Homemade Rasmalai | Bengali Sweet | Deepavali Sweet

Rasmalai, a delicious indian sweet/dessert made from the indian cottage cheese soaked in thickened & flavored milk(Rabri). 

Rasmalai is ST's favorite sweet, when we were in Bangalore, he bought it often from the little sweet stall on the way back to home from the office. The taste of that rasmalai was heaven, literally melt in mouth and the rabri was so flavorful with lots of nuts and saffron. 

To this day, i never seen him buying any other sweets on his own except rasmalai, that really motivates me to try my hands on this delicious bengali sweet. After a few attempts, i nailed the recipe, it turned out as delicious as i would expected and even ST gives a big thumbs up for every time i make. 

Now this has became one of the our favourite sweets to make at home for every special occasion. 

Rasmalai can be very easily made from the rasgolla, have heard from friends that even haldiram's rasgolla is best for making rasmalai, but i haven't tried it so far, always make my own rasgolla.

If you make everything from the start to finish on one day, you make find it tiresome, so i always make the rasgolla on the first day and let it soak in syrup for atleast a day in the refrigerator and then the next day, i will make the rasmalai. So if you have plan to make them from the scratch, that tip might be helpful. 

Homemade Rasmalai | Begali Sweet | Deepavali Sweet

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Rasmalai, Rasmalai Recipe, Homemade Rasmalai,Bengali Sweet Rasmalai, a delicious indian sweet/dessert made from the indian cottage cheese soaked in thickened and flavored milk(Rabri)

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Rasgulla - 15 small
Milk - 2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Saffron - few strands
Pistachio - 10
Cardamom powder - a pinch 

Procedure

First take the rasgulla squeeze out the syrup gently and place it on the plate. For the rabri, take the milk in a pan and bring to boil.

In the mean time, soak the saffron in a tbsp of warm milk for few mins. Once the milk comes to boil,reduce the flame to low and add the sugar.

Next add the saffron along withe soaked milk, let the milk boil in low flame for 5-7 mins or until it reduces to about 1/2.

Switch off the flame and add the rasgulla immediately. Finally add the roughly chopped pistachios, let it come to room temperature, then transfer into the bowl and refrigerate for 2-3 hrs before serving.

Tasty Rasmalai is ready. Serve chilled for the best taste ! 

Related : How to make Mawa/Khoya Burfi

Notes:

• Depends on the size of rasmalai and how much rabri you like to have along with rasmalai, you may need more or less of rabri. 
• Rasmalai tastes best on next day, give it a good soaking time for best taste.
• Add good quality of saffron, the saffron flavor makes the all difference.  
  

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Rasgulla, a delicious sweet made from cheese balls soaked in thin cardamom flavored sugar syrup. Rasgulla needs only a few ingredients but getting that soft, smooth and melt in your mouth texture is quite challenging. After a few attempts, I have learned to make soft cheese, once the cheese is well made and soft, rest is all breeze.  

Here are the key things to take care of making yummy & soft rasgulla. 

1. Use full fat milk, 1%,2% and all is not working here. 
2. Keep a tray of ice cubes ready, once the milk is curdled completely, we should stop the cooking process instantly, so adding ice cubes once the milk is curdled is a must for getting soft cheese. 
3. Hang or squeeze the cheese until almost all the water is drained from the cheese. 
4. Rub the cheese with your palm until it's all smooth.
5. The sugar syrup should be watery while cooking the rasgulla. 

These are the things i have followed religiously whenever i make rasgulla or rasmalai, it will give the softest rasgulla every SINGLE time.

Here in the recipe, I have used lemon juice to curdle the milk, but vinegar or curd can also be used. Don't add all the lemon juice at once, add little by little lemon juice in one hand  and stir the milk in another hand, once you see all the milk is curdled and the water is clear, stop adding the lemon juice, depends on the acidity of the lemon juice, you may need more or less of lemon juice than i have mentioned in the ingredient list. Guess that i have shared all the key information to make the softest and tastiest rasgulla, do give it a try on this diwali and enjoy with your family. With this rasgulla recipe, the diwali celebration is officially started here 😁

Why is my rasgulla chewy ?

Overcooking the cheese would result in chewy rasgulla.Once the milk is fully curdled ,add the ice cubes to stop cooking instantly will help to get soft  and melt in your mouth rasgullas.

Why is my rasgulla break?

Too much water in the cheese would be the cause for breaking. Make sure to squeeze the chenna/cheese well before start making rasgulla. 

Why is my rasgulla hard ?

Dry cheese/chenna is mostly the reason for hard rasgulla. Also make sure to knead the chenna until it's soft for spongy rasgulla.

How do I store my rasgulla?

Like any milk sweets, rasgulla  also should be refrigerated. It stays well for up to 10 days in the refrigerator. 

Hope i have answered most of the FAQs, now let's check out on how to make rasgulla 

Homemade Rasgulla | Bengali Rasgulla | Deepavali Sweets

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 4 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
rasgulla,bengali sweet, homemade rasgulla, soft rasgulla, spongy rasgulla, diwali sweets, deepavali sweets Rasgulla, a delicious sweet made from cheese balls soaked in thin cardamom flavored sugar syrup.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Milk - 2 cup
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
Sugar - 2/3 cup
Water - 2 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch 
Ice cubes - a tray

Procedure

Heat the milk in a sauce pan, bring into boil, immediately add the lemon juice.

Stir it continuously until all the milk is curdled and the water become clear, immediately add the ice cubes and stir it well.

Strain the paneer in a cheese cloth and squeeze out all the excess water. 

Transfer the paneer into the plater and kneed well with the palm of your finger until it become smooth.

Pinch a small size paneer and roll into smooth balls. Next for the syrup, take the sugar in a sauce pan. 

Add the water and cardamom powder, bring into vigorous boil.

Keep the flame in medium and add the rolled paneer into it gently. Cover the pot with lid and cook until it's doubled in size, it may take 18-20 mins. Let it cool completely and store them in refrigerator.

Tada, the rasgulla is ready. Serve them chill for best taste. Have leftover rasgulla?? Try this Rasmalai

For more diwali sweets, check out my deepavali collections

Notes:

• Adding ice cubes help to stop the cooking process immediately and gives the softest paneer.
• Once the rasgulla is cooked, if the sugar syrup is not having enough sweet, remove the rasgulla from syrup and boil the sugar syrup little more and reduces the syrup further, it will improve the sweetness in the syrup. When the syrup comes to room temperature, add the rasgulla into it.
• Instead of cooking the rasgulla in a open pot, you can used the pressure cooker also and cook it for 2 whistle in medium flame.
  

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Mishti Doi | Bengali Sweetened Yogurt | Bengali Sweet

Mishti Doi, a Bengali sweet delicacy of sweetened yogurt. Ever since I read about the mishti doi from the article series of "Rushial" written by writer Para(P.Raghavan) in his blog, I wanted to make them so bad. 

In that article, he wrote about his experience of buying the mishti doi at bengal street around midnight and had it along with naga jolokia(hottest chili grown somewhere near Assam) pickle. The whole experience was narrated in a hilariously manner, if you can read tamil, check out here and here about his experience.

Traditionally the mishi doi is prepared with palm jaggery/palm candy crystals instead of sugar. In para's blog, he mentioned that palm candy crystals(panam karkandu) are used in the mishti doi.  In many other blogs it says that palm jaggery(karuppati) is used for making mishti doi but in the pictures it looks like palm candy crystals. 

So i got confused which one to use, but went with palm sugar crystals, since usually palm jaggery has lot of impurities and always i prefer to make syrup with that and filter it once before use, here in mishti doi, i don't want to dilute the milk with jaggery syrup, thicker the milk, creamier the mishti doi would be.

After we moved to MI, it's really hard for me to get back to blogging, even though our things arrived two weeks before, for the past 10 days each day I told myself all the lame excuses for not doing anything! 

The past two days posts were from the drafts, so for today's post i have to cook something, that's when this mishti doi came to my mind, so two days back i made this mishti doi, glad i tried it, it was so creamy and tasty, even before taking the pictures, the one bowl of mishti doi was gone, now you knew how delicious it is.

Mishti Doi

Preparation Time : 1 day | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Mishti Doi, Bengali Sweet, Sweet Curd, Bengali Sweet Yogurt, Indian Sweet Yogurt Mishti Doi, a Bengali sweet delicacy of sweetened yogurt.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Milk - 3 cup
Palm Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Powder - 1/8 tsp
Curd - 1 tbsp

Procedure

Add the milk in the wide kadai and let it bring to boil, then simmer the milk until it reduces to 2 cups.

In between scrap the sides of the kadai and add it into the boiling milk and also stir frequently to avoid burning at the bottom. Once the milk is reduced to almost 2 cups, switch off the flame.

Immediately add the palm jaggery and mix it well with the milk, the residual heat from the milk is enough to dissolve the sugar completely.

Then add the cardamom powder, mix it well and transfer to the another bowl(it helps to cool down the milk quickly). Take the curd in a small bowl and whisk it smooth without any lumps.

Once the milk comes to warm temperature(if you dip your finger in the milk, it should be comfortably warm neither too hot nor too cold) add the curd and mix it well. Pour it into the individual earthern pot/terracotta bowl or even you can set it in the same bowl. Keep it in the kitchen counter until it sets. Unlike regular curd, it takes really long time to set. Mine takes approximately 24hrs to set.

Once it sets, cover it with cling wrap and let it refrigerate for at least 4 hrs. Tasty and creamy Mishti Doi is ready.

Related : How to make Begali Rasgulla 

Notes:

• If you want mild sweetness, than just add 1/3 cup of palm jaggery only.
• As i said earlier, it takes long time to set. Approximately 24-28 hrs when the room temperature is around 75 F.
• Earthern pot works great for this mishti doi to set. Since the porous nature of the pot absorbs all the liquid (if any left) and gives you super creamy mishti doi.
• For photo sake, i have added few saffrons on top, but that's not required.
  
   

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