The Musical Sweet: Cham Cham
Cham Cham, Chom Chom or Chum Chum is one of the second most favourite Bengali sweet after Rasgulla. An authentic traditional Bengali sweet, Cham Cham is prepared from curdled milk/ chenna and is very similar to rasgulla recipe. The Oval shaped chenna or paneer balls are boiled in sugar syrup flavoured with Cardamom just like the rasgulla, slit & filled with stuffing of choice (mawa/ khoya) & then garnished in the most decorative ways with desiccated coconut.
To make paneer or Chena
4 cups full cream cows milk
1 to 2 tbsp. lemon juice or vinegar
1 tbsp. maida / plain flour/ semolina (optional)
For the sugar syrup
1 ¼ cup sugar
3 ¼ cups water
¼ tsp cardamom powder
For Stuffing
4 tbsp. Milk solids - mawa or khoya
1 tsp ghee / clarified butter
2 tbsp. saffron milk
1 tbsp. powdered sugar
For garnishing
4 tbsp. desiccated coconut
1 tbsp. sugar (powdered, adjust to suit your taste)
4 tbsp. pistachios chopped finely
Preparation
- Boil milk on a medium flame & curdle it to make chenna by adding lemon/ vinegar to it. Drain it off to a muslin cloth. Rinse it under running water. Squeeze excess water from the chenna & hang it for about 30 minutes.
- Knead it well for a good 5 minutes until smooth. You may also add 1 tbsp. maida/ semolina and combine well.
- Make 8 to 10 oval shaped balls of equal sizes
- In a separate container make sugar syrup by adding sugar and water. Bring it to a boil & the add cardamom powder and the oval shaped cham chams.
- Cover and cook on a moderately high heat for good 10 minutes.
- Later transfer the cham cham to a plate and let it cool completely.
- Slit them length wise and stuff sweetened khoya/ mawa.
- Roll them in desiccated coconut & store them in the refrigerator.
- Finally, serve chum chum recipe immediately or store in refrigerator.
As they say, with experience you learn things even more & better. A few important tips and suggestions for a perfect cham cham sweet recipe:
- Strongly recommend to use full cream cow’s milk only for this recipe that would yield creamier chenna.
- Add maida (plain flour)/ semolina/rava or sooji to the prepared chenna that would help to give a proper shape and stiffens to chom chom.
- To get the beautiful sunset yellow colour to the sweet you can also add kesar before curdling the milk.
- Boil the water with Cham Cham on a high flame. Do not boil it on a low flame, they may not puff up.
- Watch the time & do not overcook, they can turn hard and rubbery.