Go ahead! Celebrate as it is Chhena Poda Dibasa

Chhena Poda is a sweet dish that literally means Baked Cheese from Odisha. The sweet dish is made of well-kneaded homemade fresh cheese (chhena), and sugar, and is baked for several hours until it is cooked.

It is also believed that Chhena Poda is the favorite sweet of Lord Jagannath.

Chhena Poda is known as one of the Indian desserts whose flavor is predominantly derived from the caramelization of sugar.

The sweet dish has been originated in Dasapalla village in 1947 by Late Sudarsan Sahu. He decided to preserve the sweetened Chenna in a preheated oven which later turned out to be a delicious dessert. Since then, the recipe has taken over all over India.

India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Odisha’s former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik were impressed with the famous Chhena Poda sweet dish and had praised Sahu for his creation.

Notably, Sahu breathed his last at the age of 86 on November 24, 2016 due to old age-related ailments. He is survived by 3 sons and 2 daughters.

Ingredients to make Chhena Poda

• 250 grams paneer or chenna
• ½ cup sugar or 125 grams sugar or ½ cup jaggery powder
• ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
• ½ tablespoon rice flour
• cashews and raisins can be added
• 1 to 2 teaspoons Ghee or as needed for greasing tray/pan

How To Make Chhena Poda?

• Line a baking pan with some chopped banana leaves. Grease the banana leaves with some ghee. You can also use butter paper or parchment paper instead of banana leaves. (Or you can skip everything and just grease the pan with ghee on all sides.)
• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius for 15 minutes.
• Take 250 grams of fresh paneer or chenna and crumble it very well.
• Add ½ cup sugar. You can also use ½ cup jaggery powder instead of sugar and mix it wish chhena.
• Continue to mash and knead the Chenna ( just the way you would knead a chapati dough)
• The paneer mixture has to become loose, light and with a cake batter like consistency (The more light and softer the consistency, the better the chenna poda tastes). In case the mixture looks dry, then you can add a few tablespoons of milk or water.
• Once you get a batter like consistency in the paneer mixture, then add ½ teaspoon cardamom powder and ½ tablespoon rice flour. (Instead of rice flour, you can also use fine rava )
• Some chopped dry fruits like cashews, almonds and raisins can also be added.
• Pour the chhena poda mixture in the pan (Shake the pan gently so that the chhena poda mixture spreads evenly) and level the top with a spatula.
• Place the pan in the oven and bake chena poda for around 30 to 45 minutes. ( If using OTG, use the toast mode and keep pan in the center)
• Bake chhena poda till the top crust gets a dark golden color. (Oven times vary, so do keep a check. )
• Remove the pan from the oven once done.
• Check with a bamboo skewer or toothpick and it should be clean. There should be no sticky batter on the toothpick.
• Let the chhena poda cool completely in the pan. Then remove it.
• You can slice and then serve chhena poda. Leftover can be refrigerated for 2 to 3 days.