What is Ras Malai?

Ras Malai is a popular Bengali dessert. It is a milk based sweet made by combining chenna balls or Rasgullas and Rabdi which is called ras. This sweet is super popular and prepared during festivals like Durga Puja, Holi, Diwali etc. If you believe the urban legend, it is claimed that, rasmalai was first made K C Das, the founder of the popular sweet shop in Kolkata. However, there is no way to prove it. I have no interest in proving the origins, rather my interest lies in showing you how to easily make soft and spongy traditional Kesar Ras Malai recipe at home.

Why am I making the Kesar Ras Malai recipe?

The lockdown is still on, and we still buy milk in large quantities to avoid frequent visits to the market. This week, we had some extra milk packets left and my mom told me “Doodh faad k paneer bana lete hain” then my taste buds told me why not go one step further and make Ras Malai from this paneer? Hence, Ras Malai recipe 😉

I have experimented a lot with Chenna sweets and the biggest lesson that I’ve got is to stop the chenna cooking process immediately by adding ice/chilled water in two stages. First, when chenna is made from milk by adding vinegar or lemon, immediately after it curdles we need to bring the temperature down by adding cold water or ice and secondly after cooking it in sugar syrup for 15 minutes again we have to stop the cooking process by adding ice to it.

Kesar Ras Malai Recipe card

Step by step Kesar Ras Malai recipe with photos

Ingredients for Ras malai

For Chenna & Sugar Syrup

• Toned milk (3% fat) – One litre
• Lemon -1 / Vinegar – 2 tsp
• Sugar – 1.5 small bowls
• Water – 4 to 5 bowls
• Ice cubes – 25-30 and one litre chilled water

For Rabri or ras

• Full cream milk – Half litre
• Sugar – 1 bowl
• Crushed Cashew – ¼ bowl
• Chopped Almonds, pistachio, 
• Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp
• Saffron strands – 7-8 
• Rose petals & Silver Vark – for garnishing (optional)
• Yellow Food Colour (optional) we can use a pinch of Haldi too instead of colour

Instructions for making Rasmalai recipe

Making Chenna

1. Boil one liter toned milk, cool it for 5-7 minutes or add half a bowl of water to cool it quickly.
2. Add diluted vinegar (2-3 tsp) to boiled milk after reducing its temperature. Mix it by stirring till the chenna starts separating from milk. Keep stirring till you have greenish water and chenna completely separated.
3. Add 10-12 ice cubes to cool down the mixture of chenna and green water. This is will help your chenna to remain soft

4. Make a sieve with a big bowl, keep one strainer over it and a soft cloth (an old dupatta/chunni will work) above the strainer. Pour the Chenna water mix mixture over the cloth and then wash it with one litre cold water to remove the sourness of vinegar or lemon from the chenna. Use your hands to wash the chenna properly.

5. Squeeze out the excess water from this chenna and hang it for at least 2 hours (time also depends on the type of cloth you are using, cotton cloth generally takes more time while in malmal cloth your chenna can be done in 1 hour too). Water should completely come out from this chenna.

Preparing Rabri or Ras

1. Take ½ litre of full cream milk in a vessel and keep it on high flame till it gets reduced to half the quantity. Add 7-8 strands of saffron, half a bowl of grinded cashews, few chopped almonds and pistachios and half tsp of cardamom powder.

2. Once the milk reduces to half of the quantity and becomes thick, add a bowl of sugar to it. Cook it more for 5 -7 minutes and then turn off the flame and allow it to cool down.

Making Chenna balls

1. Take the chenna out of the cloth and keep it in a plate. Kneed the chenna with your palm for 10-15 minutes till the time your hands become greasy.
2. After kneading, make small balls of chenna and flatten them to give it the shape of a disc. I could make 14 pieces

Making Sugar syrup

1. Now in another vessel, take 1.5 bowls of sugar and add 4-5 bowls of water to it, allow it to boil and sugar to get dissolved in the water. Add the Rasmalai/chenna pieces in the boiling sugar syrup and cover the vessel with the lid for 10-15 minutes. Keep checking in between. Your Rasmalai/chenna pieces should double up in size.

2. Turn off the flame and quickly add 15 ice cubes to the sugar syrup to end the cooking process. 

3. Take out these sweet chenna pieces and squeeze out the syrup.

4. Add sqeezed chenna balls in the prepared Ras/Rabdi. Garnish it with a few more chopped nuts, rose petals and silver foil. Allow to cool for 2-3 hours, in the refrigerator before eating. Enjoy your sweet yummy RASMALAI!

When I first learnt to make rasmalai, I didn’t know it was so simple to make and I didn’t even know it could be made at home. It was a great honor for me to present my rasmalai recipe live to a special interest group of PepsiCo India, and it was really appreciated by the participants.

I thoroughly enjoyed that session, and hope that you enjoy this recipe too. Do check out the some other desserts that I have shared on this blog on the following links

• Rajasthani Malai Ghevar Recipe
• Bengali Sponge Rasgulla Recipe
• Kaju Katli Apple Recipe
• Boondi laddoo Recipe