Rasmalai Recipe Step By Step Rasmalai Ruchiskitchen

With its incredible melt-in-your-mouth texture, it will leave you craving for more!

This term, Rasmalai, is a conjunction of two words, ‘ras’ meaning juice or syrup and ‘malai’ meaning cream. This mouth-watering dessert, made from chenna (homemade paneer or cottage cheese), is decadent in flavors and textures. The essence of cardamom and saffron infuses the dish with a fragrant charm, making this dish an irresistible treat that captivates the taste buds with every bite. They take up the flavor when soaked in sweet masala milk.

Super easy to make Infused with irresistible flavors Made with simple and readily available ingredients Gluten-free and 100% vegetarian No artificial ingredients used Can be made in advance and stored for later Can be scaled to please a large gathering!

Serve this delicacy as a showstopper dish to your guests on your next celebration, or relish it as a sweet ending to your everyday meals; it is a guaranteed pleasure to indulge.

Lemon juice or vinegar — This is used for curdling the milk when making fresh paneer/ chenna for the rasmalai recipe. Milk powder — Added to the flavored milk to render the rasmalai recipe more creamy and luscious. Sugar — Used for sweetening and flavoring our sweet delicacy. The confectioner’s sugar is used for this recipe. Saffron — A few strands add a lovely hue and a beautiful subtle flavor that makes this recipe irresistible. Elaichi/ Cardamom Powder — Gives the rasmalai recipe an authentic flavor and aroma. Rose water/ Kewra essence — This adds a subtle flavor and aroma that makes the recipe more enticing and takes the overall deliciousness up a notch.

Using low-fat alternatives can compromise the texture, resulting in the hard and crumbly rasmalai instead of the desired soft and creamy dessert. The luscious and decadent quality of the dessert is achieved by the richness of full-fat milk, which is the integral part. This recipe is not meant to be vegan — Please note that this rasmalai recipe is not suitable for ingredient substitutions with vegan alternatives. I haven’t experimented with plant-based milk such as soy or nut milk in this recipe, so I can’t provide any guidance on their effectiveness. Given the distinctive properties of the plant-based ingredients, creating a vegan version of Rasmalai recipe would require an entirely different set of ingredients and possibly additional instructions, too. When preparing chenna, do not overheat the milk after adding the lemon juice or vinegar, as this will result in tougher and chewy-textured rasmalai rather than the desired soft and melt-in-mouth texture. Avoid store-bought paneer altogether — This recipe calls for freshly prepared paneer, which is necessary to achieve the signature soft and melt-in-mouth texture of Rasmalai; therefore, I would not recommend using the store-bought paneer. Making the paneer from scratch is imperative, so it is best to stick to the traditional method, which involves boiling full-fat milk, separating it with an acid like lemon juice or vinegar, and then carefully straining and kneading the chenna. Drain the water well from chenna — Draining the water from chenna is a crucial step when making this delicious dessert. Well-drained chenna allows better kneading and shaping of the cheese/ Rasmalai balls. Ideally, the Rasmalai chenna should be crumbly and slightly dry, retaining a little moisture for a creamy texture. If the chenna mixture is overly dry, it may cause the rasmalai to become dry, while the wet chenna can result in the rasmalai disintegrating in the syrup. I usually hang chenna in cheesecloth for at least 2 to 3 hours to achieve a balance, ensuring it is perfectly prepared.

As you knead the dough, you should notice the chenna releasing some ghee or fat and then finally coming together as a smooth dough ball, which is neither too hard nor too soft. This makes a perfect texture for shaping the chenna into soft cheese balls. Stick to manual kneading — Please refrain from using the food processor as it can lead to overworking of the chenna, which causes excessive release of fat. At this point, the chenna will become extremely greasy and challenging to work with. Once the fat is released, the chenna becomes unsuitable for making this recipe as the desired texture will not be achieved. Therefore, stick to the manual kneading method that ensures the chenna’s perfect texture. For the dry chenna — Likewise, if the chenna turns out dry and crumbly, adding a few drops of water and kneading it again will do the trick. Assorted flavors are possible — You can flavor the sugar syrup as you please and enjoy the dessert the way you want. The most loved flavors are cardamom and rose water. You can also use kewara essence, saffron, or rasmalai essence, as you like. When the water comes to a boil, and you see bubbles in the water, gently add the rasmalai balls/ dumplings to the syrup. Are Chenna balls not doubling in size? Well, there could be many reasons for the Chenna balls not doubling in size. If the sugar syrup is too concentrated, the chenna balls will have difficulty soaking, and they will not puff up. In this case, dilute the sugar syrup and try again. Another reason could be that the chenna is not kneaded correctly. Further, when boiling the syrup, ensure that you use a tight-fitted lid to cover the pan and that the syrup is boiling well. Why? A tight-fitted glass lid helps trap the required heat and pressure during cooking, and the rasmalai turns out soft and well-puffed. But if the rasmalai comes in contact with the air during cooking, it will shrink and result in chewy rasmalais. Prepare another batch of chenna for this recipe and save this deformed chenna from the syrup to make rabdi out of it! Checking the doneness of the chenna — Once the chenna is cooked, it is time to check the doneness. Remove it from the syrup and drop a rasmalai ball in a water bowl. If it sinks, it indicates that it is cooked. But if it floats, you need to boil them for a few more minutes.