Bengali Dessert: Homemade Kesar Pista Rasmalai

Rasmalai is nothing but an extension of bengal’s famous spongy rasgulla, served with rabdi or thickened milk as per the local preferences goes.

Rasmalai – another jewel of sweet from the vast repertoire of Bengali sweets. Though in Bengal, rasmalais usually looks quite different from the hugely popular North Indian varieties which is ubiquitously present in every corner of the country, the method of preparation is quite similar though.

Rasmalai is nothing but an extension of bengal’s famous spongy rasgulla, served with rabdi or thickened milk as per the local preferences goes. In short, preparation and learning to make super soft and spongy rasmalai starts with perfecting the rasgulla recipe itself.

However, few pointers to make super soft, halwai / sweet-maker style rasmalais are as follows –

1. The base chhena – like rasgulla too, rasmalai also needs super soft chhena, not crumbly one. And it all starts with how good your milk is. Always use full cream fresh milk for the recipe.

How to curdle the milk properly, there are lots of things to consider while doing it and I have covered all the points in detail in my previous rasgulla post for step by step pictures so kindly refer it for the details. Writing them again would be repetition of the same.

2. The shape of the rasmalai – usually in Bengal, rasmalais are round shape, just like the rasgullas. Sometimes slightly flattened but overall, they are slightly smaller than the regular rasgulla size. But in north India and elsewhere, rasmalais are usually flat disc shaped.

Preparing that shape is quite easy but it needs little bit of patience too. Just don’t rush into doing it. Take your own sweet time and shape it with patience. Since we are dealing with soft chhena here, so shape the rasmalais very carefully. Take a walnut size chhena dough in your hand and keep it between your palm, press gently only once to flatten it. You will observe that while doing so, it has developed few cracks over the edges, try to cover that by rubbing your finger gently. Do it with very light hand.

3. The secret of making super soft, melt in mouth kinda rasmalai –

As I told you before, rasmalai is just an extension of rasgulla recipe. Timing is all that matters here too. If your rasgullas need 12 minute to get cooked completely, cook the rasmalai in sugar syrup for just 10 minute.

There are two ways of doing it –

Few people do not like to boil the rasmalai in milk, hence they need to cook the rasmalai balls for the given time, say 12 minute here.

But I do it little differently, as learned from my mom. Boiling the rasmalai balls in milk for 30-40 seconds always gives melt in mouth kinda rasmalai. Better than the store bought rasmalais.

Blackberry Nectarine Crisp

So, if you are following my procedures, cook the rasmalai two minutes earlier than it is required.

Once done, immediately remove the rasmalais from the hot sugar syrup and dunk them in bowl of cold water.

If you are making rasmalai in small batch, say 10 -12 rasmalai, you can skip this process.

Or if you are making rasmalais in large batches, like me, say 100 or so then keep it in mind to dunk them in bowl of cold water.

Yes, 100 rasmalai in one go, I know the number is quite mind boggling and that is because, I do sell rasgullas and rasmalais from my home. If you are in Bangalore and like to place your orders, please send me a message on my FB page or Instagram page.

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