Rasmalai is my favorite Indian sweet by miles. As a kid I wasn’t very fond of sweets but Rasmalai was my absolute favorite. Maybe because it’s so delicious or maybe because we didn’t get to eat it that regularly compared to other sweets. Rasmalai is a royal sweet often served in weddings and eaten on special occasions. I already have a rasmalai recipe on my blog but I thought of making a separate post to talk about how to make perfectly soft rasmalais at home. I hope it will be of some help to the readers.
There are two parts to Rasmalai – the rasmalai balls and the thickened milk.
Rasmalai balls: To make rasmalai balls the milk is first boiled and and then curdled by adding lemon juice or vinegar. After draining the water from the curdled milk, the protein that is left is called the “chena” or “paneer”. The chena is then mashed till it becomes smooth. Small balls are then made from that chena and dropped in boiling sugar syrup till cooked.
The thickened milk or the ras: The rasmalai balls are finally dipped in thickened milk and chilled before serving. To make the “ras” [syrup] full fat milk is boiled till it thickens slightly. It is then flavored with saffron and cardamom.
So now that we know what rasmalai is let’s talk a bit about how you can make them perfectly at home. The biggest problem that people face while making rasmalai at home is that the rasmalai balls often turn out hard whereas they should be totally soft and in fact melt in your mouth – that’s when you know you have made the perfect rasmalai. During my trip to India this time I made it so many times that now I feel confident in sharing these little tips which will make sure that your rasmalais turn out perfectly every time.
I will talk about these tips as we go through the step by step picture for this recipe
Method
Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan. Once it comes to a boil, switch off the flame and add 1/2 cup of water to bring the temperature of the milk down a bit. Wait for 5-10 minutes and then start adding lemon juice till milk curdles.
Point No.1 : Use full cream/whole milk to make rasmalai. Low fat or fat free will not give good results. The rasmalai balls are nothing but milk fat so you need to use full fat milk for making this sweet.
Point No. 2: Don’t curdle the milk as soon as it comes to a boil. Add 1/2 cup water and wait for 5-10 minutes till the milk temperature comes down a bit. If you curdle the milk when it’s not “super hot”, the resulting chena will be softer.
Add lemon juice till the milk curdles completely. Using a strainer drain the water and collect the chena. Rinse it under tap water so that there’s no trace of lemon juice in it. Leave it in the strainer for 10-15 minutes and then take the chena in your hand and squeeze out remaining water slowly.
Point No. 3: Even though you have to squeeze out the water completely from the chena, make sure that it’s not completely dry. The chena should feel soft and moist even after you have squeezed out the water. So don’t press it too hard else it will become dry and resulting rasmalai balls will not be soft. This step is important so do leave little water in the chena so that it feels soft and moist when you mash it.
Add cornflour and start mashing the chena till it’s smooth. Set the clock to 10 minutes and mash constantly for 10 minutes using your palm. Once it’s smooth, make small balls out of it.
Point No. 4: Mash the chena for 10 minutes, the time is crucial so don’t try to cut it down. When the chena is smooth you should be able to make smooth balls out of it.
Point No. 5: The balls when dipped in sugar syrup double in size so make the balls accordingly. I got only 8-9 balls because I was trying to make big rasmalai balls. Usually I get 16-17 balls from 1 liter of milk but of course they are smaller in size.
Heat 1 cup sugar and 4 cups water in a wide pan and wait till it comes to a full boil. Drop the balls in boiling sugar syrup and cook for 15-17 minutes. The balls will double in size by then. Take out the balls from the syrup and drop them in fresh water. If they sink to the bottom, the balls are done. They are always done by 15-17 minutes so you can skip this step if you want.
Point No. 6: Use a wide pan to cook the rasmalai balls. The balls double in size so there should be enough space in the pan for them to cook. Don’t overcrowd the pan with too many balls.
Point No. 7: The water to sugar ratio is 4:1. So for every 1 cup of sugar we add 4 cups of water. This ratio is important to get the right syrup consistency. Drop the balls in the syrup only when it comes to a full boil and the heat should be set to maximum throughout the duration of 15-20 minutes till the balls are cooking.
Point No. 8: If you feel the sugar syrup is getting thicker and balls are sticking to the bottom of the pan, then keep adding little water constantly. The balls should not touch the bottom of the pan. The syrup should always be thin in consistency. With 4:1 ratio, you will hardly need to add any water. That’s why I said this is the perfect ratio for maintaining the correct syrup consistency.
Point No. 9: Once the balls are cooked, let them cool down to room temperature. While the balls are cooling down make the thickened milk.
In a heavy bottom pan, boil 500 ml of milk. Soak few strands of saffron in a tablespoon of warm milk and set aside.
Once the milk comes to a boil, lower the flame and continue to stir the milk at regular intervals. After 10 minutes add sugar and mix.
After 20-25 minutes the milk will thicken to desired consistency, add soaked saffron and crushed cardamom. Also add finely chopped pistachios [if using]. Mix and switch off the flame.
Take out the cooled down rasmalai balls from the fresh water bowl. Squeeze and flatten lightly using your hands and put in sugar syrup for around 10-15 minutes [so that they absorb the sugar] before transferring them to milk. Squeeze the balls carefully as they are very soft and can break easily. I like to flatten the rasmalai at this stage rather than flattening them in the beginning. I feel they get cooked evenly in the sugar syrup when the balls are round in shape.
You can let the balls cool down in sugar syrup itself and then you can skip this step and transfer the balls directly to milk.
After 10-15 minutes transfer the balls to thickened milk. Chill in the refrigerator overnight or for 5-6 hours. Garnish with chopped pistachios and few saffron strands before serving.
Point No. 10: The milk 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.
Enjoy soft melt in your mouth rasmalai!
* Use real cardamom pods to get the crushed powder. Do not use the ready made cardamom powder that we get in stores, it doesn’t have the same taste as the real one.
* Rasmalai taste best when chilled overnight. Also the balls soak the milk and all flavored get intermixed well in 8-10 hours. So to serve the next day, make them a day in advance.
I hope these 10 tips help in making you the perfect soft rasmalai at home.
How To Make Soft Rasmalai At Home
Ingredients
For the rasmalai balls
- 1 liter whole milk
- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon cornflour
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup sugar
For the ras [syrup]
- 500 ml whole milk
- 5-6 green cardamom pods peeled and crushed to get the powder
- saffron a pinch
- 3-4 tablespoons sugar
- finely chopped pistachios
Instructions
Rasmalai Balls
- Boil milk in a heavy bottom pan.Once it comes to a boil, switch off the flame and add 1/2 cup of water to bring the temperature of the milk down a bit.
- Wait for 5-10 minutes and then start adding lemon juice till milk curdles.
- Add lemon juice till the milk curdles completely.
- Using a strainer drain the water and collect the chena.
- Rinse it under tap water so that there's no trace of lemon juice in it.
- Leave it in the strainer for 10-15 minutes and then take the chena in your hand and squeeze out remaining water slowly.
- Add cornflour and start mashing the chena till it’s smooth.
- Set the clock to 10 minutes and mash constantly for 10 minutes using your palm. Once it’s smooth, make small balls out of it.
- Heat 1 cup sugar and 4 cups water in a wide pan and wait till it comes to a full boil.
- Drop the balls in boiling sugar syrup and cook for 15-17 minutes. The balls will double in size by then.
- Take out the balls from the syrup and drop them in fresh water. If they sink to the bottom, the balls are done.
Thickened Milk
- In a heavy bottom pan, boil 500 ml of milk.
- Soak few strands of saffron in a tablespoon of warm milk and set aside.
- Once the milk comes to a boil, lower the flame and continue to stir the milk at regular intervals. After 10 minutes add sugar and mix.
- After 20-25 minutes the milk will thicken to desired consistency, add soaked saffron and crushed cardamom.
- Also add finely chopped pistachios [if using]. Mix and switch off the flame.
- Take out the cooled rasmalai balls from the sugar syrup, squeeze and flatten with your hands.
- Transfer the balls to thickened milk [milk should be warm].
- Chill in the refrigerator overnight or for 5-6 hours. Garnish with chopped pistachios and few saffron strands before serving.
Nutrition
How To Make Rasmalai at Home
Hi Manali!
Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I have a question about the amount of milk for the chena. If I use heavy whipping cream instead of whole milk, since there is much more fat, can I get away with using much less? How much cream would you recommend using in place of the 1 liter of whole milk?
Cheers!
you cannot make chena with heavy whipping cream or at least I don’t know a way to make it. Chena is fresh curd cheese made by adding an acid to hot milk and you cannot do with cream.
Thank you so much …. The recipe is so perfect !
One question …can I use vinegar instead of lemon juice and get the same result?
yes but I prefer lemon. Vinegar results in more solid chena and for sweets we need soft chena.
Thank u so much…the recipie turned out so perfect. My little daughter enjoyed a lot.👌👌👌
Why does the balls melt in boiling sugar syrup?
too much moisture in chena
My rasmalai was not so soft. What could be the reason
you extracted way too much moisture from the chena. It comes with practice, the right stage where you need to stop. You will get it next time!
Hi ,
I have one confusion here. After boiling the balls in sugar syrup , should we first cool them down in fresh water and then again cool down in sugar syrup before transferring to milk ? Or should the balls be left in sugar syrup only and let both the balls and sugar syrup cool down together ?
they don’t need to cool down completely, the fresh water thing is only to test if balls are done. You can left them in sugar syrup too, once cooled a bit transfer to thickened milk (the milk needs to be warm).
Thanks a lot Manali. I made these today and turned our simply delicious!! Such a good recipe and most importantly the key points were so much helpful in overall understanding of the recipe at each step. Wish I could share a picture here !!
Can I use cashew nuts instead of pistachios?
sure
Hi. Thank you for sharing the recipie. My rasmalais were soft but a little chewy, not melt in the mouth kind. What could be the reason?
Thank you once again. They came out great for the first try though
looks like you overcooked them a bit 🙂
Oh ok. Will take care of it there next time. Also, the rasmalais almost tripled in size within 10 min in the sugar water. And when I put it on medium flame they reduced in size again. Why would this be?
why did you put them back on heat again? Once cooled, they just need to be put it warm milk and that’s all. They don’t need to cook again.
No no while cooking them for 15 min, that time only I started on high heat and they tripled in size, since the water was boiling a lot I reduced the flame a bit so they also reduced in size.
looks like you over crowded the pan. Add less balls next time, they need space to expand and then maintain the shape. If there isn’t enough space, they will shrink.
Hi, all my balls have dissolved in the syrup mixture… can I rescue this? …please help 🙏🏼
Unfortunately no, your chena had a lot
More moisture than needed and hence they dissolved in sugar syrup. I would suggest make kheer out of it now. Add crumbled chena to slightly thickened milk add some nuts.
Thank you for quick response Manali 🙏🏼 … I will make kheer instead & will try again to make Rasmalai 🤞☺️
Is corn flour the same thing as American corn starch?
yes!
Can we you any other flour instead of corn flour and which one plz tell…
skip it!
Thanks for the recipe. The Rasmalai balls turned out to be little hard not fluffy, they didn’t expand as much. Do you know what might have gone wrong
you squeezed too much moisture from the chena hence they were hard.
I have tried my hands on it, every went on well… however for some reason, the malai balls remained hard.. would you like to throw some light on this please!! Thank you
either you didn’t knead the chena well or you squeeze too much water from the chena. It needs to be little moist still.
Hi, when I added lemon the Chenna was very very soft….so when I started to mash it it was like purée….why is that?
Thanks
too much water in the chena, use a muslin cloth, squeeze it well.
Thank you, 3rd time lucky! It ended up tasting lovely. Only thing is very slightly firm in the centre but I think I squeezed too much after soaking in syrup. Will try again next time.
Thanks
While kneading chena, it turned into white butter like consistency. I was not able to make balls out of it
What could be the reason?
too much moisture in chena
While boiling the milk it has become very thick…its like rabri …its very thick wat is the reason?
you cooked the milk more than needed, that’s why. It only needs to get slightly thickened.
Hi Manali,
What can we do with the sugar syrup used to boil the balls? Can you suggest anything to re-use the syrup?
I made small balls assuming they will double in size but they didn’t double up much. What could be the reason?
use in making sweet paratha or shakar para? If balls didn’t double in size, maybe they didn’t have enough space in the pan.
Hi, thank you for sharing the recipe! I tried making the Chena, left it to dry out the water using Muslin cloth for 15 minutes, and squeezed it out but my chena was still sticky. Tried it again the second time but for 50mins, it was sticky again. I could form it into a ball but it wasn’t the doughy/dry consistency. End result, my rasmalai was quite soft and little chewy like a subtle jelly texture. What should I improve on?
did you use cornstarch? that will help. Chewy means you over-cooked the balls.