Paan Cheesecake Truffles

Bite sized version of Paan Cheesecake, these Paan Cheesecake Truffles are made with cream cheese, parle-g crumbs, real paan leaves and flavored with gulkand and garnished with candied fennel. If you love meetha paan, then you are going to love this fusion dessert.

It’s super easy to make, no-bake and great to make for your Diwali party!

And it’s Diwali yet again and I am back with yet another paan dessert! 😀 You guys know by now, that it’s impossible for me to let go of Diwali without sharing a sweet made with paan leaves. Isn’t it?

How to make Paan Cheesecake Truffles?

Ingredients

Cream cheese: I like using Philadelphia cream cheese (full fat) for these truffles. You should take out the cream cheese out of the fridge for at last 2-3 hours before using in the recipe. It should be completely at room temperature.

Parle-g biscuits: since cheesecake come with a crust, so these truffles have that in form on parle-g biscuits. You can use any cookie of choice (digestive is another good option), make sure the total amount of cookie crumbs is around 1&1/2 cups.

Gulab jamuns: you can make gulab jamuns at home or buy from store to save yourself some time. I absolutely recommend getting them from sweet shop especially during the busy festive time.

Powdered sugar: to sweeten the truffles, I have used powdered sugar (along known as icing/confectioners sugar). It mixes easily with the cream cheese. Do not replace it with granulated white sugar.

Flavorings: the sugar syrup of the gulab jamun (chasni) along with rose water and cardamom is used to flavor this truffles!

Chocolate melting wafers: to dip the truffles, I have used melting wafers from Ghirardelii. These wafers do not need tempering and set very quickly and hence work perfectly for truffles. I had used the same in my burfi truffles.

Make sure to use these only, these melting wafers or candy melts can be found at most grocery stores in the US. If you are using regular white chocolate, then you would need to temper it first (which is the process of melting and cooling the chocolate to certain temperature so that it’s smooth and glossy when set). and then dip the truffles into it. If you don’t do that, the truffles will get messy as the chocolate won’t remain stable at room temperature.

Please search online on “how to temper chocolate” and follow those steps if using plain chocolate. As I mentioned above, if using melting wafers, you don’t need to temper it.

Step by Step Instructions

1- To a food processor, add parle-g biscuits. You can use any other cookie here as well like digestives or graham crackers

2- Pulse a few times until the biscuits turn into crumbs. You would need around 1 & 1/2 cup of crumbs. Set this aside.

3- Now, to a blender, add chopped paan leaves (chop them before so that it helps in mixing) along with cream, rose water and kewra water.

4- Blend until you have a thick paste. It’s okay if it doesn’t get too fine, you don’t want a uniform paste, some paan leaves are good to bite in. We just want it all to mix together.

5- Now, to the steel bowl of your stand mixer (or use your hand mixer) add crushed parle-g crumbs, prepared paan leaves paste along with cream cheese (make sure it is at room temperature), gulkand and crushed fennel seeds (I crushed the fennel seeds slightly in a spice grinder before using, don’t turn into a powder).

6- Using the paddle attachment, beat for 2 minutes on medium speed until all of it is nicely combined. Scrape the sides and bottom with a spatula as needed.

7- Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out small size balls from the mixture and place on the baking sheet.

8- Then take each ball and smoothen it out by rolling it between your palm. Place the sheet into the freezer for 30 minutes for the truffles to firm up.

9- Once they are firm, now to dip them in chocolate, melt the melting wafers. I am using white chocolate melting wafers here which do not need any tempering, if using regular real chocolate you will need to temper it first.

To melt, take an inch or two of water in a pan and place it on medium-low heat on stove-top. Then place a bowl with chocolate melting wafers on top of that pan, the bowl should not be touching the surface of water.

This is called the double boiler method to melt the chocolate. You can also use your microwave to the do the same. You can add some green food color (optional) to the melting wafers at this point.

10- Once melted, dip the truffles in chocolate. I used a candy dipping tool but you can use 2 forks as well.

11-. Coat the truffles from all sides and then remove on a parchment paper.

12- Sprinkle saunf (candied fennel) or desiccated coconut on top. Make all truffles similarly.

Tips & Notes

• If you don’t have parle-g, you can use digestive biscuits or graham crackers too. The cookie crumbs should measure 1 & 1/2 cups.
• I have not used any sugar here since gulkand is very sweet and adds enough sweetness to the truffles.
• If you don’t have kewra water, you can skip it or double the rose water.