Chum Chum (Bengali Sweet)

                                                        

Chum Chum 

Chum chum  also known as chom chom or cham cham is one of the other Bengali delicacies apart from rasgulla, sandesh and rasmalai. Oval shaped chena  balls are cooked in sugar syrup just like the rasgulla.Then garnished in different ways.Few variations of the garnishings are to stuff with mawa/khoya or dunk them in rabri or just serve them with coconut garnish.

Unlike the rasgulla this is not served with sugar syrup, so the sugar syrup can be reused for other recipes like gulab jamuns. Commercially sold chum chum are colorful as food colors are used while preparing. Since I do not prefer colors, I have not used. If you want to make chum chum colorful, then you can add few drops of it while kneading the chena.

Once my husband’s friend had brought this bengali sweet in the office from Kaka halwai in pune; my hubby had liked its taste very much.Hubby has a sweet tooth and it was his demand to make this dessert.Today I had around a litre of milk extra in my fridge. I remembered this recipe and thought of giving it a try.I prepared this recipe for the first time and it was ultimate in taste and shape.

                                                           

Chena mixed with semolina

        Ingredients

        To make chena

• 1 litres or 4 cups full fat milk
• 2 to 4 tsp lemon juice or vinegar diluted with 4 tsp water
• Semolina (1 tsp)

                                                          

Oval chena balls

        For the sugar syrup 

• 1 ¼ cup sugar
• 3 ¼ cups of water
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder

                                                       

Chena balls cooking in sugar syrup

        For filling

• 4 tbsp mawa/khoya
• 1 tbsp sugar (powdered, adjust to suit your taste)
• Chopped dry fruits (1-2 tablespoon)
• Few strands of kesar
• Cardamom powder (1/4 tsp)  

                                                           

Ingredients to make  filling

        For garnishing

• Few pistachios and desiccated coconut.                                                                                             

                                                               

Khoya filling is ready

                                                   

        Method of preparation

• Boil milk on a medium flame. Add diluted lemon juice to the pot and stir. Use as needed until the milk curdles completely.
• Add ice cubes or ice cold water to the curdled milk. Drain it off to a muslin cloth.
• Rinse it under running water. Squeeze excess water from the chena.
• Hang it for about 1 hour.
• Knead it well for 3 to 4 minutes until smooth. Add semolina to kneaded chena .Make equal sized oval shaped balls.
• Make sugar syrup by adding sugar and water to a pot. Bring it to a boil. When it begins to boil, then add cardamom powder and cham cham balls.
• Cover and cook on a moderately high heat for 8 to 10 minutes.
• After a while, transfer the cham cham to a plate and cool completely.
• Slit them length wise using a knife (do not cut into half)
• Make mawa stuffing by mixing mawa with powdered sugar,kesar,chopped dry fruits and cardamom powder.
• Stuff the cham cham with this mawa mixture.Garnish the cham cham with pistachios and desiccated coconut.
• Serve chilled.                                                                                                                                       

  

  Slit the chum chum in the middle

      Note

• Do not boil the chum chum on a low flame, they may not puff up.
• Do not overcook; they can turn rubbery and hard.
• If you do not knead the chena properly,chums chum might break while cooking in the syrup.
• Filling of the chum chum can be personal choice.
• Some people also use kewda or rose flavor to sugar syrup in which chena balls are boiled.

        Happy Cooking !