Pantua facts for kids
Pantua served in a bowl
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| Type | Confectionery |
|---|---|
| Course | Dessert |
| Place of origin | West Bengal, India |
| Region or state | Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent |
| Associated national cuisine | India, Bangladesh |
| Main ingredients | Semolina, khoya, milk, ghee and sugar |
Pantua (Bengali: পান্তুয়া) is a popular sweet treat from the Indian subcontinent. You can find it especially in West Bengal, Eastern India, and Bangladesh. It's a traditional Bengali sweet.
Pantua is made from balls of dough that are deep-fried until golden or dark brown. These balls are then soaked in a sweet sugar syrup. The main ingredients for the dough are semolina (a type of flour), chhena (a fresh cheese), milk, and ghee (a type of clarified butter). Sometimes, people add rose water or cardamom for extra flavor.
What Makes Pantua Special?
Pantua sweets can be different shades of brown. Their color depends on how long they are fried. Some are light brown, while others are almost black. This sweet is a popular dessert, often enjoyed after meals or during celebrations.
History of Pantua
Pantua is quite similar to another sweet called ledikeni. Ledikeni is also a fried sweet made with cheese. It has a special sugar syrup flavored with cardamom powder.
The name ledikeni has an interesting story. It comes from "Lady Canning." A famous sweet maker named Bhim Chandra Nag renamed his pantuas as ledikeni. He did this especially for the birthday of Charlotte Canning, Countess Canning. She was the wife of Charles Canning, 1st Earl Canning, who was the Governor-General of India at the time.
Did you know that a sweet very much like pantua and ledikeni was mentioned a long time ago? It was written about in a 12th-century text called Manasollasa. This old book was written in Sanskrit, and it described a similar sweet made from rice flour.
Pantua and Similar Sweets
Pantua is often compared to gulab jamun. Gulab jamun is another very popular sweet from India. You could say that pantua is like the Bengali version of gulab jamun. Both are delicious fried dough balls soaked in syrup!
