Bengal Sweets

You know how much famous Bengal Sweets are. Last year I made a thread on Bengali sweets but unfortunately it got accidentally deleted. So, I’ve decided to re-create it in my blog this time. However this is not a complete list. I’ve only listed famous sweets with places where they have originated in West Bengal. Please understand the limitation. There are many traditional sweets which are made on speical occasion in Bengali households, those have been excluded here because most of them are not available on sweet shops around the year. Pitha a kind of rice cake very popular in Eastern India and Bengal in particular too have been excluded here. Bengal varieties alone numbers more than hundred. Ofcourse many of them are literally lost now but this list wouldn’t have ended tonight if I had decided to include them here. That would have been both tiring and irritating to be honest. Sweets from Bangladesh (originally made by Hindu sweet makers) have not been included either except for those ones who made their journey to WB after partition. Anyways, if anyone of you wants to recommend any sweets from WB which was not included here, then feel free to do so because I know this list have not done justice to various varieties of Sandesh available in sweet shops here. But please don’t suggest Rabri, it originated in Lucknow. Anyways, enjoy 🙂

1. Chom Chom of Belakoba :- Chom Chom is a traditional Bengali sweet. It’s origin can be traced back to Jasorath Haloi (and Ghosh & Paul clan later) of Porabari village of Tangail region in the undivided Mymensingh district about two hundred years ago.

It comes in a variety of colors, mainly light pink, light yellow, and white. Porabari Chom Chom comes in reddish shade with mawa(milk made) flakes as garnish. Anyway, enough with Porabari let us get back to Belakoba.

Ater partition, two sweet makers migrated to Jalpaiguri from Tangail. Dhiren Sarkar & Kalidas Dutta. Later more from Rajshahi & Pabna. By 1947, Chom Chom became a famous sweet and it was being produced everywhere in Bengal but makers from it’s origin place knew some secrets which other’s weren’t aware of. Soon, Belakoba emerged as a new center of authentic Chom Chom production.

In later years however, making process & ingredients of Belakoba Chom Chom differed from that of Porabari. For eg. Belakoba makers use Kṣīra & flower in addition with pure milk and sugar. The garnish used here is made of Kṣīra too unlike Porabari where they use mawa made of milk. Pure milk is an essential component. You can’t use oxytocin injection on cow to get more milk, only feeding nutritious foods will do. Cheese made from that milk is used for making this sweet. The real secret of keeping the cheese in the exact temperature on which it will burst is still a family secret among them. It’s such a famous sweet there that WB govt even considered making it an attraction point local tourism. Sweet makers are trying to get GI tag for Chom Chom now.

2. Lalmohan of Fulbari :- Lalmohan is a bit different from Pantua. This sweet originated in the Dhaka-Mymensingh region. After partition, Manindranath Ghosh from Dhaka came in Fulbari and started making this sweet here. Lalmohan is still popular in Bangladesh but Hindus don’t use egg, flour etc. thus BD ones look blackish while original lalmohan is deep red(thus the name lalmohan, in Bengali lal means red. Only components are cottage cheese & Kṣīra unlike Pantua which is made of cottage Cheese. Also, lalmohan is supposed to melt when you put it in your mouth otherwise it’s not lalmohan to begin with. Among famous people who tasted and lauded it, are Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Hemanta Mukhopadhyay etc.

3. Kansat of Malda :- Actually Kansat is the name of a place. The divided part of Malda which is now known as Nawabganj as a part of Bangladesh includes an area Shibganj. Shibganj as in the area had lots of Shiva temples before. Kansat is a locality in this Shibganj area. This sweet originated here but after partition, sweet makers left for Malda. This sweet isn’t much known outside of district. No doubt result of bad marketing. But, tasty nonetheless. Indira Gandhi was a big fan of Kansat after she tasted it. Kansat is made by frying cottage cheese in light sugar juice(unlike Cham Cham where one has to use heavy sugar juice). For coating one has to use Kṣīra & bits of Cardamom. To have a taste of authentic Kansat one has to travel to Malda.

4. White Boondia of Kamarpukur :- Kamarpukur at Hooghly is famous for being the birthplace of Sri Ramkrishna. There’s another unique feature of this place, White Boondi. However it’s ingredients are completely different from Boondi made in other parts of India. For eg. here the main component is not white chickpea flour at all. It’s flour made from white Cowpea here. Mixed with rice powder one has to fry it in ghee. After that dip it into sugar syrup. It was inovated by Madhusudan Modak in 1793(1200 Bangabda) according to the locals. It was favourite of Thakur Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa.

5. Ras-Kamdamba of Malda :- More than 500 years old, this sweet said to have originated in the life time of Mahaprabhu. The legend is that when Mahaprabhu visited Gaur to meet Rup Goswami & Sanatan Goswami. There he initiated two brothers under a Kadamba tree. Sweet makers of Gaur created this sweet keeping that incident in mind. Because of this legend Ras-kadamba remains very very popular among Vaishnavas.

The ingredients are cottage cheese, Kṣīra, sugar & poppy seeds. Process includes making a ball of cheese and put it into sugar syrup. Later sweet makers add vanila essence to it. Then dry it and coat it with Kṣīra. After that apply another coat of poppy seeds to it.

6. Mihidana of Bardhaman :- It was created in 1904 by Bhairab Chandra Nag from the order of then Bardhaman Raja. Mihidana itself has become inseparable from Bengali cuisine ever since. It’s no less popular than Rosogolla here. Primary ingredient of Mihidana is a mixture of Basmati & Gobindabhog rice powder mixed with powder of Bengal gram. Mihidana got the GI tag on April, 2017.

7. Sitabhog of Bardhaman :- Sitabhog is the twin sweet of Mihidana & it occupies the same elite place in the Bengali cuisine. It was created with Mihidana. Primary ingredient of Mihidana is a special type of Gobindabhog rice known as Sitasar which grows in Bardhaman only. Also needed are Cottage cheese & milk. For garnishment one either uses small Pantuas or Cashew nuts. Sitabhog got the GI tag in 2017.

8. Lyangcha of Shaktigarh :-  It is made from mixing flour and milk powder together, then frying it and dipping it into sugar syrup for a long time. There are several stories related to it’s origin. One credits the local sweet maker Lyangcha Dutta, another credits a sweet maker of Krishnanagar of Nadia as the first maker who was then brought to Bardhaman by the king. It’s more than 200 years old.

9. Makha Sandesh of Kalna :- The simplest kind of sandesh in Bengal is the makha sandesh (makha = kneaded). It is prepared by tossing the cottage cheese lightly with sugar over low heat. The sandesh is essentially hot, sweetened chhana. When shaped into balls, it is called Kanchagolla (kancha = raw; golla = ball). 

10. Gufo Sandesh of Guptipara(Hooghly) :-  Made from Pure cottage cheese, said to be the first branded sweet of Bengal. It made by adding two Sandesh with each other.

11. Manohara of Jonai :- Manohara of Jonai is very famous to say the least. It is more than 200 years old. As it happens with lack of records, oral version creates more and more new stories. Same with Manohara of Jonai. There are six origin stories and none can be verified because of the lack of evidence.

Ingredients used in making of Manohara are Cottage cheese, Pista, cardamom, milk, sugar & soft pulp of green coconut. Sugar is used as a coating above the sweet so it stays fresh for a long period. Because of this coating it remains fresh for 3 to 5 days without any refrigerator.

12. Jalbhora Sandesh of Chandannagar :- This variety of Sandesh completed it’s 200th birthday just two years ago. All you need to make cottage cheese, sugar, rose water(in winter nalen gur) etc. But the making process is not so easy. The rose water/nalen gur inside will remain intact as it is and cottage cheese won’t soke it up at all. That’s a very complex process.

13. Manohara of Beldanga :- At first I was conflicted about whether should I write about Manohara of Beldanga( Murshidabad) or not. You know same name and all, however Beldanga version uses different ingredients and the making process is different too. There are two versions, one credits Nawabs and another a local sweet maker.

Beldanga Manohara uses Kṣīra, Sar(the upper crust of milk produced after continuously boiling it), sugar & spice. The core is made from cardamom, nutmeg powder & mace powder.

14. Chana Bora of Baharampur :- This sweet took birth somewhere in the second half of 19th century. It’s main ingredient is Chana, i.e Cottage cheese. You need to fry the ball of cottage cheese in ghee, first in low heat and then in high temperature. Sometime sweet makers of Murshidabad fry it in the ghee for even 2-3 days in special occasion. After frying is complete one has to keep it inside sugar syrup for 24 hours.

15. Jhuri pata doi of Murshidabad :- A special type of mishti doi made in Murshidabad. Usually doi is settled in earthen pots but here it’s settled in Bamboo made pot or Jhuri. The holes are covered & inside smeared with kheer or dried milk. Then the curd is put there to settle. The doi is super thick and yellow-ish in color. It’s less sweet in taste and tastes like kheer. A speciality of Murshidabad.

16. Lal doi of Nawadwip :- It’s one of the most famous variety of Doi in the Bengal region. Though sweet curd is usually white, this one comes in red colour. It can also be stored for ten days. The quality of the curd is judged on its stickiness. To test it, it is also seen by turning down the pot. Even a Chakku or a knife is inserted inside the pot to check the thickness. Thus the name of Chakku yogurt came from that.

17. Kheer doi of Gangarampur :- It is a sweet curd alright but making process isn’t indegious to WB. It’s because most of the sweet makers came here from Bogra-Pabna area after partition. And, sweet curd/misti doi was said to have been first created in Bogra.

18. Sarpuriya of Krishnanagar :- One of those elite sweets in Bengali cuisine. It also won GI tag in April, 2017.

18. Sarbhaja of Krishnanagar :- Twin sweet of Sarbhaja. To make Sarbhaja one needs to create syrup & Sar separately.
For sugar syrup you need – sugar, cardamom & cinnamon.
For Sar(that condense part of milk made after boiling it after continuously) – Flour, milk, ghee, sugar, baking powder, mawa & ofcourse Sar !

19. Nikhuti of Shantipur :- In Bengali “Nikhut” means perfect. Once upon a time, daughter of a sweet maker accidentally created this sweet, her name was Nikhuti(because of her flawless beauty). Rest is history, now claims are being made for GI tag.

20. Pantua of Ranaghat :- Everyone knows about Pantua. It comes in the second place only after Rosogolla. Birthplace of Pantua is in Ranaghat. It’s the first of it’s kind, i.e Kṣīra & cottage cheese fried sweets. Pantua is primarily made from frying cottage cheese and there should be a hole inside of Pantua filled with sugar syrup inside. 

21. Kalojam :- It’s not Gulabjamun actually. It has to be made from mixture of cottage cheese & Kṣīra. Amount of Kṣīra will have to be in larger proportion and this portion will be inside of the sweet. After mixing and making a ball you have to fry it.

21. Chanar Payes :- Every Bengali is aware about this dessert.

22. Kadma of Mankar :- A special sweet made from boiling sugar and mixing cottage cheese water into it. In religious festival Kadma is a must as an offering to god.

23. Morabba of Suri :-

24. Mecha Sandesh of Beliatore :- Made from mixture of special flour created from Bengal gram and Kṣīra. One has to use to sugar syrup to make it. Said to have been very old but therest no origin story unlike other sweets mentioned before.

25. Babarsha of Khirpai :- Made from flour this sweet is unique to Khirpai and it should receive the GI tag ASAP. After mixing it with water one has to drop liquid flower into boiling ghee(or oil) one drop at a time. The art is to drop it such a way that all drops join together and form a shape.

26. Jilapi made of daal, Keshpur :- Jilapi made from Moog daal fried in ghee and keep it in sugar syrup.

27. Jilapi of Chhana :- Jilapi made of cottage cheese.

28. Kastar Mithai, Purulia :- Unique to Kashipur, Purulia, this sweet is vanishing fast. One needs cottage cheese, Kṣīra, flour made from Bengal gram, nutmeg, mace, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, saffron,  cashew, raisin & Nageshwar Kusum flower. Make ball of this mixture and fry it in the ghee. After that dip it in the sugar syrup to soften it. Then make a laddu ball out of it.

29. Moa of Jaynagar :- Made from patched rice of Kanak chur, pure ghee and Nalen gur. Also, Kṣīra, Cashew nuts, Raisin, pista are used for garnishment.

30. Khirer Singara :- Singara deep fried in the sugar syrup, inside there’s a filling of Kṣīra. Delicious to say the least.

31. Rosomalai :- Unique sweet to Bengal region. Dip small Rosogollas in sugar syrup and dense mix sweet milk. Surpassingly the cheese ball i.e rosogolla doesn’t disintegrates after days.

32. Kamala bhog :- It’s a variation of rosogolla. Here orange is used with cottage cheese to make this sweet. Well known and popular in Bengal.

33. Monda :- It said to have been originated in Mymensingh. It travelled to Coochbihar post-partition with Jatindra Mohan Dey. Other than that few sweet shops exists in North Kolkata, Murshidabad, Bardhaman and Bankura from old days. Monda was a famous sweet in Bengal once upon a time. Procees includes taking mixture of Kṣīra or cottage cheese mixed with sugar and putting them into a cloth and then striking them in a hard surface to shape them. The milk from which Kṣīra or Cottage cheese will be made has to be pure however.

34. Rosogolla :- Pride and Joy of Bengal.

35. Kalakand Sandesh :- Sandesh is something which is integral to Bengali cuisine. They have been mentioned in even 13th century. And, Kalakand probably takes the cake.