Here’s how to give a to the legendary dessert of odisha – Chhenapoda.

Chocolate Chhenapoda Recipe

Ingredients:

1 kg paneer (fresh cottage cheese)

350grms Sugar

1-1/2 tablespoons Ghee

4 tablespoons Milk

150 gm Semolina (Sooji / Rava)

60 gm Drinking Chocolate Powder

50 gm Cashew nuts few broken

100 gm milk dark compound chocolate

Desi ghee for brushing the baking bowl - 8 to 10 diameter round shape baking mould.

How to make Chenna Poda

To begin making chocolate Chhenapoda, first take fresh paneer or homemade chhena and mash it well with your hands.

Add sugar, chocolate powder and milk dark chocolate compound and mix all together properly.

Add sooji/rawa, ghee and milk and mix it properly till everything incorporates well.

In a separate pan, fry the broken pieces of cashews and add it to the chhena mix as well.

Transfer the chhena mix in the baking pan.

Tap the pan to settle the mix well and bake the chhena in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 40-45 mins. To check if it’s done or not, insert a toothpick and see if it comes out clean.

Take out the baked chocolate chhenapoda and cool it for 2 hours approximately.

Hold the pan upside down on a serving tray and remove the Chocolate Chhenapoda carefully. Dust it with sugar powder & serve with chocolate sauce.

Chef Michael has more than 20 years of experience in the Food Industry and is owner of Michael’s Kitchen, a restaurant in Bhubaneswar, Odisha where he keeps reinventing Odia Cuisine.