Sweet Kachori - Cottage cheese stuffed sweet balls

You would agree that Indian sweets are very versatile when it comes to experiment with them. We have this extremely wide range of sweets and desserts which are easy to play with  unless  you are looking for the traditional and authentic taste. Indian fusion cooking, as its popularly called is very "in" these days specially with all the "health craze" going around. The recipes which require an awful lot amount of fat and sugar, we are tweaking them as per our own preferences and life style. This is usually good since it keeps your carvings at bay, but then the actual taste gets lost somewhere. Like, how would Ras malayi taste with low fat milk, or even GulabJamun if baked instead of fried. I know, most of the Indian Bloggers must have at least tried it some or the other time. But we all understand, it never brings out the best from within.

Anyway, talking about fusion food, these sweet kachoris totally fall into this Genre. Kachoris are usually savoury deep fried pastries, with spiced lentils or veggies stuffed inside. The two Kachoris I have posted on my blog so far are Raj Kachori and Moong daal khasta Kachoris, both being my favorite. I never knew or rather explored that these can be made sweet too. Although there are similar sweets being made such as Gujhiya ( in North India ) and Karanji ( in South India ) but none of them uses paneer ( Indian cottage cheese ) as filling. And with the addition of chocolate chips, they really do make a great crispy sweet snack.

This recipe has been taken from the book "Devnna - Indian inspired sweets". My friend Nisha, who blogs at My kitchen antics got the book from Devnna for review and she prepared these amazing Hazelnut chocolateLaddoos. They were crunchy from outside and soft from inside, which is again, a very nice twist to the usual laddoos. I know that since Nisha very sweetly  gifted a batch to each one of us during the first BBPC photography session. Devnaa was one of our generous sponsor for BloggersBuzz last year,  where they provided a very colourful specialty - Indian fusion chocolate box for all the participants.

So anyway, Nisha also got a bag of stuff for these Kachoris from them to try on. And since she doesn’t prepare Indian sweets  that often on her own, I shamelessly asked her if I could do that. The recipe  was well explained in the book and the result was loved by me and S both. The Kachoris are crunchy from outside, with melt in mouth sweet filling inside. They are best eaten when hot and freshly deep fried. We ate it with chilled Rabdi, and the combo was heavenly.

I found adding paneer easier than Mawa/Khoya, since A) we don’t get Khoya here, and B) it takes hell an awful lot of time to prepare it. So Paneer is an easy bet for me, plus both of us love it anyway. Surprisingly, this recipe uses minimal ingredients all of which are easily available plus its very mildly sweet which makes it very appetizing. Do try it on for this Diwali, and let me know how do you find them.  :)

What you need?

• 250-300 gms soft full fat Paneer
• 30 g caster sugar
• 2 tbsp chocolate chip
• 2 tbsp chopped pistachios
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
• 200 g plain flour
• 2 tbs ghee
• 150 ml warm water
• oil for frying

How to make?

• Take paneer and grate it gently in a big bowl. Since I used home made paneer, it was very soft and I just crumbled it by hands.
• In another mixing bowl,  sift the flour,add the ghee and rub it into the flour.
• Add half of the water to the flour and knead into a smooth soft dough that isn't sticky but isn't dry either,  use the remaining water as required
• cover and leave aside to rest for at least 15 minutes or until the filling is ready.

• Meanwhile, place the dried paneer into a food processor and pulse 3-4 times just to make it slightly smooth and sticky enough so that it holds together when pressed
• Add the sugar to taste and then fold the chocolate chips, nuts and cardamom into the paneer.
• Taking about half tea spoon of the mixture at a time roll about 15 balls, keep on a greased plate aside.

• Divide the dough into 15 section and taking 1 at a time roll into almost 8 cm circles. Do not use extra flour on the rolling surface, it should be just dry enough not to stick.
• Place the ball of the filling in the middle of the pastry circle and bring up the size of the pastry to encase the filling
• Pinch the dough at the top to remove any excess and leave covered with the tea towel while you prepare the rest of the kachori.

• Heat oil in a Kadhai. When its hot enough, fry 3-4 kachoris at one time giving them enough space to immerse and float around properly. Keep the flame on low-medium, each kachori will take around 3-4 minutes to get cooked properly. My batch of 15 got ready in less than 30 min.
• Sprinkle on a little icing sugar if desired and serve warm.

Some notes and tips:

• Chocolate chips are totally optional in this recipe, I only used it  since the recipe in  the book said so. Although it was good when the melted chocolate comes in the bite, but not everyone would like it. 
• You may also add dried nuts like cashews, almonds into the filling. That would taste amazing too
• Adding a pinch of saffron would take this to another level completely
• Take care that the stuffing is dry and does not contain any liquid like milk or water, else the Kachoris will break when you start frying them  or will turn soggy later
• Do not over cook the Kachoris else the stuffing will get hard, eat when fresh else reheating will spoil the taste
• Serving suggestion - with chilled Rabdi... yummy !!