Rasmalai
Rasmalai, my all time favourite sweets. Love this sweet to the core, plus my sister love it so much. I made rasgullas to make this sweet and it turned out to be super yummy. You can use just store bought rasgullas in this recipe. The sauce is best and makes this whole dish taste amazing. Looking for party dessert ideas, then this rasmalai is the answer. A small bowl of this decadent dessert is sure to impress your guests. Perfect party dessert to celebrate Diwali, Holi or any special occasions. Check out my 300+ Diwali sweet recipes.
What is Rasmalai?
Rasmalai dish is one of the popular dish around the world. It consists of two components, rasgulla and the malai sauce known as rabri. Rasgullas one of the famous sweet and many of us favourite sweet in the world. It is a sweet which is made with chenna and shaped into balls and then these balls are boiled in sugar syrup, so the syrup just goes into the balls and make it super spongy and juicy. This rasgulla is then soaked in a thickened reduced sweet milk flavoured with saffron, cardamom and nuts. When cooked together rasmalai taste like heaven. Make sure you check my Rasmalai cake.
About Rasmalai
Rasmalai is considered to be one of the most decadent Bengali dessert which is very popular in street stalls, sweet shops and halwai shops. Rasmalai, also known as rosomalai or roshmalai is a popular dessert originated from the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. Spongy rasgulla also known as milk balls is soaked in reduced milk which is flavoured with saffron and cardamom. The original term for ras malai is known as Rosh malai which is a Bengali term. Bengali word Rosh means sap | juice and the word malai means thickened cream or reduced milk. Together it is juicy milk balls cooked in thickened milk. Making rasmalai is an elaborate process. Since it involves few steps and lots of your time to make a delicious soft rasmalai. There is essentially three steps in making rasmalai. It starts with making rasgullas, then malai sauce and then simmering both together.
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Watch Rasmalai Recipe Video
Rasmalai Ingredients
Rasgulla - Rasgulla also known as roshogolla is one of the most popular Indian dessert specially in Bengali cuisine. You can make them easily at home with ingredients which you already have on hand. For making rasmalai, you can use homemade or store bought rasgulla. Milk - Use full fat or full cream milk for making rasgulla. The texture of rasgulla totally depends on the milk quality. I like to use full fat cow’s milk. You can use buffalo milk too. Sugar - the quantity of sugar totally depends on your taste. You can add more or less according to your preference. Saffron - saffron is one of the most essential spice in rasmalai. it provides the iconic yellow colour and fragrance. Cardamom - You can add a pinch of cardamom in the malai for aroma. Nuts - I always use a combination of almonds, cashews, pistachios in my rasmalai.
Rasgulla for Rasmalai
Making Rasgulla is so easy if you follow my steps, the ratio and procedure is very important. The main thing is to get the chenna right, I have posted step wise picture for how to make chenna. Soft chenna results in a soft and spongy rasgullas which in turn helps to make soft rasmalai. And also the consistency of sugar is also important. Don’t worry if your rasgullas are not perfect, you can always use them in this rasmalai and chum chum. Check out my detailed post on making rasgulla recipe.
Tips for Soft Rasmalai
Choosing Milk Type
You have to use full fat milk such as pure cows milk, whole milk or fresh full fat milk. Never use skimmed milk, low fat milk which affects in the texture of the chenna and make soft rasmalai.
Get Chenna Right (Milk Curds)
Texture of rasmalai totally depends on the consistency of the chenna. Once milk comes to a boiling stage, take it off the heat and then add in the acidic ingredients to curdle. Don’t over boil the milk else you will get hard chenna. Never allow the curdled milk to boil else it will get rubbery in texture. Once you strain the chenna in muslin cloth or cheese cloth. Wash it multiple times in cold water to remove the sour taste as well as to stop the cooking process. Also don’t over strain the chenna, you need some moisture in the chenna to make soft spongy rasgulla.
Kneading
Knead the chenna in a plate till it gets soft. kneading process is important to achieve the proper texture. The curds has to be fine in texture without large chunks of milk solids. Don’t over knead the chenna. Else it will make the cooked rasgulla rubbery and shrink back in size once cooled. My Top tip for soft rasmalai is not to over cook rasgulla. Also if you are specially making rasgulla for making rasmalai. I recommend to flatten the balls before cooking in the syrup which helps fasten the cooking process. You can add a tbsp of all purpose flour or corn starch when kneading chenna to achieve soft texture in rasgulla.
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How to Make Rasmalai (Stepwise Pictures)
Boiling Milk for Making Rasgulla
1)Take milk in a sauce pan. I like to use a heavy bottom pan so the heat retains and the milk comes to a boiling stage faster. Use full fat or full cream milk for making rasgulla. The texture of rasgulla totally depends on the milk quality. I like to use full fat cow’s milk. You can use buffalo milk too. Place the milk pot on heat and keep mixing it constantly so no milk catches in the bottom. Now you can see the milk has started to boil. You will see the milk getting frothy and creamier as you mix. Don’t boil it too much, it should be hot and foamy like this. Once it reaches to that point. Take it off the heat. As you can see the milk is steaming hot.
Curdling Milk
2)Add in lemon juice or vinegar slowly into the hot milk. Keep mixing so the lemon juice is evenly combined with the milk. As soon as the lemon juice is added into the hot milk. The milk will curdle immediately. 3)Now the milk has curdled. Keep mixing gently so it curdles completely.Don’t over mix the milk, the curds has to be bigger in texture. Now the milk has curdled completely. The curds are in bigger texture. Now it is completely curdled, you can see a light greenish kind of water has separated, this is the correct stage.
Straining the milk curds to get Chenna
4)Pour the entire thing on to the sieve. The milk curds will be collected in the sieve. The whey water that is collected in the bottom of the bowl. It is so healthy. You can use them to knead chapati dough, add it to rasam, soup. Now take a bowl of cold water, drop the curdled chenna into the water and wash it well in multiple changes of water. Wash the curds in plenty of cold water. Rinsing them in water removes the sour taste from the curds and stops the cooking process. 5)I squeezed the muslin cloth with my hands to remove the excess water. There should be some moisture in the chenna else the rasgulla will be tough. Pro Tip: Alternatively you can hand it over tap or countertop for 30 minutes to strain the excess liquid.
Making Sugar Syrup
6)While the chenna is resting, let’s make sugar syrup. Take a large pot. Make sure the rasgulla fit in the sauce pot. It should be big enough to hold the rasgullas because those tiny balls will expand three times in volume Take sugar and water to the sauce pan. Place the pot on heat and bring it to a full boil. You are going to boil this until we are going to make rasgulla balls.
Kneading Chenna for Rasgulla
7)Take the strained curd in a large bowl or a plate. We are going to knead this well and make balls. We are going to knead it with our hands. Start by kneading it with your hands gently. Use the palm of your hands to press the chenna gently. This will mash it gently and make it softer. Keep squeezing and kneading it till the chenna gets soft in texture. 8)Now you can see the rasgulla mixture has become smooth and soft in texture. This process will take around 5 minutes of kneading. You shouldn’t over knead the mix also, else it will get tough and rubbery.
Shaping Rasgulla
9)Take a small portion of rasgulla mixture. The size depends on how big or small you want the rasgulla to be. Roll the mixture between the palms of your hands. Don’t give too much pressure when rolling the balls. It should be gently rolled without giving pressure which makes soft rasgulla. 10)Smooth and soft rasgullas.
Cooking Rasgulla in Sugar Syrup
11)Bring the sugar syrup to a full boil. It should be in rolling boil when you add the rasgulla balls into the sugar syrup. You can flavour sugar syrup with crushed cardamom and saffron strands. Add the rasgulla balls into the boiling sugar syrup. Once you add the rasgulla into the syrup, mix it once using a spoon. 12)Cover the pot with a lid and cook it on high heat for 10 minutes on rolling boil. You can see the rasgullas has expanded in volume. Don’t remove the lid. Just let it boil on high heat. Once 10 minutes is up, reduce the flame and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes. Now reduce it even more and cook on low heat for 2 minutes. Now turn off the heat and let it sit covered for 2 hours. Don’t open the lid. Let it cool gently which prevents the rasgulla shrinking. 13)You can leave the rasgulla in the syrup overnight for best results. Once the rasgulla is cooled. You can open the lid.
Kesar Rasgulla
14)For making this batch of rasmalai, I added saffron and cardamom to the rasgulla. which made the rasgulla yellow shade.
Reduce Milk for Making Rasmalai
15)Take milk in a wide large sauce pan or any casserole. I took a total of 1.5 litre milk in the pot. We have to reduce it to 1 litre of milk to make the milk thicker and richer. Use full fat milk for better taste, texture and creamy mix. 16)To prevent milk from boiling over, I placed a steel spoon into the pot of boiling milk. This step prevents the milk from boiling over. So you don’t need to stand near the pot and stirring it constantly. Pro Tip: This is optional, but I strongly recommend you to do this step to prevent spillage of milk. 17)Boil the milk for 20 to 30 minutes, stir in between to prevent milk from burning in the bottom. Pro Tip: Using a large pot makes this job easier. Using large pot helps the reducing process faster. 18)You can see because of the steel spoon the milk is not boiling over. Now the milk has reduced to 1 litre. 19)Remove the steel spoon from the milk. Now we are going to proceed further. 20)Now the milk has reduced to 1 litre. It is thick and more creamy. If you don’t have few hours of time to reduce the milk. Follow the instant recipe of making rasmalai which I have shared below.
Making Rasmalai Milk
21)Now to the reduced milk, add sugar. We are going to reduce it even further. 22)Boil the milk with sugar till it is reduced even more. This will take around 10 minutes. We will boil the milk even more once rasgulla is added. So don’t reduce the milk too much.
Preparing Rasgulla
23)Now take the rasgulla. and gently squeeze it with your hands to remove the excess syrup. 24)Squeezing the rasgulla will remove the syrup from them and makes the rasmalai milk to be absorbed into the rasgulla.
Flavouring Rasmalai Milk
25)Now to the reduced milk, add in ground cardamom. I like to powder my cardamom with some sugar to make it fragrant. 26)Add in saffron into the milk. A pinch goes a long way.
Adding Rasgulla into the Milk
27)Add in the squeezed rasgulla into the milk. Boil the milk on low heat even more for around 10 minutes. 28)Now the milk has thickened to the right consistency. It will thicken even more when it cooled.
Adding Nuts to Rasmalai
29)Add in chopped almonds and pistachios into the reduced milk. 30)Rasmalai is ready to serve. You can serve rasmalai hot, warm or cold as per your liking. Enjoy.
Instant Rasmalai (Rasmalai in 30 mins)
Ingredients Used
10 to 15 Rasgullas (I used store bought) 1 litre Milk 1 can Sweetened Condensed Milk ¼ tsp Saffron ¼ tsp Cardamom powder ¼ cup Cashews or any nuts (chopped finely)
How to Make Instant Rasmalai
1)For making this instant rasmalai. I used some store bought rasgullas. Squeeze the liquid and set aside in a bowl. But you can use homemade rasgullas too. 2)Add milk in a sauce pan. I am using full cream milk. Full fat milk is best. 3)Add in sweetened condensed milk into the milk. Adding condensed milk is the easy step to get thickened reduced milk faster. 4)Boil the milk and condensed milk for 10 minutes. 5)Add in saffron into the milk. Boil for 2 more minutes. 6)Add in squeezed rasgulla into the milk and boil for 10 more minutes. 7)I transferred the mix to a bigger pot to prevent spillage. Add in chopped nuts of choice. 8)Add some crushed cardamom. You can skip this if you don’t like. 9)Boil for 2 more minutes. 10)Thats it. Speedy rasmalai is ready to serve. 11)Rasmalai is ready to serve. You can serve rasmalai hot, warm or cold as per your liking. Enjoy.
Expert Tips
For making rasmalai, you can use homemade or store bought rasgulla which makes the process easier. Use full fat milk for richer tasting rasmalai. Full cream milk results in richer rasmalai. For thickening milk faster, you can add in some cashew powder into the milk. For richer taste, you can add some sweetened condensed milk and fresh cream to rasmalai. Rasmalai can be served warm or cold.
Which milk is best for making rasmalai?
Use full fat or full cream milk for making rasgulla and rasmalai. The texture of rasgulla totally depends on the milk quality. I like to use full fat cow’s milk. You can use buffalo milk too.
How long to knead chenna for making rasmalai?
Knead the curds in a plate till it gets soft. kneading process is important to achieve the proper texture. The curds has to be fine in texture without large chunks of milk solids. Don’t over knead the chenna. Else it will make the cooked rasgulla rubbery and shrink back in size once cooled.
What are the main ingredients of Rasmalai?
This rasgulla is then soaked in a thickened reduced sweet milk flavoured with saffron, cardamom and nuts. When cooked together rasmalai taste like heaven.
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