Rasmalai is an excellent dessert in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, but Rasmalai is an Indian word where Ras means ‘juice’ and Malai means ‘cream’. Making a soft and juicy rasmalai is a nightmare for many master chefs. That’s why making soft rasmalai is called a master of art. Also if you are Hindu then we all are aware of the significance of Rasmalai in our rituals.
If you are confused about dessert then desserts are any type of sweets that we use to conclude our meal. Sweets are mostly eaten as desserts and in sweets we all know the dominance of rasmalai. Rasmalai is known as Indian sweet and of course it’s origin is also India somewhere in eastern Indian subcontinent and according to the research it’s believed that the actual origin of rasmalai is Bengal region of India. Some people also believe that the origin of rasmalai is Bangladesh but it’s not yet confirmed. Rasmalai is mostly eaten in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Ingredients Required
Rasmalai is a sweet dish that’s why we also need similar kinds of ingredients to make rasmalai like milk, sugar, nuts, saffron, cardamom and curdling agents. Here in this blog post we will focus on two different recipes to make rasmalai, one recipe is quite conventional and one is a short method which only takes 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t forget to look at the faqs in the ending of this article which will be also helpful for you. If you aren’t familiar with cooking then you can also buy rasmalai from Halwai or sweet shops.
If you are familiar with making rasgulla then making rasmalai will not be difficult for you because they both go through a similar process.
- First you have to make chenna to make rasmalai, but do you know what chenna is? chenna is an Indian cheese which means Cheese. To make chenna you have to use acidic ingredients to curdle to full fat milk. Making rasmalai is impossible without cheena, so you have to do this step more carefully.
- Now draine chennato its whey and knead to make a perfect round disc. If you want to make your rasmalai spongy then you have to boil discs in hot sugar syrup.
- Then you have to make rabri(sweet thickened milk) by adding cardamom and saffron and simmering the full fat milk until it becomes thick.
- Lastly we have to pour rabri into the drained discs of sugar syrup and then serve with garnished nuts.
Also Read: How to Make Rava Upma | South Indian Upma Recipe
Methods of Making Rasmalai (methods in detail)
We have already mentioned the characteristics of best rasmalai which are soft cheena, best kneading and best boiling time for discs. Here is the detailed process to make the best rasmalai.
A. Making Rabri
Step 1
- Making Rabri is the difficult part of making rasmalai. All you need is a thick pan and 3 cups of full fat milk, boil it properly until it starts becoming more thick and after the milk becomes perfectly thick then turn the flame to medium and add cardamom and saffron. Make sure the milk should not be burned, keep string every 30 seconds.
Step 2
- We have already said, rabri is a sweet thickened milk and to make rabri sweet you can add organic sugar or white sugar.
Step 3
- You can use flame according to your desire but we suggest using medium flame, so the milk will not overflow the pot. In every 1 to 2 minutes the Malai/cream will appear on top, keep aside it continuously till it has condensed more than half milk.
B. Make Chenna
After making Rabri, now it’s time to make chenna. We have 3 cups of milk to make rabri but to make chenna we atleast need 5 cups of milk. Here are the easiest steps to make chenna.
Step 1
- As a first step, boil the milk in any type of pot you have. After the milk properly boils, add lemon juice, curd or you can also add vinegar to curdle the milk. Make sure the milk curdles completely, keep stirring and also you can add more vinegar or lemon juice if milk doesn’t curdle properly.
Step 2
- After the milk curdles completely, turn off the flame and add cold water to make the chenna soft.
Step 3
- Now using a clean cloth drain all the water from the chenna, make sure to drain the water completely.
Step 4
- In the same cloth, wrap up the chenna. We call paneer to the chenna which is inside our wrapped clothes. Make sure you have wrapped the paneer well. You can also rinse using water from the outside of the cloth to remove the smell of vinegar and lemon. Leave the wrapped paneer to drain the excessive water for at least 1 hour.
Step 5
- After the excessive water has completely drained out, it’s time to make chenna, just knead the paneer well like we knead flour before making roti. You have to knead the chenna until it becomes non-sticky and smooth but keep in mind kneading hardly can result in your chenna releasing fats, so knead gently.
C. Making Rasmalai
Now, make balls and quietly flatten them by dividing chenna into 12 to 15 pieces. You can also use those 12 to 15 pieces to make rasgulla or chum chum.
Step 1
- Turn on the flame and add pot to the flame, boil 4 cups of water and add 1 cup sugar in it. Add cardamom after the syrup begins to boil.
Step 2
- Now add chenna balls to the syrup just after it starts boiling, cover it and let them cook for at least 10 minutes. After boiling, you will notice the chenna balls are double in size. Turn off the flame and keep them covered for 25 minutes.
Step 3
- After 25 minutes, take out our rasmalai one by one, lightly squeeze them using your palm or you can also use a spatula and spoon to remove the absorbed sugar syrup and lastly add those rasmalai balls in rabri.
Step 4
- Lastly you can garnish rasmalai with nicely chopped cashews, almonds and pistachios and turn the low flame on for 2 minutes but don’t cover it.
Now your delicious rasmalai is ready to serve.
Easy Rasmalai in 10 to 15 minutes.
You will need ready made rasgulla and milkmaid to make rasmalai in just less than 15 minutes. Ready made rasgulla and milkmaid can be bought from your nearest dairy shop.
Ingredients Needed
- 15 ready-made rasgulla.
- Condensed tin milk.
- Milk 3 cups.
- Saffron
- Pistachios and almonds.
- Cardamom powder.
Here are the easiest steps to make easy Rasmalai.
Step 1
- First of all, take ready made rasgulla in your hand and squeeze them properly. If you want rasgulla juicy then make sure that syrup is extracted from the rasgulla to absorb milk later.
Step 2
- Now you have to add both milk and condensed milk to a pan and start boiling.
Step 3
- After the milk boils you can add cardamom and saffron, simmer it until milk blends with milkmaid.
Step 4
- Turn the flame on low and add rasgulla to the pan.
Step 5
- Cover the pan for 2 minutes and after that you can garnish it with some nuts before serving.
Precautions While Making Rasmalai
While making rasmalai you have to follow some precautions listed below.
- While making rasmalai, the flame should not be on high because it will break the rasmalai balls in the milk.
- Make sure you are using a large pan while making rasmalai because it will prevent rasmalai balls from breaking.
- After adding rasgulla in rabri, no need to stir it because it can break rasgulla.
- Make sure your chenna is soft and smooth because dry chenna results in hard and chewy rasgulla.
Final Verdict
We have mentioned the best recipe to make soft and juicy rasmalai. We have also listed different recipes to make rasmalai in a short period or another recipe may take quite a long time to make. Don’t forget to go through precautions to follow while making rasmalai. If you think we have overlooked something then please let us know.
We have also listed the most search faqs related to rasmalai, so you can also go through them.
1. How is rasmalai made?
Rasmalai is a sweet dish made up of milk, curdled milk, saffron, cardamom and sugar. Rasmalai consists of two words rasmalai where: ‘ras’ means juice and ‘malai’ means cream, imagine how much this dish is juicy and creamy.
2. Why does my rasmalai turn Hard?
Basically rasmalai turn hard because of using hard chhena. Make sure you have properly kneaded chhena before making rasmalai balls and chenna needs to be soft and smooth before making rasmalai balls because soft and smooth rasmalai balls result in smooth, juicy and creamy rasmalai.
3. Can we use paneer to make rasmalai?
Yes we can use paneer to make rasmalai in-fact we can’t make rasmalai without paneer because to make rasmalai balls we need paneer/chhena.
4. Which country is famous for rasmalai?
Rasmalai is a famous dessert in Asia but mostly India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal are famous for rasmalai.
5. Does rasmalai contain eggs?
Rasmalai does contain eggs only if added because we can make rasmalai without even using eggs. We haven’t mentioned eggs to make rasmalai in our entire blog article but yes we can also make rasmalai using eggs.
6. Is Rasmalai made of bread?
The good quality rasmalai can be made using paneer/chenna but if you don’t have enough milk to curdle it then you can also use bread to make rasmalai balls. Maybe the bread doesn’t give the same taste that chenna gives but as bread can also soak syrup and rabri, we can make rasmalai as juicy and creamy like chenna rasmalai.