Malai Sandwich (Cheese sandwiches stuffed with sweet filling)

Festivals in India are incomplete without having family , friends or near and dear ones around, the elaborate menus in the home kitchens, the glittering shops loaded with tons of festival related food, attires, colourful decorative materials , bubbling excited kids and most important the SWEETS...yeah, we generally relate sweets with festivals in India. If shops are stacking Modak, then be sure, Ganesh Chaturthi is around the corner, similarly, Gujiya during Holi, all sorts of assorted sweets during Diwali, Sevaiyan Kheer on Eid, etc. adds a sweet touch in our lives during joyous moments.
Today i am posting a very popular Bengali Mithai, called Malai Sandwich  .This sweet is my favorite and easy to make.

            

Ingredients:
For Chenna Paneer
1 lit of milk (whole milk)
Few spoons of lime juice or vinegar (To curdle milk)

For Sugar syrup:
2 and 1/4 cups of sugar
5 cups of water
Cardamons crushed

For making Sandwich
Chenna Paneer
1/2 to 1 tsp of Sooji/rawa/semolina

For Stuffing:
1/2 cup of Sweet Mawa/ Khoya/ Malai

2-3 tsp of sugar (Or as per taste).(You can also use icing sugar)
Pinch of saffron (soaked in a spoonful of milk)
Yellow and Red food color ...Few drops (For Garnishing)
Pistachios (blanched ,peeled and finely sliced )
silver Varq (not used here)

Method:

    1.For making chenna, first boil the milk in thick bottomed pan.
    2.When it reaches boiling point, lower the flame and slowly add few spoons of lemon juice . Keep stirring and if needed add few more drops of juice until the milk curdles properly and whey is separated. Strain through Muslin cloth
    3.Run cold water over the separated paneer. Squeeze out excess water, and hang the cloth for 5-8 minutes to completely separate the whey from paneer.Let it rest for 20 minutes.
    4.Now knead this chenna paneer along with 1/2 tsp of semolina for 5-8 minutes till a very smooth dough is obtained, that is easily rolled into a ball without any cracks on surface .
    5.Take small piece of this dough and roll it into small, smooth Square shape.Keep the size medium, as they tend to swell up, more than double of their original size after being cooked in syrup. Repeat the procedure till all the dough is used up.
    6.In the meantime, take a pressure cooker and add sugar and water along with crushed cardamoms and let it boil till sugar dissolves.
    7.Carefully drop all the chenna paneer squares in the boiling syrup and close the lid of pressure cooker.      8.Wait for 1 whistle (or boil for 20-25 minutes in open vessel). Lower the flame and cook for 1-2 minutes more.
    9.Put off the flame and let the pressure release from cooker. Now you have soft spongy, sweetened, double the original size, squares of paneer.
   10.Transfer the cooked paneer squares along with the syrup into a bowl and let it cool till it room temperature. Later, Refrigerate for 6-7 hours in same syrup to chill.
    12.Now take Khoya or Mawa ,add powdered or icing sugar and mix well . At this stage you can mix the soaked saffron to enhance the flavors.But use less of milk to soak saffron if you are using Malai, as it will dilute the consistency further.
    13.Now slice horizontally in the center each square of paneer, and place a spoonful of stuffing on one of the slice, and cover it with another slice, pressing gently. Repeat the process for all the squares.
    14.Garnish it with some finely sliced pistachios,yellow and red food color and Varq(here not used)
    15. Serve after chilling. Enjoy !