Rasgulla Recipe: Say rasgulla and find me jumping with joy. Well, who doesn’t love the spongy, juicy and heavenly rasgullas? You sure do, and if you haven’t tried making them at home yet or if you’ve had some failed attempts here is the perfect Rasgulla recipe for you. Included below is the step by step process with some important tips to be taken care of. Do note them for spongy and yummy Bengali rasgullas.

Ingredients:

• Milk
• Lemon: 1
• Sugar: 2 cups
• Water: 4  cups
• Cardamom: 2-3

Method to make Rasgulla

Take a vessel and pour milk in it. Once the milk starts boiling squeeze in a lemon. The milk should start curdling up with in 2-3 minutes. If it is taking more time add few more drops of lemon juice.

Immediately strain the paneer/chena using a cloth. Give it a cold water bath by running it under cool/tap water. This stops it from further cooking and also washes off the lemon’s taste. While running it under water stir it slowly with a spoon so that all the chena gets a proper rinse.

  

Once done collect all sides of the cloth and squeeze the collected paneer as much as you can. Hang it or put a weight on it so that the remaining water is strained away. After 10 minutes, give a squeeze again and now the paneer is ready to make the rasgulla.

   

Making the Dough

The future of your rasgulla lies in the following step. KNEADING. Without a second thought, you are needed to knead the crumbled paneer with your knuckles for the next 5-8 minutes or till it forms a soft dough. Try making small balls once you feel it’s ready. If the ball is formed without cracks you have done a good job 🙂  Make small balls since they will bulge double its size when cooking. Cover the balls with the cloth you used to strain the paneer till the sugar syrup is ready.

 

Making the Syrup for Rasgulla Recipe

Making the crack free balls is one crucial step and next is making the syrup to cook the balls. Preferably take your cooker or a deep vessel and add four cups of water for every two cups of sugar. Sugar-water ratio be 2:4.
NOTE:

• We do not need thick/ one string sugar syrup, all we need is lots of sweetened water that helps the paneer cook – being the Crucial Step.
• Dropping the balls in thick sugar syrup will result in hard and not so white rasgulla, as the paneer would not be able to absorb the water and cook properly.
• Let the flame be Medium. Bring the sugar- water solution to a rolling boil, meaning the water would be bubbling little but not like crazy.
• Just when the sugar melts add in the paneer balls to the sugar syrup. Maintain the flame on medium high.
•  To much heat will either break the balls or they would bulge up quick and later shrink back resulting in not so soft rasgulla. Cover the vessel and cook for five minutes first. Give a quick stir after five minutes and cook again for five more minutes.

Steps

 

Once you drop the balls in the bubbling sugar syrup, they first go to the bottom and hit the top slowly.

Your Rasgullas should have doubled by now and look something like this. After five minutes give a quick stir, cover and cook for five minutes more and the spongy rasgullas are now ready.

 

Check the softness by squeezing the rasgulla.

Once squeezed it should get back at least to 3/4 of its shape before dropping in the sugar syrup.

  

 Decorate with saffron and serve chill.

 

TIPS while making the Rasgulla Recipe

• Make fresh paneer at home to make good rasgullas.
• You can also use your pressure cooker and first cook on high flame for one whistle, then lower the flame and cook for 5 more minutes for perfectly cooked rasgullas.
• Making a soft dough plays a vital role. A well-kneaded dough will help the rasgullas from melting and losing shape when cooking.
• Add in the balls just after the sugar melts. We need watery consistency to cook the rasgullas soft and spongy. Thick syrup changes the color and hardens the rasgullas making them uncooked from inside.
• Maintain enough(lots of) water-sugar solution to help the rasgulla float and not touch the bottom of the vessel.  If there is less of the solution and if the rasgullas are touching the bottom of the vessel they wouldn’t be round in shape once done, will become flat bottomed and you sure don’t want that.
• You can add an elaichi/cardamom and saffron to the sugar syrup.

Also Check Modak recipe Ganesh Chaturthi recipes