Malai Chop (Step By Step) | Cream Chop Sweet

Malai Chop (Step By Step) | Cream Chop Sweet

Malai Chop or Cream Chop is a popular Bengali Sweet Recipe that's prepared with cottage cheese shaped into discs, boiled in sugar syrup & slathered or decorated with cream. Sometimes they are topped with cherries or slivered nuts.

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Bengali, Indian

Keyword: Cream Chop, Malai Chop

Prep Time: 50 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Resting Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Servings: people

Calories: 223kcal

Author: Meghna Chakraborty

Ingredients

For the Chops or Cottage Cheese Discs or the base

2 liters Whole Milk
2 lemons Juiced and diluted with equal amount of water
½ tbsp All-Purpose Flour also known as Maida

For the Sugar Syrup or Chasni

1 cup white sugar
2.5 cups Water

For the Cream Icing or Malai for decoration

⅓ cup Mawa (Khoya) Powder available in any Indian grocery store
½ tsp Ghee
3 tbsp Milk or more if needed
⅓ cup cottage cheese or chena
3 tbsp Saffron Milk Few Strands saffron soaked in a few tbsp warm milk
¼ cup Powdered Sugar more if you love more sweetness
3 drops yellow food color OPTIONAL

For the Toppings (Optional)

Finely chopped Pitachios
Cheerios

Instructions

How to make the Cottage Cheese or Chena

In a clean bowl add 2 liters milk & bring it to just one rolling boil over medium high heat immediately lower the heat.
Add diluted lemon juice. You'll see that the milk will begin to curdle.
To separate the milk solids from the whey strain it through a muslin cloth placed over a strainer.
Next tie the ends of the muslin cloth from the tap of your kitchen sink & allow the water to drain from the cottage cheese. Keep it that way for 30 mins. Your chena or cottage cheese is ready.

How to shape the Chops or sweets

After 30 mins take the cottage Cheese or chena on a clean plate & begin kneading it with the heel of your palm.
After couple mins add 1 tbsp all-purpose flour or maida & knead well with the heel of your palm until smooth, soft & silky. There should be no lumps in the chena.
Divide into equal portions. 2 liters of milk should yield enough cottage cheese or chena to make 6 chops (big). but again it depends on the milk a lot, I got enough chena for 6 big cream chops but you might get less or even more.
Roll them into smooth balls without any cracks. Press with your fingers gently to give it an oval kind of disc like shape. Repeat this process until you make discs out of the whole Chena. Set aside.

How to make the Chasni or Sugar Syrup

Add 1 cup white sugar and 2.5 cups water to a pressure cooker & set it on medium heat. Bring it to a rolling boil and wait until the sugar dissolves in the water. The Chasni or sugar syrup is ready.

How to make the Cream Chop base

In the rolling boiling Chasni gently add the cottage cheese discs. Leave enough room for them to expand. So, never over crowd them. Cook them in batches. For 6 discs I cooked in two batches. 3 discs in one single batch. It actually depends on the size of the discs.
Put the lid of the pressure cooker. And pressure cook for 10 mins.
After 10 mins immediately put the pressure cooker under tap water & wait for the whole pressure to come out.
Open the lid and carefully take out the cooked cream chop base from the syrup and store them in a flat container. Be very careful while doing so, because when hot the chops are super soft. Add some sugar syrup but not the all of it. Just enough to cover the cream chop bases & keep them moist.
Allow the cream chops to cool down completely. You may even pop them in the fridge. This will allow them to set.

How to make the Cream or Malai for decoration

Firstly, begin by preparing your mawa from mawa powder. It's easy & super quick. Take the Mawa powder in a clean bowl. Add ghee & add milk and knead until a smooth dough forms. Voila your mawa is ready.
Now add the remaining chena or cottage cheese, powdered sugar, saffron soaked milk and few drops of yellow food color (totally optional) and knead everything very well to form a soft dough. The cream or malai is ready for decorating the Cream chops or Malai Chops.

How to Decorate the Cream Chops or Malai Chops

Take one Chop base from the sugar syrup and gently squeeze out the syrup by pressing the chop base with your palm or fingers. Set aside on a dry plate. They are ready for decoration.
Scoop some malai or cream and slather it on the top of the chops base.
Now, put the Malai or cream inside a zip lock bag fitted with your favorite nozzle and decorate the base with your favorite designs.
You may decorate sprinkle some finely crushed pistachios on the base top and even top it with a cherry.

Notes

2 litres gave me enough cottage cheese or chena to make 6 big Malai Chops + enough for the cream preparartion. But, the amount of cottage cheese entirely depends on the quality of milk. So, my measurement is kind of your starting point. It is to help you with a precise approximation. You may not get enough chena to make 6 big Malai chops or you may even get more Chena.
Handle the chop bases very carefully when hot. They are super soft & fragile.
Do not try to decorate them when hot. They should cool down completely & poping them in the fridge helps a lot.
Squeeze out the sugar syrup gently before decoratin the Malai chops.
The Cream or malai should be soft enough to squeeze out from the decorating tip. So if you feel that it needs a little more milk, add it in drops or rather drizzle so that you have the full control.
You may totally skip adding any food color to the Malai Chop cream or you may also add your favorite food color.
You may use any tip for decoration. Both, open star & close star tips work wonderfully well. Or you may use any tip you fancy.
You may top the base of the malai chop with finely crushed pistachio & top them with a cherry.
Do not hang the chena for more then 30 mins. It will dry out more & then, the maiali chops will not become spongy. We want our chena or cottage cheese a little moist.
Knead the Chena or cottage cheese well with the heel of your palm until completely smooth. Again sometimes this might take 2-3 mins or much longer (7-8 mins). It actually depends on the quality of the cottage cheese.
To make your own saffron ilk just soak a few strands of saffron in few tablespoons warm milk. Let it rest for 10-15 mins.
Release the cottage cheese chop bases in the sugar syrup only when it is rolling boiling.

Measuring cup used, 1 cup = 240 ml & 1 teaspoon = 5 ml.

PLEASE NOTE: Nutrition values are my best estimates. If you rely on them for your diet or special diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator!

Nutrition Facts

Malai Chop (Step By Step) | Cream Chop Sweet

Amount Per Serving

Calories 223 Calories from Fat 66

% Daily Value*

Fat 7.3g11%

Saturated Fat 3.6g23%

Polyunsaturated Fat 0.8g

Monounsaturated Fat 2.2g

Cholesterol 18.3mg6%

Sodium 76.2mg3%

Potassium 295mg8%

Carbohydrates 34.1g11%

Fiber 0.3g1%

Sugar 34.8g39%

Protein 6.5g13%

Vitamin A 205IU4%

Vitamin C 0.2mg0%

Calcium 213mg21%

Iron 0.2mg1%

* Read our privacy policy - Calorie information is provided as a courtesy only and should be leveraged as an estimate rather than a guarantee.Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutrition