Rasmalai is a soft, spongy, juicy dessert. It is the most popular Bengali sweet, made with chenna or homemade cottage cheese and soaked in saffron and cardamom flavoured milk.
The process of making rasmalai is very simple, but it does require an honest effort. No substitutes or shortcuts work. I have done a number of trails and couldn’t understand where I was going wrong.
Here is the secret to a perfect rasgulla for rasmalai.
Firstly, perfect chenna results into perfect rasgullas. The chenna shouldn’t be too dry or too moist. Refer to my previous post to make chenna at home. Secondly, it requires a good ten minutes of kneading or rubbing the chenna. For best results this step should be done with hands only.
Cow’s milk is considered to be the best. I have tried full fat milk, toned milk and cow’s milk, the results are almost the same. One liter milk will yield 12 pieces of rasmalai.
Recipe for Rasmalai
Ingredients for chenna
- 1 litre milk
- 2 tbsp lemon juice or vinegar
Ingredients for Syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 cups water
Ingredients for Ras or Rabdi
- 1 litre
- 1/3 cup sugar
- Few strands of saffron or kesar
- ¼ tsp cardamom or green elaichi (crushed)
- 8 to 10 pistachios (for garnish)
- A pinch of lemon yellow food colour (optional)
How to make chenna
Bring milk to boil. Lower the heat. Add lemon juice or vinegar and give it a gentle stir. Wait for a minute.
If the milk doesn’t curdle add more lemon juice.
Remove from heat when you can see the curdled milk and clear whey separated.
Pass it through a sieve lined with muslin cloth. Wash the chenna under running water.
This will prevent from overcooking of chenna and also remove the tartness of lemon juice.
Squeeze to get rid of the moisture.
Remember too less or too much moisture is not good for Bengali sweets.
Take large plate and knead the chenna by rubbing it between the palm and the plate as shown in the picture.
Continue this process for at least 10 minutes. The fat in the chenna will help to turn it into a soft dough.
For testing, take a small portion and roll it to form a ball. If it doesn’t have cracks it is ready or knead for few more minutes.
How to make rasgullas
Meanwhile, for sugar syrup put the sugar and water in a deep pan and bring it to a boil.
Divide the chenna dough into 12 portions.
Roll them between the palms and flatten with slight pressure.
As the syrup begins to boil drop the chenna balls one by one such that the boiling doesn’t subside.
Let it boil for 15 to 20 minutes. Put it on medium high heat so that the boiling continues all throughout.
After 20 minutes the rasgullas will swell up to double the size.
Let the rasgullas rest in the syrup for 5 to 10 minutes.
Take some ice cubes in a bowl.
Transfer the rasgullas in the ice bowl with some sugar syrup.
Let it come to room temperature. Keep it aside for 20 minutes.
How to make Ras
Put some strands of kesar in warm milk and set aside for few minutes.
Rub the strands lightly.
Heat the milk for ras.
Simmer on medium heat for 7 to 8 minutes. Here we do not want the milk to reduce much. We want the ras to be light and runny.
Add crushed cardamom and kesar to the milk.
Add sugar and lemon yellow food colour (optional).
Stir till the sugar dissolves.
Simmer for 4 to 5 minutes on low heat. Remove from heat
Now gently squeeze the rasgullas and put them in the ras.
Once the ras comes to room temperature, put it in refrigerator for 4 to 6 hours.
Serve chilled.
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