A popular Bengali dessert – Rasmalai, is a royal sweet often served at weddings and eaten on special occasions. Soft, small, and spongy flattened balls are made by curdling the milk which is dunked in flavored sweet milk, it is a heavenly delicious Indian Dessert!
Here is an easy step-by-step recipe with a video to make an exotic Indian sweet with all the possible tips and tricks to get it right! Once you crack the steps to make soft Rasmalai at home, there is no looking back.
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Rasmalai is one of those desserts that never fails.
Though it looks a bit difficult to make, it is actually very easy to prepare. It only needs a little effort, but it’s all worth it at the end when you have a delicious dessert on the table.
Learn how to make this mouth-watering dessert recipe, that can be a part of your menu for festivals, get together, or any other special occasion.
What is Rasmalai?
Rasmalai, or as it is traditionally called Rossomoloi, is a Bengali delicacy of spongy soft cheese dumplings that are cooked in sugar syrup and then soaked in creamy cardamom-saffron milk, absorbing all the lovely flavors.
Rasmalai is a combination of two words “Ras” meaning juice and “Malai” meaning cream.
Together, it creates a luscious treat with an incredible melt-in-your-mouth texture that will only leave you craving for more!!
This dessert is also described as “a rich cheesecake without a crust”.
The name itself is exotic and describes the richness of this delicate Indian sweet.
It undoubtedly tops the list of all Indian milk-based desserts.
And I am sure this rasmalai is one of the most favorite Indian desserts of everyone reading this! You can make Rasmalai Cake Jars too from this recipe.
There are two parts of Rasmalai –
1. The rasmalai balls – To make rasmalai balls the milk is first boiled and then curdled by adding lemon juice or vinegar.
After draining the water from the curdled milk, the protein (the white part) that is left is called the “chenna” or “paneer”.
The chenna is then kneaded with the heel of your palm till it becomes smooth. Small balls are then made from that chenna and dropped in boiling sugar syrup till cooked.
2. The thickened milk or the ras: The milk is boiled with sugar, cardamom, and saffron until it is reduced by 50 to 60 percent.
Then the ras malai balls are finally dipped in thickened milk and chilled before serving.
Let’s learn this Rasmalai recipe in detail with step by step pics and tips to make it perfect.
I have been making this recipe since I was 16!
Making this recipe isn’t that difficult, but, there are few tips to keep in mind during its preparation.
In this post for Soft Rasmalai Recipe, I have tried my best to explain whatever I have learned over the period of time.
Ingredients required, step by step process and Important tips –
This recipe is divided into 3 parts.
- Make Ras (Flavored milk)
- Make Rasgullas (Malai)
- Assemble
Step 1 – Ras (Flavored milk)
Ingredients required to make ras (Flavored milk)
Here is an overview of the ingredients in the recipe (very handy to use as a visual grocery list at the store). Quantities are mentioned in the recipe card.
Step by step process –
Boil milk into the heavy bottom pan for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the milk reduces to 50% to 60%. Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily in the bottom of the pan. (Photo 5 and 6)
While the milk is reducing, take fennel seeds and cardamom (Inner black part of cardamom) in a mortar and pestle and make a coarse powder. Also take saffron in a bowl add 1 tablespoon hot milk, mix and set it aside while the milk continues to cook. (Photo 1 to 4)
Once the milk is reduced, add the sugar, cardamom-fennel seeds powder, almonds, pistachios, and saffron mix. (Photo 7 to 9)
Mix them well and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Keep it aside. (Photo 10)
Pro-tips
- Use full-fat milk to make the ras.
- Never use thin pan while preparing ras, as there are high chances for milk to burn. Always use a heavy bottom pan.
- Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily at the bottom of the pan.
- Don’t use ready-made cardamom powder. Use freshly made cardamom powder.
- Use your choice of nuts.
- If you don’t like fennel seeds, you can skip it.
- You can use yellow food color to give a deep color.
- Adjust the sugar according to your liking
Step 2 – Paneer balls or call it malai
Ingredients Required
Again this is an overview of the ingredients in the recipe (very handy to use as a visual grocery list at the store). Quantities are mentioned in the recipe card.
Step by step preparation with tips and tricks
Boiling the milk, adding the vinegar, straining and kneading the chena
Take the milk in a heavy bottom pot, bring the milk to a boil. Switch off the flame, keep the pot aside for about 5 minutes. (photo 11 and 12)
Now add vinegar or lemon juice a tablespoon at a time and stir continuously. (photo 13)
Once you see the green color whey separated COMPLETELY, stop adding lemon juice or vinegar. (photo 14)
Line a muslin cloth or cheesecloth over a big bowl, drain the curdled milk and collect the whey. (photo 15 and 16)
Gather all the edges of the cloth, squeeze out the water as much as possible. (photo 17)
Make a knot and hang it over the kitchen sink for about 15 to 20 minutes. DO NOT let the chenna dry completely. Make sure chenna is crumbly and slightly dry and yet a little moist.
Transfer the chenna to a plate. Crumble it a bit. (photo 18)
Now, using the heel of your palm, knead the dough for about 7 to 8 minutes or until you feel the chenna starting to ooze out some fat and it turns into a smooth, soft, and not sticky dough. (Photo 19 and 20)
Now Divide the dough into 25 parts. Gently, roll out each part in a smooth crack-free ball between your palms. Then slightly flatten it. Prepare all the discs the same way. Cover it and keep it aside. (Photo 21 and 22)
Pro-tip
- Choose the GOOD quality of milk. I prefer full cream milk. If you are in the USA, use it whole milk. 2% and 1% will not give a good and creamy result. And if you are India, use Full fat cow milk.
- DONT add vinegar or lemon juice to boiling milk. Else it will result in chewier and hard rasgullas.
- DONT let the curdled milk sit in whey for a long time. Drain it as soon as possible.
- Use the whey for kneading the dough for Roti, to make soup, dal, or curries.
- Be careful while squeezing the water. The water will be very hot.
- Chenna shouldn’t be pasty. if it’s pasty, it needs to be drained for some more time. Please refer video for better texture ideas.
- Kneading the dough is THE MOST critical steps. You have to knead it until you get a soft, smooth, non-sticky dough.
- Sign of perfectly kneaded dough – “You will notice some fat begins to ooze out”.
- Knead the paneer or chenna properly till it forms a dough and no granules are seen. At the same time, do not over-knead as chenna will start releasing oil, resulting in hard rasmalai.
- To make the kneading process a little easy, transfer the chenna in the blender and pulse it for 15 to 20 seconds, for 4 to 5 times or until it forms a dough ball.
- While making paneer balls, make sure you do not have any cracks in it. otherwise, the paneer balls would dissolve in sugar syrup while boiling.
- While making balls, if you notice cracks, knead the chenna for few more minutes. If you find the chenna dough is very dry, sprinkle few drops of milk and knead it some more time.
Making the sugar syrup and cooking the chenna balls
Take a big wide pot. Add sugar and water. (photo 23)
Boil water very well.
Drop the flattened balls in boiling sugar syrup. Cover with the lid and let it cook over high flame for about 10 minutes. (photo 24 and 25)
After 10 minutes, reduce the flame to medium to low and cook them for 5 more minutes. By now the balls are doubled in size. (photo 26)
Set the pot aside for 30 minutes and let it cool down completely. Do not open the pot during the period.
Pro-tips
- Make sure to have enough room for paneer balls to swell while boiling.
- The water MUST be rolling boil when you add rasgullas.
- Don’t overcrowd the rasgullas. Or else It will lose their shape. You can cook the balls in batches.
- Don’t open the lid in between. Cook them undisturbed.
- The basic rule is DONT give temperature attack when rasgullas are cooking. The sudden temperature change will result in flattened and hard rasgullas.
- I make rasgullas in my pressure cooker too. To make it in a pressure cooker, boil the water and sugar in a pressure cooker. Add paneer balls in it. Boil them for 2 whistles over medium to high heat, it will take about 5 to 6 minutes. Slow down the flame to low to medium heat and let it cook for another 5 minutes (This is a very important step). Switch off the flame and let the pressure cooker cools down completely. Open it after 30 minutes.
- To check if the rasgullas are done or not, take cold water in glass or bowl, drop the one rasgulla in that water. If sinks, it is ready. And if it floats that means it is undercooked and it needs to be cooked further.
Step – 3 Assemble
Squeeze out the syrup from the rasgullas with the help of a spoon or with your clean hands. (photo 27)
Transfer the rasgulla into prepared warm ras (Flavored milk). (photo 28)
Refrigerate the rasmalai for about 5 to 6 hours or until you are ready to serve.
Pro-tip
- The milk (ras) should be warm when you add the rasmalai balls to it. So the balls should cool down to room temperature but the milk should be warm.
- Squeeze the sugar syrup from paneer balls well else it will not absorb ras.
Quick FAQs –
It’s hard to describe the rich, creamy, and sweet taste on the palate when eating a spoonful of ras malai.
Light, spongy, spiced with cardamon and aromatic saffron; this dessert is so irresistible, that I am sure you won’t be able to stop at just one Rasmalai.
This dessert tastes best when served fridge cold and so it is a perfect accompaniment on a hot spring/ summer afternoon.
Indian sweets like gajar ka halwa, sooji halwa, gulab jamun stay good for a time period.
But Sweets in which milk as such is used like kheer, Ras malai, doodhpak, rabri, etc. have milk in them, can be kept in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. After that, the sweet starts smelling and taste bad.
You can freeze them too for about a month in an air-tight container. Thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or let it come to room temperature on its own and serve it the next day without reheating, as this dessert tastes delicious when cold. Just mix it properly using a spoon, before serving.
Yes, you can eat in during vrat like Navratri. I have not added maida or corn starch to make this recipe so this can be eaten fast.
This is the Bengali version and it doesn’t contain eggs. But there is a Pakistani version of ras malai which contains eggs and milk powder.
Rasmalai is a simple variation of normal rasgullas. The only difference is that rasgullas (cheese balls) are dipped in sugar syrup whereas the ras malai is dipped in sweetened milk after dipping it in sugar syrup.
Yes, you can make this with ricotta cheese. It tastes great. I will try to share the recipe here on the blog.
There are many different ways to make rasmalai starting with the authentic method with milk and then several shortcuts that use Ricotta cheese or even store-bought rasgullas.
Depending on the time you have on hand, you can choose any methods.
Personally, I prefer it being made the authentic way, the taste is just amazing. But if you do not have much time on hand, then these easy methods really help.
Using bread –
This is a really easy alternative. All you have to do is
Cut out the bread in rounds using a cutter. And when you are ready to serve, pour the chilled milk over the bread roundels. That’s it! Easy peasy, right!
The spongy and soft bread texture resembles the texture of malai (Paneer balls).
From rasgulla –
You can make your work easier by using store-bought rasgullas.
Just squeeze out all the sugar syrup from the rasgulla and dunk them all in the ras (Flavored milk) for an hour or so. And it’s ready!
Ras from milk powder.
If you don’t have time or don’t feel like cooking the ras from scratch, you can use this rabdi mix too. It’s a really easy way of making this recipe plus it gets done in just 10 minutes.
Another way to make the process easy is – You can also make the rasgulla (malai) a day or two before and then later make the ras and then dunk rasgulla.
Dividing work this way makes it easy.
NO!
I do not recommend making this from readymade paneer. You need freshly made soft chenna(Paneer) to make rasmalai recipe.
The store-bought paneer is hard and it will not work.
Making chenna at home is really easy. Believe me, it hardly requires effort and time. You just need to keep some points in mind while making chenna. I am sharing those in the notes sections.
There could be few reasons like –
Hard Chenna
over kneading of the dough
boiling/cooking it for a longer time.
So make sure you do everything in the right manner and at the right time.
If there is too much whey(green water) in your chena, it tends to break during boiling.
Therefore make sure that you drain the whey properly before making the chena balls. If your chena is sticky, hang it for a little longer.
You need non-sticky and grainy chena for the perfect rasmalai balls.
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Rasmalai Recipe
Ingredients
For Ras (Rabadi / flavored milk)
- 2 liter Whole Milk (8 cups)
- ¾ cup Sugar
- 2 tablespoon Chopped Almond
- 1 tablespoon Chopped pistachios
- 4 pods Cardamom
- 1 teaspoon Fennel seeds
- ¼ teaspoon saffrom
For Malai (Paneer Balls)
- 2 liter Milk (8 cups)
- 4 tablespoon Vinegar
- 2 liter Water (8 cups)
- 1 cup Sugar
Instructions
Step 1 – Ras (Flavored milk)
- Boil milk into the heavy bottom pan for about 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the milk reduces to 50% to 60%. Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily at the bottom of the pan. (Photo 5 and 6)
- While the milk is reducing, take fennel seeds and cardamom (Inner black part of cardamom) in a mortar and pestle and make a coarse powder. Also take saffron in a bowl add 1 tablespoon hot milk, mix and set it aside while the milk continues to cook. (Photo 1 to 4)
- Once the milk is reduced, add the sugar, cardamom-fennel seeds powder, almonds, pistachios, and saffron mix. (Photo 7 to 9)
- Mix them well and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Keep it aside. (Photo 10)
Step 2 – Paneer balls (malai)
- Take the milk in a heavy bottom pot, bring the milk to a boil. Switch off the flame, keep the pot aside for about 5 minutes. (photo 11 and 12)
- Now add vinegar or lemon juice a tablespoon at a time and stir continuously. Once you see the green color whey separate COMPLETELY, stop adding vinegar/lemon juice. (photo 13 and 14)
- Line a strainer with a muslin cloth or cheesecloth over a big bowl, drain the curdled milk and collect the whey. (photo 15 and 16)
- Gather all the edges of the cloth, squeeze out the water as much as possible. (photo 17)
- Make a knot and hang it over the kitchen sink for about 15 to 20 minutes. DO NOT let the chenna dry completely. Make sure chenna is crumbly and slightly dry and yet a little moist.
- Transfer the chenna in a plate. Crumble it a bit. (photo 18)
- Now, using the heel of your palm, knead the dough for about 7 to 8 minutes or until you feel the chenna starting to ooze out some fat and it turns into a smooth, soft, and not sticky dough. (Photo 19 and 20)
- Now Divide the dough into 25 parts. Gently, roll out each part in a smooth crack-free ball between your palms. Then slightly flatten it. Prepare all the disc the same way. Cover it and keep it aside. (Photo 21 and 22)
- Take a big wide pot. Add sugar and water. (photo 23)
- Boil water very well.
- Drop the flattened balls in boiling sugar syrup. Cover with the lid and let it cook over high flame for about 10 minutes. (photo 24 and 25)
- After 10 minutes, reduce the flame to medium to low and cook them for 5 more minutes. By now the balls are doubled in size. (photo 26)
- Set the pot aside for 30 minutes and let it cool down completely. Do not open the pot during the period.
Step – 3 Assemble
- Squeeze out the syrup from the rasgullas with the help of a spoon or with your clean hands. (photo 27)
- Transfer the rasgulla into prepared warm ras (Flavored milk). (photo 28)
- Refrigerate the rasmalai for about 5 to 6 hours or until you are ready to serve.
Video
Notes
- Use full-fat milk to make the ras.
- Never use thin pan while preparing ras, as there are high chances for milk to burn. Always use heavy bottom pan.
- Make sure to frequently stir the milk as the milk burns easily in the bottom of the pan.
- Don’t use readymade cardamom powder. Use freshly made cardamom powder.
- Use your choice of nuts.
- If you dont like fennel seeds, you can skip it.
- You can use yellow food color to give a deep color.
- Adjust sugar in ras according to your liking.
- DONT add vinegar or lemon juice to boiling milk. Else it will result in chewier and hard rasgullas.
- DONT let the curdled milk sit in whey for a long time. Drain it as soon as possible.
- Use the whey for kneading the dough for Roti, to make soup, dal, or curries.
- Be careful while squeezing the water. The water will be very hot.
- Chenna shouldn’t be pasty. if it’s pasty, it needs to be drained for some more time. Please refer video for better texture ideas.
- Kneading the dough is THE MOST critical steps. You have to knead it until you get a soft, smooth, non-sticky dough.
- Sign of perfectly kneaded dough – “You will notice some fat begins to ooze out”.
- Knead the paneer or chenna properly till it forms a dough and no granules are seen. At the same time, do not over-knead as chenna will start releasing oil, resulting in hard ras malai.
- To make the kneading process a little easy, transfer the chenna in the blender and pulse it for 15 to 20 seconds, for 4 to 5 times or until it forms a dough ball.
- While making paneer balls, make sure you do not have any cracks in it. otherwise, the paneer balls would dissolve in sugar syrup while boiling.
- While making balls, if you notice cracks, knead the chenna for few more minutes. If you find the chenna dough is very dry, sprinkle few drops of milk and knead it some more time.
- Make sure to have enough room for paneer balls to swell while boiling.
- The water MUST be rolling boil when you add rasgullas.
- Don’t overcrowd the rasgullas. Or else It will lose their shape. You can cook the balls in batches.
- Don’t open the lid in between. Cook them undisturbed.
- The basic rule is DONT give temperature attack when rasgullas are cooking. The sudden temperature change will result in flattened and hard rasgullas.
- I make rasgullas in my pressure cooker too. To make it in a pressure cooker, boil the water and sugar in a pressure cooker. Add paneer balls in it. Boil them for 2 whistles over medium to high heat, it will take about 5 to 6 minutes. Slow down the flame to low to medium heat and let it cook for another 5 minutes (This is a very important step). Switch off the flame and let the pressure cooker cools down completely. Open it after 30 minutes.
- To make rasgulla in the instant pot, boil water and sugar on saute mode. Add paneer balls, cover the instant pot, vent valve on sealing position, press manual button, and set the timer for 5 minutes. Once 5 minutes are over, let the pressure release naturally. and rasgulla is done. Pro-tip – Fill IP pot halfway only, not more than that.
- To check if the rasgullas are done or not, take cold water in glass or bowl, drop the one rasgulla in that water. If sinks, it is ready. And if it floats that means it is undercooked and it needs to be cooked further.
- The milk (ras) should be warm when you add the rasmalai balls to it. So the balls should cool down to room temperature but the milk should be warm.
- Squeeze the sugar syrup from paneer balls well else it will not absorb ras.
- I have tried to answer most of the basic questions in the post, above the recipe card. Please read. by any chance, if I have missed anything, please let me know in the comment box below. I will try to answer it.
- This post is updated with new content, pics, and video, originally published in March 2016
Nutrition
Warm regards,
Dhwani.
Hey Dhwani,
Should the Ras(syrup) be warm or cold when u put the balls in it. Please let me know. Wanted to make it today. Thanks
Hi Kalindi!!!
It should be warm (not hot).
I have made this 3 times and they turn out perfect. Thanks a million for a perfectly delicious recipe.
Hi Kalindi!!!
Happy to hear this dear. Thanks for the feedback.
Happy and Safe Diwali!!! 🙂
Hi Dhwani..I tried making this today. It turned out quite good. However, the Paneer Balls are not as soft as store bought ras malais. Do you have any suggestions where I culd have gone wrong.
Hi Priya!!
Thanks for the feedback. Kneading part is very important to get the soft and spongy paneer balls. Did you knead the paneer balls well before cooking?
Hello, don’t we need to add all purpose flour or cornstarch in chenna while kneading it.?
No, you don’t need to.