The traditional process of making Chhena Poda is entirely different from the way we attempt to make it at home. But then the reason behind the homely attempt of making it is the love for Chhena Poda, a sweet that reminds me of Puri, holidays near the sea-side, memories of childhood. In my Delhi days, we used to get Chhena Poda on our every visit to Dilli Haat, INA, from the Odisha food stall. They make it very well. Chhena Poda is our very own Desi Cheesecake, it’s my go-to dessert that I make whenever I feel like having something sweet other than cake. Usually, people make it with fresh homemade Chhena, but I’ve made it umpteen times with store-bought paneer, and it comes out great always. Ready to use paneer makes the work easier and reduce the efforts. I hope you’ll enjoy baking this for your family and friends, do share your experience with me if you’re trying this recipe. 🙂
Chhena Poda / Baked Indian Cheesecake
Chhena Poda is a traditional Odia sweet. This easy recipe calls for store-bought paneer as the main ingredient, and the result is addictive slices, it’s hard to stop at one.
Ingredients
- 400g- Paneer/Cottage Cheese (read note)
- ¼ cup + 2 tbsp- Milk
- 1 cup + 1/3 cup- Caster sugar/White powdered sugar
- 5- Green Cardamoms (discard the peels and grind the seeds to a fine powder by using the mortar-pestle)
- ¼ cup- Fine Suji/Rava/Semolina (read note)
- 2 tbsp- Ghee/Clarified butter
Instructions
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You can make Chhena Poda with homemade chhena/fresh cottage cheese, or you can use store-bought fresh Malai Paneer. Make sure that the paneer you’re using is fresh and soft. I’ve used store-bought paneer for this recipe.
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Add the crushed paneer and milk to a mixer/food processor, process until smooth. Transfer the blended chhena to a bowl, make sure that there is no lump in the chhena before you’re adding the other ingredients into it.
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Prepare a 6” round cake pan by greasing with ghee and place a piece of baking paper at the bottom of the pan.
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Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.
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Add suji, sugar, ghee, and cardamom powder to the blended paneer. Start mixing by using your fingers, keep mixing the chhena mixture until everything comes together and a thick, smooth batter forms. It should take 2-3 minutes.
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Transfer this chhena mixture to the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula.
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Bake for 1 hour 45 minutes (read note) or until the top of the Chhena Poda turns dark brown in colour. Rotate the pan after every 30 minutes if you’re using an OTG. At the end of the baking time, a wooden skewer inserted to the center of the Chhena Poda would come out clean.
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Cool Chhena Poda in the pan for 15 minutes and then run a sharp knife around the edges of the pan and carefully remove it. Turn onto a cooling rack and leave there until cool completely.
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When cooled slice, serve, and enjoy! Keep rest of the slices refrigerated and consume within a week.
Recipe Notes
- For a smaller version of Chhena Poda use 200g Paneer, halve the other ingredients. The baking time would be 90 minutes.
- It’s important that you use fine suji for this recipe. If you only have coarse suji at home, blitz in a food processor until fine, and then use.
- Longer baking time is important here to achieve the caramelized dark brown colour which is the hallmark of Chhena Poda. Due to long baking time in the oven, the outer surface of Chhena Poda becomes firm after baking, but it becomes softer the next day. So, you can plan to make the sweet accordingly, if guests are visiting or you’re planning to gift the sweet, make it a day ahead.
I tried this recipe and it turned out awesome. I’m not a big fan of chhena but I loved the outcome. My family is in love with this. Thank you Chandrima for the recipe🙂.
Hi Bishakha, I’m glad to hear that the recipe worked well, thank you for sharing your experience with me. 🙂
Hi:) I’m planning to make this one day ahead for an event. will I have to refrigerate it or would it be fine at room temperature for one day (say about 12hours)?
Hi, Please keep it refrigerated after cooling down at room temperature.