Rasgulla
রসগোল্লা
By Geeta S · 45 min · serves 6 · Bengali
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The Bengali sponge: balls of fresh chhena boiled in a thin syrup until they swell, served cold in that syrup with a sliver of pistachio and a thread of saffron. Beyond the prep and cook times there is a half-hour hang for the chhena, a quarter-hour rest in the hot syrup, about an hour for the pot to cool and at least an hour in the fridge, so start after lunch for the evening. Nothing is hard, but two things cannot be hurried — the chhena must be drained to exactly the right dampness, which the method tells you how to judge, and then kneaded until it turns smooth and faintly greasy under the heel of your hand. Most rasgullas that come out hard or fall apart in the syrup trace back to one of those two. This is Geeta’s sweet and her photographs; the write-up is Zaika’s, checked against them.
Ingredients
- 1 litre whole milk, pasteurised but not ultra-pasteurised4 cups whole milk, pasteurised but not ultra-pasteurisedIn the US: Read the carton. Milk labelled ultra-pasteurised or UHT curdles into a weak chhena that will not knead smooth and falls apart in the syrup, and that covers most organic, lactose-free and ultra-filtered whole milk. Ordinary gallon jugs of conventional whole milk are usually plain pasteurised, as is most milk from local dairies; look for the word pasteurised on its own, wherever you shop. There is no substitute for the right milk here, and store-bought paneer or ricotta will not stand in for the chhena either; see the note on them.
- 2 tbsp lemon juice, mixed with 2 tbsp water2 tbsp lemon juice, mixed with 2 tbsp waterIn the US: One and a half to two tablespoons of white vinegar mixed with an equal amount of water, added the same way, a spoon at a time; you may not need all of it. The rinse in step two takes the taste away either way.
- 250 ml ice-cold water, to stop the curds cooking1 cup ice-cold water, to stop the curds cooking
- 200 g sugar1 cup sugar
- 1 litre water, for the syrup4 cups water, for the syrup
- 2 green cardamom pods, cracked2 green cardamom pods, cracked
- Pistachio slivers, to finishPistachio slivers, to finish
- Saffron, a few strands, to finishSaffron, a few strands, to finish
Method
- 1Bring the milk to a boil in a heavy pan, then turn off the heat and wait a minute. Add the diluted lemon juice a spoon at a time, stirring gently, and stop the moment the milk splits into soft white curds in a clear, greenish whey; you may not need all of it. Pour in the ice-cold water straight away, so the curds stop cooking in the hot whey. Milk curdled at a full boil, or with more acid than it needs, gives a tight, rubbery chhena.8 min
- 2Pour it through a sieve lined with muslin, a doubled layer of cheesecloth or a nut-milk bag, then hold the cloth under cold running water for a minute to rinse out the lemon. Squeeze out the water and hang the bundle, or set it in the sieve with a plate on top, for thirty minutes. The dampness decides everything: too wet and the balls dissolve in the syrup, too dry and they turn hard. It is ready when a pinch holds together without water seeping out and still crumbles if you push it; a litre of milk gives about 200 g (7 oz) of chhena at that point.30 min
- 3Turn the chhena onto a clean counter and knead it with the heel of your hand, pushing and gathering, for eight to ten minutes, until there is no grain left and it feels smooth and faintly greasy. Roll it into twelve balls about 3 cm across, the size of a large marble, pressing each one so there are no cracks — a crack opens in the syrup and the ball breaks. They swell to about 4 cm, the size of a golf ball, as they cook.10 min
- 4Put the sugar, the litre of water and the cardamom in a wide, deep pot, at least 24 cm (9½ in) across and 4 litres (4 qt), so the balls have room to swell and the syrup room to froth, and bring it to a rolling boil. Thin on purpose: a thick syrup cannot get into the balls, and they stay small and dense.5 min
- 5Lower the balls into the boiling syrup, cover, and keep it at a steady boil on high for fifteen to eighteen minutes without stirring. The syrup froths up under the lid; if it climbs towards the rim, set the lid ajar rather than turning the heat down. If the syrup starts to thicken, add a splash of hot water. They are done when they have swollen to golf-ball size, a cooked ball dropped into a glass of water sinks instead of floating, and a ball pressed gently with the back of a spoon springs back to its shape.18 min
- 6Turn off the heat and leave them covered in the syrup for fifteen minutes to settle; they shrink a little as they cool, which is normal. Move the pot off the stove and let it cool for about an hour, until just warm, then chill for at least an hour. A serving is two rasgullas with a few spoonfuls of the syrup: serve each one in a small bowl, with two pistachio slivers and a thread or two of saffron on top.15 min
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Pressure cooker rasgulla
Pressure cooker
The same chhena, cooked in the sealed heat of a stovetop pressure cooker, which keeps the syrup from thickening and takes the guesswork out of the boil. It is written for a cooker that whistles; the timings do not carry over to an electric pressure cooker such as an Instant Pot. The sponge is a shade denser than the open-pot version.
- 1Make and knead the chhena and roll the balls exactly as in the main method. Use a cooker of at least 5 litres (5 qt): the syrup and balls must come no more than halfway up its side, because the syrup froths under pressure and can block the vent. Bring the sugar, water and cardamom to a boil in the cooker with the lid off.
- 2Add the balls, close the lid, and cook on high until the first whistle, then turn the heat to its lowest setting for seven minutes. Turn it off and let the pressure drop on its own before you open the lid. Opening it early lets the balls collapse.12 min
- 3Leave them in the syrup until cool, then chill and serve two to a person with pistachio and saffron, as in the main method.
If it goes wrong
Why your rasgullas turn out hard, flat, or dissolve in the syrup
Each failure has a short list of causes. Hard and rubbery: the milk was curdled while boiling, too much acid went in, or the chhena was hung so long it dried out — it should still crumble when pushed. Flat or broken: a crack in the ball, or balls crowded into a pot too small for them to swell, so make them in two batches if the pot is narrow. Dissolved: chhena that was still wet when kneaded, which no amount of kneading fixes. Small and dense: syrup that thickened during the boil, which is why the water is a full litre and the method tells you to top it up. A teaspoon of fine semolina kneaded in with the chhena is the shop insurance against breaking; it is not needed with chhena drained properly, but it is not cheating either.
Substitutions
The milk to buy in the US for rasgulla, and why ultra-pasteurised fails
Ultra-pasteurised milk has been heated far above normal pasteurisation, and that heat changes its proteins so they no longer set into a firm curd — the chhena comes out fine and grainy and cannot be kneaded into a sponge. In a US supermarket that rules out most organic, lactose-free and ultra-filtered whole milk, and the carton says ultra-pasteurised or UHT in small print. Ordinary gallon jugs of conventional whole milk are usually plain pasteurised, and so is most milk from local dairies; read the label wherever you shop. Low-fat milk gives too little chhena, and a drier one; use whole.
Substitutions
Can you make rasgulla with store-bought paneer or ricotta?
No. Shop paneer is the same curd pressed into a firm block, and pressing is what rasgulla cannot have: it will not knead into a smooth dough, and balls rolled from it crack and split in the boiling syrup. Ricotta is too wet and too fine, and it dissolves into the syrup. Both make good sweets of their own, but not this one. Fresh chhena takes a litre of plain pasteurised milk, two tablespoons of lemon juice and a half-hour hang, and it is the whole recipe.
Substitutions
Is rasgulla gluten-free, vegan or nut-free?
As written it is gluten-free: chhena, sugar, water and cardamom, with no flour. The exception is the teaspoon of semolina some cooks knead in against breaking, which is wheat, so leave it out if gluten matters. It cannot be made vegan, because the sweet is the milk curd itself, and it is not for anyone with a milk allergy. The only nut is the pistachio on top; leave it off for a nut allergy and the rasgulla is unchanged.
Keeping it
How long rasgullas keep, and keeping them in their syrup
Four or five days in the fridge, always in their syrup — out of it they dry and shrink within hours. They taste best cold, from the second day, when the syrup has worked all the way to the centre. They do not freeze well; the sponge weeps when it thaws. The syrup itself is a thin one and does not keep beyond the rasgullas, so there is nothing to save.
Serving
Serving rasgulla, and the two sweets it becomes
Cold, in a little of its syrup, with a sliver of pistachio and a strand of saffron — the saffron is there for the eye, since this syrup carries none. Two rasgullas with a few spoonfuls of syrup is a serving for most people, and one for anyone who has just eaten a Bengali meal. In Bengali homes it is as much the sweet of Bijoya, the round of visits after Durga Puja, as of Diwali. Pressed flat and soaked in thickened, cardamom-scented milk instead of syrup, the same balls are rasmalai; shaped into ovals and finished with saffron malai, the same chhena is malai chop, which has its own recipe on this site.
Nutrition
Estimated, per serving.
- Calories
- 170
- Protein
- 4 g
- Carbs
- 27 g
- Fat
- 5 g
- Sugar
- 26 g
- Sodium
- 10 mg
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