Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Tips for making Rasgulla:

1. Whole milk is the best choice for making rasgulla. With whole milk we will get rich quantity of rasmalai.
2. Keep stirring the milk till it boils for the fat to get incorporated with milk.
3. Add lemon juice once the milk starts to boil and stop adding lemon juice when the milk is fully curdled.
4. Add cold water or ice to stop the curdling process. It also helps to remove the sourness of the lemon juice we added to the milk.
5. Hang the collected cottage cheese atleast for 30 mins so all the moisture will come out of the cheese.
6. After all the moisture is absorbed, knead the cottage cheese nicely with sides of the palm instead of fingers. Knead patiently for 7-10 mins. Kneading is the most important step to get soft fluffy rasgullas.
7. While shaping balls out of the paneer, make it to gooseberry size. The shaped rasgullas gets expanded and get doubled in sugar syrup.
8. To get clear white rasgullas, add a tbsp of milk to sugar syrup and try to remove all the dust collected on the top. This will ensure the syrup is clear without any impurities and  the rasgullas look stunning white.
9. When the sugar syrup comes to rolling boil, add the shaped rasgulla balls to the syrup.
10. Refrigerate for 7-8 hours before serving.

You may also want to try:

• Rasmalai
• Cham Cham
• Malpua
• Paneer Kheer
• Sandesh

Recipe Card for Rasgulla:

Print

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe

Rasgulla, a popular Bengali Sweet. Homemade Soft, Spongy balls of cottage cheese soaked in sugar syrup. A very delicious and rich dessert! Learn here how to make this recipe with step by step pictures and instructions.

Course Dessert, Sweet Varieties

Cuisine Bengali, Indian Cuisine, North Indian

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Resting Time 30 minutes

Servings 15 Rasgullas

Calories 100kcal

Author Sowmya Venkatachalam

Equipment

• Heavy Bottomed Pan
• Sauce Pan

Ingredients

• 4 Cups Milk 1 Cup - 250ml. Whole milk is the best choice.
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
• 2½ Cups Sugar
• 3½ Cups Water
• ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
• 1 tbsp Almonds Chopped for Garnishing
• 1 tbsp Pistachios Chopped for Garnishing

Instructions

• Heat a pan and add 1 litre of milk to the pan. Keep stirring until the milk starts to boil. We should get nice bubbles in the milk. Also keep stirring till you get bubbles. The stirring will help the fat to fully combine with the milk. If we don’t stir, then the fat will separate from the milk and we would not get  soft and spongy cottage cheese. Meanwhile dilute the lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of water and keep it ready. 
• When the milk starts to boil, switch off the flame and add the lemon juice little by little gradually. When milk starts to curdle, stop adding the lemon juice. Add 1/2 cup of cold water or ice cubes which helps to stop the curdling process. Also the cold water or ice cubes take out the sourness of lemon juice which we have added. Place a muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth over a strainer. Strain the curdled milk through the cloth covered strainer.
• If you open the cloth, you could see a ball of cottage cheese not completely dry, would have a little moisture and if you touch it would crumble into pieces as shown in the picture. lets knead the cottage cheese nicely using your palm. Knead the cheese for about 7-10 minutes to get soft and spongy rasgullas. This knead is mandatory and is the main process to get softer rasgullas.
• After 10 minutes, the kneaded cheese would be like a dough. make small lemon sized balls out of the cheese dough. Make sure the sizes are small, because cooking the cheese balls in the sugar syrup doubles its size. Lets heat a cooker or a broad and thick bottomed vessel. Add water and sugar and bring it to boil. When the sugar syrup starts to boil with bubbles, add 2 tablespoon of milk to the boiling sugar syrup. Adding milk to the sugar syrup separates the dust from the sugar and makes it float at the top of the syrup. We can then easily remove the dust using a ladle. This step is optional. If you have clear white sugar, we can skip this. If any dust present in the sugar, it would make the syrup look slightly dull in colour and your rasgullas would not look good in the dull sugar syrup. 
• Make sure your sugar syrup is absolutely boiling and add cardamom powder and then drop the cheese balls in the sugar syrup. Cook the cheese balls in the sugar syrup for about 20 minutes with the pan closed with the lid. Gently stir the cheese balls every 5 minutes till they are cooked. You could see the size of the cheese balls gets doubled when they are fully done.
• After 20 minutes, keep the flame low and cook for another 5 minutes. At this stage check the consistency of the sugar syrup, if it is too thick, add a ladle of water and again cook the rasgullas. If the sugar syrup is too thin, keep in low flame for more time to get a thicker consistency. Finally when the sugar syrup is in correct consistency and the rasgullas are cooked, then switch off the flame. Bring the rasgullas to room temperature and then refrigerate for atleast 7-10 hours. 
• Our yummy soft and spongy Bengali Rasgulla is now ready to serve Chilled. Add 1-2 rasgullas to a serving bowl and add 1 ladle of sugar syrup. Garnish with finely chopped almonds and pistachios on top of the rasgulla and Serve! 

Nutrition

Serving: 1piece | Calories: 100kcal | Carbohydrates: 80g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 1g

Instructions with step by step pictures:

• Heat a pan and add 1 litre of milk to the pan. Keep stirring until the milk starts to boil. We should get nice bubbles in the milk. Also keep stirring till you get bubbles. The stirring will help the fat to fully combine with the milk. If we don’t stir, then the fat will separate from the milk and we would not get  soft and spongy cottage cheese. Meanwhile dilute the lemon juice with 1 tablespoon of water and keep it ready.

• When the milk starts to boil, switch off the flame and add the lemon juice little by little gradually. When milk starts to curdle, stop adding the lemon juice. Add 1/2 cup of cold water or ice cubes which helps to stop the curdling process. Also the cold water or ice cubes take out the sourness of lemon juice which we have added. Place a muslin cloth or thin cotton cloth over a strainer. Strain the curdled milk through the cloth covered strainer.

• Cover the cloth and squeeze the cloth gently to remove excess water from the cheese. Also show the covered cloth under running water just to ensure the sourness of lemon is removed completely from the cheese. Squeeze the cloth gently and hang it for 30 minutes. In 30 minutes, the hung cloth would have removed most of the moisture from the cottage cheese.

• If you open the cloth, you could see a ball of cottage cheese not completely dry, would have a little moisture and if you touch it would crumble into pieces as shown in the picture. lets knead the cottage cheese nicely using your palm. Knead the cheese for about 7-10 minutes to get soft and spongy rasgullas. This knead is mandatory and is the main process to get softer rasgullas

• After 10 minutes, the kneaded cheese would be like a dough. make small lemon sized balls out of the cheese dough. Make sure the sizes are small, because cooking the cheese balls in the sugar syrup doubles its size. Lets heat a cooker or a broad and thick bottomed vessel. Add water and sugar and bring it to boil. When the sugar syrup starts to boil with bubbles, add 2 tablespoon of milk to the boiling sugar syrup. Adding milk to the sugar syrup separates the dust from the sugar and makes it float at the top of the syrup. We can then easily remove the dust using a ladle. This step is optional. If you have clear white sugar, we can skip this. If any dust present in the sugar, it would make the syrup look slightly dull in colour and your rasgullas would not look good in the dull sugar syrup.

• Make sure your sugar syrup is absolutely boiling and add cardamom powder and then drop the cheese balls in the sugar syrup. Cook the cheese balls in the sugar syrup for about 20 minutes with the pan closed with the lid. Gently stir the cheese balls every 5 minutes till they are cooked. You could see the size of the cheese balls gets doubled when they are fully done.

• After 20 minutes, keep the flame low and cook for another 5 minutes. At this stage check the consistency of the sugar syrup, if it is too thick, add a ladle of water and again cook the rasgullas. If the sugar syrup is too thin, keep in low flame for more time to get a thicker consistency. Finally when the sugar syrup is in correct consistency and the rasgullas are cooked, then switch off the flame. Bring the rasgullas to room temperature and then refrigerate for atleast 7-10 hours.

• Our yummy soft and spongy Bengali Rasgulla is now ready to serve Chilled. Add 1-2 rasgullas to a serving bowl and add 1 ladle of sugar syrup. Garnish with finely chopped almonds and pistachios on top of the rasgulla and Serve!

Rasgulla Recipe | Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe