A lot of sweets and desserts in India are made using milk and usually they are also the most popular ones. One such popular sweet is rasgulla, it comes from the state of West Bengal which is famous for it’s mouth-watering desserts.
Rasgulla is made from “chena” which is obtained by curdling the milk. The chena is mashed, made smooth and then cooked in boiling sugar syrup. The main problem with making rasgullas at home is that it doesn’t always turn soft. Actually making this sweet at home is really easy, there are just few basic things which should be kept in mind and they will always turn out perfect.
– Use a wide pan for making the rasgullas. They increase in size when dropped in boiling sugar syrup so there should be enough space for the rasgullas to cook in the pan.
– Add some water to cool down the milk before adding the lemon juice/vinegar to curdle it.
– Squeeze out all the water from the chena before you start mashing it.
– Mash the chena with your hands for total of 10 minutes. It should be totally smooth by the end of 10 minutes.
– The water to sugar ration should be 4:1. So for 1 cup of sugar you have to add 4 cups of water and boil it at high flame.
– The rasgullas increase in size while they are cooking in the sugar syrup so don’t make them too big unless you want huge rasgullas.
– Drop the rasgullas in the sugar syrup once it’s completely boiling at high flame.
– The flame has to be high throughout the entire time when the rasgullas are cooking.
– To check if the rasgullas are cooked, drop them in fresh water. They will sink if done.
– Transfer the rasgullas from the fresh water to the sugar syrup once the sugar syrup has cooled down.
– Make a day in advance, they taste the best the next day when the rasgullas have soaked the sugar syrup well.
I will definitely update this post with step by step pictures when I make rasgullas again. Since I made these in India and it was too hot in the kitchen, I couldn’t keep up with clicking pictures side by side.
I have made these rasgullas twice already in the past 1 week and they always come out perfect. So give it a try and enjoy these soft and delicious homemade rasgullas.
* Use whole milk for best results.
* If you think the flame is too high on your gas stove and you are afraid the rasgullas might burn, you can cook them in another way. Let the sugar and water come to a boil, drop the rasgulla into it and then lower the heat to medium, cover and cook for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the cover, flip the rasgullas, cover and let them cook for another 15 minutes on medium flame. But remember to boil the sugar syrup before adding the rasgullas.
Rasgulla
Ingredients
- 1 litre whole milk
- 3 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 cups water
Instructions
- Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan.
- Once the milk comes to a boil, switch off the flame and add 1/2 cup of water to bring down the temperature a bit.
- Add lemon juice till the milk curdles.
- Drain the curdled milk using a muslin cloth. You are now left with what is known as "chena" or "paneer".
- Squeeze the muslin cloth to remove all the water from the chena.
- Take the chena in a plate and add cornflour to it.
- Mash the chena with your hands for 10 minutes to make it soft and smooth. This is an important step to make sure that the rasgullas are soft.
- Make small balls from the chena after the mashing is done.
- Meanwhile in a pan mix the sugar and water and let it boil at high temperature.
- Put the rasgulla balls in the boiling sugar syrup.
- Cook the rasgullas in sugar syrup for 18-20 minutes on high flame.
- Refrigerate the rasgullas with the syrup and serve chilled.
Nutrition
Bengali Rasgulla
H Manali, corn flour (is it makki ka atta) or you mean corn starch. My concern is that corn flour is yellow whereas corn starch is white. Please advise
makki ka atta is maize flour. I mean cornstarch – the white one.
Tried this recipe 3 times but each time my rasgullas came hard. I mashed the Chena for 10 mins and the balls came out good but after cooking they got hard..!!! Please advise what I might be doing wrong
you are extracting a lot of moisture from the chena. You need to squeeze water from it but it should still be moist to touch. This comes with practice, so don’t worry if you are not getting a hang of it. Also try cooking them for less time next time, all stoves work differently. Maybe yours need less time.
Hi, Why do you add cornflour to the chenna and how much cornflour should be added?
Regards, Hans
to bind the mixture, I use 1 teaspoon (it’s mentioned in the recipe card).
Manali… Yr rosogulla looking very spongy. But when I tried all r good.. Cooked well but it’s not spongy. I tried 3 times but failed to become spongy. Please help me..
I used Amul full cream milk and after getting chhena I put it in refrigerator for 2 hours
not sure, maybe you are over cooking it. It comes with practice!
The dough is way too sticky and when I added maids to make it dry it became very hard and did not even taste like rasgulla. Even after hanging the Chenna for more than 1 hour it was still not dry enough to knead into a dough
Please help
if the dough is too sticky, it just means it has a lot of moisture in it. Squeeze it well, there’s no other reason why it will be moist. It is just curdled milk.
Let the chenna hang overnight for better result.
Yami it’s so testing ??
Thanks for sharing rasgulla recipe,, Now I also try to make it at home. But it will not be bad, will it?
Helpful rasgulla recipe .thankyou for sharing this information.
My rasgulla turned hard??
there can be several reasons, please read this post for all tips: https://www.cookwithmanali.com/make-soft-rasmalai-home/
the basic process of making balls in same for rasgulla and rasmalai. Most likely you squeezed way too much from the chena and hence the balls were hard.
i am a strict rather hard core vegetatian and would like to have some veg delights for parties.mainly snacks and starters.
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hi manali thanks for reply…
getting milk from farms is not possible…i wonder how the shops make them round? they too make from same milk…yes i take big patila.. to make rasgullas..
hmm hard to say then..when I make rasgullas they turn round so I am not sure why yours don’t.