Lal Mishti Doi

My mother and mother in law are arriving tomorrow morning. I cooked some dishes beforehand today to save the time tomorrow. But whenever it’s my in laws and deserts am in a big dilemma. They don’t like sweets and for us no meal is complete without some sweet servings…be it chatney, mishti (sweets), payes (rice pudding/ kheer) or Doi (yogurt), we atleast need something. After much thought I decided on this baked lal mishti Doi that is Kolkata style red sweetened yogurt… easy to make, good for health and tastes heavenly.

I believe no account of our famous Bengali sweets is complete without a eulogy to its quintessential Lal Doi. Even one of my Customer’s husband used to enquire about where he could get some good mishti Doi in Bangalore to which I had no answer. I have tried several shops in Bangalore for a bowl full of this divine yogurt but none could match a fraction of its blissful taste from Bengal. In Bengal we generally never try to make them at home as almost each and every mishti’r Dokan (sweet shop) sells these in small-unglazed earthen pots. But what to do when you are desperate and away. So this desperate housewife this time tried her hand to make her own version of Lal Doi. This has come out so well that I had to lock my fridge tonight and now am thinking where to hide the keys away from my husband.

Baked Lal Mishti Doi

Ingredients
1/2 liter full cream milk
1/2 can Sweetened Condensed Milk, I used Milkmaid
1 small cup sugar
½-liter Yogurt.(preferably thick like Nestle)

Method
First you can choose either to use canned yogurt like Nestle or can make your own at home. I used another 1/2-liter packet of full cream milk to make the yogurt at home.

Beat the yogurt till smooth. Keep it aside.
Boil the milk till it thickens a little bit. Mix in the milkmaid and 2/3 cup sugar. Let it boil on low heat.

In a heavy bottomed pan take the remaining 1/3-cup sugar and caramelize it. When the colour turns deep golden brown mix two big ladle full of boiling milk to it. Stir vigorously to avoid forming of any lump. Mix this to the milk mixture. Let it cool.
Mix the yogurt and the milk mixture together. Take them in an ovenproof dish and cover with aluminium foil.

Pre heat the oven and bake the mixture at the min temperature (100-120C) for about 1 hour or till its set. Let it sit in the oven whole night. In morning take it out and refrigerate.