Preparation and Engineering Properties of Milk Cake (Chhana Podo)

Chhana podo is the only indigenous dairy product that is prepared by baking. It is characterized by a brown crust with white or light brown inner body, has a typical cooked flavour and rich taste. Traditionally, it is prepared by mixing chhana, semolina, refined wheat flour and sugar, and slowly baking the dough by keeping red hot burnt wood on top and bottom of a vessel for 2-4 h. Baking is the key step in the preparation of chhana podo. The heat and mass transfer during baking of chhana podo was analyzed. The thermal properties were measured by using a KD2 Pro thermal properties analyzer. Fick's second law was used to predict the moisture transfer. The thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity and volumetric specific heat ranged respectively from 0.359 to 0.223 W/m.K, 0.112 to 0.105 mm2/s and 3.09 to 2.00 MJ/m3k. Moisture diffusivity increased from 3.55x10-7 to 5.98x10-7 m2min-1 when baking temperature increased from 120 to 150°C. The optimum conditions of baking were observed as 135ºC for 104 min. The optimized baking conditions would be useful in the production of chhana podo with controlled physico-chemical changes and optimal quality on a commercial scale.