Baked Apple & Cottage Cheese Pie ~ Not so traditional Diwali Sweet

On the occassion of Diwali, I present you an amazing and superbly easy-to-make dessert dish, which is ideal for any occassion or festival. I recently tried this dish from Tarla Dalal. As soon as I saw this recipe, I knew I'm going to make this and within 10 minutes I was in my kitchen to prepare it. Luckily I had everything it needed. You need very less ingredients and within 20 minutes of preperation and 20 minutes of cooking time, you have a superb dish. It's healthy, loaded with apples(fruits) and cottage cheese and it's something different from the regular Indian sweets. So friends, give it a try this diwali.....

It's called baked Apple Cottage cheese pie because, layers of fresh apples and cottage cheese are baked to perfection in this dish. You can use other fruits too for variations, like with Oranges, strawberries, kiwis or I think a mix-fruit bed will also taste great.

Ingredients :
For Cottage cheese layer ::::
Paneer or cottage cheese : 1 cup
Sugar : 4 tsp.
Milk : 4 tblsp.
Cornflour : 1tsp.
Saffron strands : a pinch

For the fruit layer ::::
Apple : 1-11/2, sliced thinly lengthwise
Sugar : 4 tsp.
Rose water : 1tsp.
Lemon juice : 1 tsp.

How To :

In a bowl, mix well all the ingredients listed in the Fruit filling section. Keep aside for 15-20 minutes.
Dissolve the saffron in the milk and set aside.
in a blender, blend all the ingredients listed in Cottage Cheese layer, blend well and make a smooth paste using little more milk if needed.
Preheat an oven at 220 degree C. Grease a baking pan ghee/butter, place the fruit, i.e., sliced apples allover the dish. Then pour the cottage cheese paste all over the fruits, covering the apples well from all sides. Decorate with nuts and extra saffron strands.
Now put the prepared baking pan in to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes approx. Remove when cottage cheese sets properly. Do not brown the top.