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These Gulab Jamun Rabdi Cups take about 30 minutes to prepare and will definitely impress your guests at festive gatherings. The rabdi is made with ricotta cheese, which comes together quickly. It’s then scooped into phyllo shells and topped with gulab jamun to make a festive fusion dessert that’s perfect for individual servings.
You guys love the instant rabdi recipe that I shared a few years back using ricotta cheese. It’s honestly so easy to put together and I am not surprised that you guys enjoy it as much as I do. Ricotta cheese is readily available in the market and making rabdi with it cuts short the process and saves so much time during the busy festive season.
I love bite-sized dessert for Diwali since they are perfect for individual servings making them ideal for potlucks and parties like the coconut burfi baklava cups, gulab jamun shrikhand jars and many more. I used my ricotta cheese rabdi and store-bought gulab jamuns to make these Gulab Jamun Rabdi Cups. Minimal effort but scores big on taste and presentation!
The cups are filled with creamy rabdi and topped the soft gulab jamuns- the crunchy phyllo shells provide a nice contrast to the soft jamuns.
Let’s Make Gulab Jamun Rabdi Cups
- Bloom the saffron and melt ricotta cheese
Bloom the saffron by mixing it with warm milk and heavy cream. Meanwhile add ricotta cheese to the kadai and start cooking it.
- Cook the ricotta cheese with saffron milk
Let the ricotta melt and cook it for around 10 minutes and then stir in the prepared milk-cream-saffron milk mixture to it.
- Stir in nuts and sugar
Add in the chopped nuts and sugar, the consistency of the rabdi will change when you add the sugar, it will become thinner.
- Cook until the rabdi thickens
Let the rabdi simmer until it thickens, keep in mind that will continue to thicken as it cools down so don’t thicken it a lot.
- Assemble the mini cups
Scoop the rabdi into the baked shells and top with cut gulab jamuns.
Making It In Advance
I would not recommend assembling this dessert 1 day before the party. The shells become soggy when kept refrigerated overnight. Make the rabdi in advance. Bake the shells few hours before your party. And then assemble the cups, it takes only a few minutes. This way the shells with remain crunchy providing a nice crunch to the soft rabdi and gulab jamun.
Manali’s Tips
- You can top these cups with other mithai as well- jalebi will work great here! or even bite-sized malpua.
- I cut each gulab jamun into 4 pieces and then use one quarter of each cups. The shells are really tiny so a quarter of the gulab jamun works perfectly in my opinion. However, if you want to add 1/2 of the jamun in each cups, you can do that as well.
- I used store-bought gulab jamuns to cut short the prep time, but you can definitely make them at home.
Gulab Jamun Rabdi Cups
Ingredients
- ¾ cup whole milk 6 oz
- ¾ cup heavy cream 6 oz
- generous pinch saffron strands
- 2 teaspoons ghee melted
- 15 oz ricotta cheese I used whole milk ricotta
- ⅓ cup chopped nuts I used cashews and almonds
- ⅓ cup granulated white sugar 75 grams
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 45 phyllo shells
- 12 gulab jamuns store-bought or homemade, cut into quarters
- dried rose petals to garnish
Instructions
- Add ¾ whole milk and ¾ cup heavy cream to a pan on medium heat. Once the mixture is slightly warm, crush a generous pinch of saffron strands with your hands and add it to the pan. Stir with a spoon. Let the mixture heat for 1-2 minutes more (no need to boil it) and then turn off the heat. The saffron will develop it's color and flavor while you work on the rest of the recipe.
- To a kadai on medium heat, add 2 teaspoons ghee. Then add 15 oz ricotta cheese to it. Stir and let the cheese melt. Cook the ricotta for around 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring often.
- Now add the prepared saffron-milk-cream mixture to it and stir.
- Add ⅓ cup chopped nuts (I used chopped cashews and almonds) and stir. Reduce heat to low-medium and continue to cook for 3-4 more minutes.
- Then add ⅓ cup sugar and mix. The mixture will become liquid-y when you add the sugar. Cook on low-medium heat for 5 more minutes after adding the sugar until the rabdi thickens. Add ½ teaspoon cardamom powder, stir and remove kadai from heat.
- Keep in mind the rabdi will continue to thicken as it cools down so it should not be super thick at this point. Let it cool down a little.
- Meanwhile, bake 45 phyllo shells to crisp them up according to instructions on the package. The one I used said to bake unfilled shells for 3 to 5 minutes at 350 F degrees. You can do this step while making the rabdi. Also cut 12 gulab jamuns into quarter (you might not need use all).
- Scoop 1 to 2 teaspoons rabdi in each shell (don't overfill), top with quarter of gulab jamun and garnish with dried rose petal. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- These are bite-sized cups so it actually makes quite a lot. Don’t overfill the cups since you are going to place the gulab jamun on top and if they are overfilled the rabdi will ooze out.
- Do not make these a day in advance, the phyllo shells will become soggy. Assemble the cups on the day of the party, you can make the rabdi in advance. If the rabdi has become too thick, just add some milk and heat it a little to thin it out.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
