Labongo Latika for South Vs North Challenge

Sanoli Ghosh of Sanoli's kitchen is the host for this month SNC initiated by Divya of You too can cook. Every month, a host from south team would challenge north team with a south indian recipe and a host from north team would challenge the south team with north indian recipe; a nice challenge to learn new recipes. 

I prepare sweets less often. But Bengali Sweets is my all time favorite. I love the artistic way these sweets are made of and I need not speak about the taste. These are absolutely delicious, lip smacking and truly no one can eat just one. This is one of the delicious sweets and I love it to the core.

Thanks Sanoli for this lip smacking recipe. Labongo refers to cloves. This sweet is made of sweetened khoya sealed inside pocket-like pastry, deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup.

Ingredients for the dough/outer crust:

All Purpose Flour 1 cup
Powdered Sugar 1 tbsp
Salt 1/8 tsp
Baking Powder a pinch

Pinch of Saffron soaked in 1 tbsp warm water
1 1/2 tbsp Ghee
Warm Water 1/8 cup + little more
Cloves

To make Mawa/Khoya: 

Recipe Source: spiceupthecurry

Ingredients:

Milk Powder 3/4 cup
Ghee 1/4 tbsp
Milk 1/8 cup

Method:

Mix Ghee and Milk and bring it to boil.
Add Milk Powder little by little and mix well. If the mixture is more crumbly, add Milk 1 tsp at a time. (I had to add 3 tsp of milk at this stage).
Combine well. It gets set once cooled.

For Filling:

Mawa (Refer above)
Powdered Sugar 2 tbsp
Nutmeg Powder 1/8 tsp
Warm Water

For Sugar Syrup:

Sugar 1 cup
Water 1/2 cup
Rose Essence / Rose Syrup 1 tsp

Method for the outer crust:

Combine All Purpose Flour, Baking Powder, Powdered Sugar, Salt, Saffron water in a large bowl. Mix well. Now add water little by little to form a stiff dough. Keep this aside.

Method for filling:

In a pan, add Mawa, Powdered Sugar, Nutmeg Powder and warm water. Mix well and allow boiling until the mixture thickens.

Method for Sugar Syrup:

Add water in a pan. When it starts boiling, add the sugar. Allow boiling till the sugar gets completely dissolved in water with stirring now and then.

Method for Labongo Latika:

Pinch ball sized dough and spread it circularly like a poori. Keep the filling at the center. Fold the left and right ends. Now fold the top and the bottom sides to form a like a pocket. Using wet hands, seal the edges. Insert a clove to seal the pocket.

Prepare the rest of the dough similarly.

Heat enough oil in a pan for deep frying. When hot, add the pockets. Fry on a medium flame until both the sides turn golden brown. Remove and set aside.

Once cooled, add the pockets to the thick sugar syrup. Soak it for at least five minutes. Turn it to the other side and allow soaking for some more time. 

Now lip smacking Bengali Sweet is ready to served. !!!

Notes: I halved the recipe. Check out Sanoli's space for the original recipe. I didn't have rose essence and so skipped it.