (optional) to enhance the aroma of this dessert. Stir for about two minutes and then add sugar to it. If your mangoes are too sweet, then add less sugar. I added 1/2 cup of sugar to my paneer-mava mixture. Continue stirring in the pan until the mixture becomes a soft lump. If you want to make the original Kalakand, your recipe ends here! But as I am adding the mango flavor to it, I continued cooking it further.
I added about 1/2 a cup of mango pureé that I blended from 2 small mangoes (peeled, removed the seed and blended). Combine it well into the kalakand mix and cook till the raw flavors of the mango disappears, for about 5-7 minutes.
Turn the heat off and transfer the mango-kalakand mix to a plate or a tray about half inch thick from the sides, greased with oil/ghee.
Decorate it with nuts or dry fruits of your choice. I added some thinly sliced almonds on my mango-kalakand mix. Let it cool for about an hour and cut the kalakand into squares.
You can also mould them into desired shapes. I shaped my kalakand mix into tiny mangoes just to decorate the plate, and honestly they’re so appealing to the eye that my kids asked me why I didn’t shape all of them into mangoes. Enjoy the mouth-watering Mango-Kalakand with your friends, family and loved ones during this festive season!
| Prep Time | 5 minutes |
| Cook Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
pieces
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- 4 cups of milk to make paneer
- 1-2 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to curdle the milk
- 1 cup milk-mava powder
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup mango purée
- 8-10 pcs cardamom powdered
- 1-2 tablespoon of sliced almonds
Ingredients
|
|
- Heat the milk in a vessel, when it comes to a boil, add lemon juice or vinegar to curdle it.
- Once the milk starts curdling, turn the heat off and add some ice cubes.
- Strain the curdled milk in a colander, using a cheese cloth or muslin cloth.
- Wrap the curds in a muslin cloth, rinse under cold water, and squeeze well.
- Heat ghee (clarified butter) in a thick, wide pan (preferably a non-stick pan), over medium heat and add the crumbled paneer to it.
- Cook the paneer for about 5 minutes, till the raw flavor is gone.
- Add the milk-mava powder.
- Keep stirring till the mixture thickens and forms a soft dough-like consistency.
- Add some cardamom powder (optional).
- Stir for about two minutes and then add sugar to it.
- Continue stirring in the pan until the mixture becomes a soft lump.
- Add in the mango pureé.
- Mix it well into the kalakand mix and cook for about 5-7 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and transfer the mango-kalakand mix to a plate or a tray.(greased)
- Decorate it with almonds.
- Let it cool for about an hour and cut the kalakand into squares.
