Rasgulla or rasogulla is a famous and signature sweet dish of the Bengalis. It’s also very popular in Orissa. Rasgulla is made from ball-shaped dumplings of chena (an Indian cottage cheese), cooked in light syrup made of sugar. It is very easy to make yet tastes superb. A Bengali wedding or get together without rasogulla is unimaginable.

Though the recipe of rasgulla seems to be very easy and there are innumerable recipes of it on the internet, it’s not easy to be master of making perfect spongy, soft and juicy rasgullas. I am making them for a number of years and it takes years to learn to make perfect rasgullas. Today I am sharing the recipe to make perfect soft yet spongy and juicy rasgulla, which needs some simple yet important tricks which I learnt through experience. If you follow these tricks I am sure your rasgullas will be perfect. And the most interesting thing is that you need only two main ingredients ie milk and sugar to make this delicious sweet! So you can easily make them during this lockdown period.

Recipe

• Preparation time: 30 min
• Cooking time: 80 min
• Serves: 12-13(big portions)
• Difficulty level: easy

Ingredients

• Fresh milk(full fat): 2 litre
• Regular sugar: 3 cup
• All-purpose flour: 1 teaspoon
• White vinegar: 1/4th cup
• Cardamom powder: 1/4th teaspoon
• Whole Green Cardamom: 2 no

Procedures

Boil fresh milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and remove from heat. Add in 1/4th cup of white vinegar.

Stir and wait for a couple of minutes so that milk curdle and the whey completely separates from the milk solids.

When whey separates from the milk solid completely, drain in a muslin cloth to separate the whey.

Rinse the chena(milk solids) under running tap water nicely so that sour taste and smell of vinegar completely go off.

Tie the cloth with chena to make a “potli” and squeeze out excess water. Next, hang the potli with chena for 15 minutes so that any excess water left in the chena drops out. It is necessary to eliminate excess water from chena to make rasgulla. But don’t hang the chena for too long as a little moisture is necessary to make soft rasgulla.

After 15 minutes take out the chena to a dish. Chena should be crumbled and little moist in texture. Add in 1 teaspoon of all-purpose flour or maida and 1/4th teaspoon of cardamom powder.

Start kneading the chena with your palm to make them smooth.

Knead for about 10 minutes or until your hand comes out clean. You have to make a smooth little greasy dough. Be careful not to over-knead the chena which may lead to chewy rasgulla. Knead as long as the chena start separating from the dish and hand.

Divide the dough into 12-13 equal portions.

Take each portion and roll between your palms to make a round ball. Repeat the process to make all the balls. Note that the balls should be crack free. If you can’t make crack free balls that means either your chena are too dry or they are not properly kneaded. In that place, you have to add a few drops of water to the chena and knead again.

Cover them with a moist cloth and keep aside.

For the sugar syrup take a big vessel and add-in 8 cups of water and 3 cups of regular sugar. To take big vessel is very important as the chena balls will need enough space in sugar syrup to expand themselves to double in size.

Stir cook the mixture until sugar dissolves completely and the syrup starts boiling. Also, add in 2 green cardamoms.

Now drop the chena balls to the boiling syrup and cover the vessel to seal. The balls should completely be submerged/immersed in the syrup. Cook the balls in sugar syrup in the medium heat for about 1/2 an hour. Be careful not to open the lid in between to check the rasgullas. The rasgullas should not be exposed in the air while they are cooking. Otherwise, they will not expand properly. So be sure that the lid is closed tightly. If you like to see the rasgullas being cooking, use a glass lid so that you can monitor them while cooking. And after 30 minutes of cooking remove from heat but don’t open the lid. You have to wait until the sweets become cool. See the picture below, I clicked when the rasgullas are cool enough to touch. They are expanded to almost double.

Now gently take out the sweets to a serving dish and cook the syrup for more 10-15 minutes to become thick. Pour the thick and cool syrup over the rasgullas and keep in the refrigerator for 3-4/hours before serving.

Delicious, juicy and spongy famous rasgullas are ready. I like to have them with some savoury, flaky and crunchy Nimki.

Some tips and tricks to make perfect rasgulla

• Use only full-fat fresh milk to make chena.
• Rinse the chena well under running water to eliminate the taste of vinegar.
• Hang the chena for 12 to 15 minutes only. Before hanging squeeze out water from chena with your hand.
• Knead the chena properly to make smooth and soft rasgullas. Avoid over kneading.
• Don’t overcrowd the sweet balls in the sugar syrup. Use a big vessel.
• Don’t remove the lid in between the cooking process of rasgullas.