My Thakuma's Pantua

The greatness of Indian sweets is that there is a vast variety and you will find a different sweet in every mile you cover in India. If you think of Indian sweets, one State that immediately comes to your mind is Bengal. Sweet is a part of our culture as the saying goes in Bengali "Baro mashe Tero Parbon" There is a sweet for every occasion in Bengal . Every part of a Bengali is sweet.

My Thakuma ( Grandma ) gave "Bhog" to Gopal (Lord ) and so cooked for Him in the "Thakur Ghar"(Prayer Room) seperately. Numerous dishes were offered and thakuma ate nothing but Bhog(Offerings) all day. Sweets were prepared at home as they were offered to the Lord. No outside food could be offered to the Lord , so a variety of sweets were made and the ladies of the family learnt to make all, at home.

Bengal is a land of temples and every Lord has a sweet that is considered his favourite.
Misti lovers, its time to surrender to "sweetness "this week.

Thamma's Pantua :

Full fat milk is required for this dessert. 

Milk......................................................1litre
Calcium lactate......................................1-11/2tsp as required
Refined Flour........................................2 tbsp
Desi Ghee...............................................1 tsp (for the Pantua)
Sugar......................................................1 tbsp
Sodi-bi-carb/ Baking Soda.......................2 pinch
Sugar........................................................1 &1/2 cup (for syrup)
Water........................................................1 cup
Refind Oil/Desi Ghee..................................Enough for frying

This is how......

To Prepare Pantua Like my Thakuma.......You will require 1 litre Full Fat Milk . Boil the milk and reduce the flame and add Calcium Lactate as much as required to make the cottage cheese required for the dessert. increase the heat once calcium lactate is added and mix with a spoon. Put flame off and let it rest. Then strain in a Mulmal Cloth to drain out excess water. When absolutely dry (do not try to squeeze out water if any)  put the prepared cheese in a flat dish and add 2 tbsp White Refined Flour,1 tsp Desi Ghee (Clarified Butter), 1 tbsp Sugar and 2 pinches of Sodi-bi-carb or Baking Soda. Now mix well , rubbing with the your palm until absolutely smooth. Do not put your body weight to do this. Cover with a wet cloth and let it rest, while you prepare the sugar syrup.

For the syrup, take 1 1/2 cup Sugar and 1 cup water and boil together to prepare a medium consistency syrup.

To deep fry the Pantua, heat enough Refined Oil in a deep Pan/ wok. You can add 2-3 tbsp Desi Ghee to increase the flavour. Thakuma used to deep fry all Pantua's  in a wok full of pure Desi ghee !!
Now, divide the prepared cottage cheese into 10 equal parts and make equal size balls. Take each ball and put a filling of "Nokul Dana" . This is done now-a-day's in shops but what my Grandma did was different. You can also make a filling of Khoya (Dried milk)-Sugar-Saffron. Take all three ingredients and mix well together. Make a very tiny ball of this mix to fill in the Pantua as filling. After filling the Pantua , smoothen the cottage cheese ball between your palms and keep all ready to fry.

Heat  the oil up, reduce the flame and then add the Pantua balls in a batch of four-five to deep fry.
Fry brownish in colour and immediately add to hot syrup. Let the Pantua's soak for at least 2-3 hrs in syrup.
The Pantua's will soak syrup and swell up a bit so it helps to take a large flat dish for this purpose.
In case the syrup is entirely soaked up, prepare some more and add to the dessert.

Serve hot.

After eating these your family is sure to say"Once More Please"


I have been able to get this from an almost perishing note book written by Thakuma.
Will put pics soon. I look forward to hearing from people who share my passion for Bengali Cuisine. If you prepare this please do let me know.