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Rajbhog/Rajbhog Recipe/Rajbhog Sweet/Kesar Rasgulla
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Rajbhog/Rajbhog Recipe/Rajbhog Sweet/Kesar Rasgulla

Rajbhog is a Bengali sweet prepared from Chenna and Sugar. Chenna is prepared by curdling Milk by adding Lemon juice or Vinegar. Chenna is then mashed and then rolled into small balls. The balls are cooked in sugar syrup to prepare Rajbhog.
Course Desserts, Side Dish, Sweets
Cuisine Bengali, Indian
Keyword Kesar Rasgulla, Rajbhog
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Passive Time 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes
Servings 10 pieces
Calories
Author Recipe by Chits

Equipment

  • Wide and Flat bottom pan
  • Strainer or Channi or Colander
  • Muslin Cloth

Ingredients

For Rajbhog Balls:

  • 1 litre Full Cream Milk (or 4 cups)
  • 2-3 tablespoon Lemon Juice or Vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon Maida or Corn flour or Semolina
  • 1/4 teaspoon Saffron Food Colour or Yellow Food Colour
  • 4 cups Cold Water

For Stuffing:

  • 2-3 tablespoon Crushed Dry Fruits (Cashew, Pistachio, Almonds)
  • 1/4 teaspoon Cardamom Powder (Optional)

For Sugar Syrup:

  • 1 cup Refined White Sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon Cardamom Powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Rose Water (Optional)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Saffron Threads
  • 4 cups Water

Instructions

Preparation of Chenna for Rajbhog:

  • Take the Full Cream Milk in a large pot.
  • Heat the Milk over medium flame till it comes to boil. As the milk is heating, keep stirring regularly so that no thick layer over the milk is formed. Also milk should not stick at the bottom or else it may burn.
  • After the milk boils, switch off the flame and allow it to cool for 4-5 minutes before adding vinegar or lemon juice.
  • Initially add 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice and stir the milk for some time. Then again add the second round of lemon juice. Stir until it curdles. If it doesn’t curdle completely then add more lemon juice.
  • Stir the Milk till it completely curdles and chenna is formed with green coloured whey separated from it.
  • Take a large bowl and place a colander (channi or strainer) over it. Place a muslin cloth over the colander. Strain the curdled milk with the muslin cloth.
  • To remove the sour and acidic taste of lemon or vinegar, add cold water and rinse the chenna. It also helps in stopping the chenna from further cooking.
  • Squeeze the muslin cloth tightly to remove the excess water from the chenna. There must not be moisture in the chenna.
  • Place a heavy weight over the chenna for some time or hang it for half an hour to remove the moisture. If you want you can skip this step. However, if you are skipping it, then squeeze the chenna slightly more to remove the excess moisture.
  • When the moisture in the chenna is completely removed, take it out from the muslin cloth and place it in a large plate. The chenna should not be too much dry nor should have too much moisture.

Kneading of Chenna and Preparation of Stuffing:

  • Take the Chenna in a large plate. Add All-Purpose Flour (Maida) and Saffron Food colour or Yellow Food colour to it. You can use Corn Flour or Semolina (Sooji) in place of Maida. You can also use the combination of these ingredients but the quantity should be appropriate.
  • Mix all the ingredients and knead them till they are soft and smooth. Knead the chenna for at least 10 minutes.
  • Do not mash the chenna too much to make it greasy. When you start feeling that the dough is becoming little oily, stop kneading. Keep the dough aside.
  • Now take all the Dry Fruits such as Almonds, Pistachios and Cashews. Crush the dry fruits into slightly coarse powder.
  • Add Cardamom Powder to the crushed dry fruits. Adjust the quantity of Cardamom Powder since we will be adding it in sugar syrup also.
  • Mix all the ingredients to prepare the stuffing. Keep it aside. Cardamom Powder is optional here. You can skip it if you want.

Preparation of Rajbhog Balls:

  • Take small amount of chenna from the dough. Roll it into small ball.
  • Flatten the ball and then place small amount of dry fruits stuffing at the centre.
  • Pull the sides of the dough and cover the stuffing completely by sealing the edges.
  • Roll the ball with your palm till the outer layer is smooth and free from cracks. Keep it in a separate plate.
  • In the same manner, prepare the Rajbhog balls for the remaining dough. Keep all the balls aside in a plate.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup:

  • Take a large flat pan or kadai. Add 4 cups of water and heat it.
  • Add Sugar, Cardamom Powder and Saffron Threads. Boil it till all the sugar gets dissolved.
  • Next add Rose Water to the syrup and allow it to boil under medium flame for few more minutes.
  • If you are using normal sugar bought from the market, it may contain some impurities. To clean the sugar syrup from the impurities, add 1-2 tablespoon Milk to the sugar syrup and boil for few more minutes. As the sugar syrup is boiling, the impurities will start floating at the surface. Remove the impurities with the help of spoon or you can strain it with muslin cloth. If there are no impurities, move ahead for the next steps.
  • As the Sugar Syrup is boiling, we will add the Rajbhog Balls to cook them.

Preparation of Rajbhog:

  • As the sugar syrup is boiling, add the Rajbhog Balls one by one into it.
  • Cover the pan with lid and allow the balls to cook for around 5 minutes under medium to high flame.
  • After 5 minutes, open the lid of the pan and flip the balls. Cover it again and cook for around 15 minutes under medium to high flame with lid covered.
  • As the sugar syrup is boiling, you will see that froth bubbles are being formed. The bubbles should keep on forming as it helps in cooking the Rajbhog from all sides.
  • While boiling, the sizes of the balls will double its original size. On total, cook the Rajbhog balls for at least 20 minutes with pan covered with lid. After 20 minutes switch off the stove.
  • Allow the cooked Rajbhog along with Sugar Syrup to cool down completely. Do not open the lid or touch the Rajbhog balls unless it has cooled down completely or else the Rajbhog will become flat.
  • To check whether Rajbhog is completely cooked or not, take the Rajbhog and dip it into a cup of water. If it sinks, it means it is cooked.
  • The other method to find whether the Rajbhog are cooked or not is by pressing it. When we slightly press it with our fingers and then release our finger, the balls regain its size. It means it is cooked.
  • If the Rajbhog balls are not properly cooked, boil them for few more minutes.
    Rajbhog/Rajbhog Recipe/Rajbhog Sweet/Kesar Rasgulla
  • Bengali Rajbhog is ready to be served. Serve it by garnishing with Saffron and Sugar Syrup. Serve it chilled.
    Rajbhog/Rajbhog Recipe/Rajbhog Sweet/Kesar Rasgulla

Notes

  1. Keep stirring the milk continuously while boiling the milk so that thick layer or malai over the milk is not formed.
  2. Cow’s Milk is best for preparing soft and spongy Rajbhog sweets. If you do not get Cow’s milk, you can use other type of milk also. Remember to use full cream milk only. Buffalo Milk has too much of fats, so it leaves fat easily while kneading. Also there are chances of fat floating on the surface of the sugar syrup. However you can prepare the sweet with buffalo milk also.
  3. The amount of Lemon Juice or Vinegar required for curdling the milk depends upon the quality of milk. Some milk easily curdles with few tablespoon of lemon juice while some milk requires more of it. So keep the lemon juice handy because you never know how much of it will be required to curdle the milk.
  4. To prepare soft and spongy Rajbhog, moisture content in chenna is very important factor. The chenna should neither be too dry nor too wet. It should be slightly moist. If the moisture content is more, it may break while cooking. If it is less, Rajbhog will not come out spongy and soft and it will be hard.
  5. While preparing the dough, mash the chenna till it is soft and smooth. Do not over mash it or else fat will start coming out and ultimately this fat will make the sugar syrup oily. A layer will be formed in sugar syrup. So, just 10 minutes is enough for kneading and preparing the dough.
  6. To prepare the dough, you can replace the All-Purpose Four (Maida) with either Corn Flour or Sooji (Semolina). It is useful in binding the chenna.
  7. While preparing the balls, ensure that there are no cracks on the surface of the ball or else it may break while cooking.
  8. Use wide and flat bottom pan to cook the Rajbhog balls. It provides enough space for the balls to expand itself. Also use 1 cup of Sugar for every 4 cups of Water to prepare the Sugar Syrup. You can add extra sugar to make the syrup sweeter.
  9. Use of Cardamom Powder and Rose Water is optional to make the sugar syrup. You can skip it if you do not prefer its taste. However I would suggest you to use it for extra flavour to the sweet.
  10. If you are using normal sugar, there are chances of presence of some impurities in it. It changes the colour of the sugar syrup to pale yellow. So, to remove those impurities add 1-2 tablespoon of milk into the sugar syrup. After some time you will observe that the impurities has started floating on the surface of the syrup. Remove them with the help of spoon. If there are no impurities floating on the surface, go ahead and prepare the Rajbhog Sweet.
  11. While cooking Rajbhog, if the sugar syrup becomes thick then add warm water to decrease the thickness. It helps in absorbing the syrup easily. Do it whenever required. Also cook the sweet under medium to high flame. Bubbles must keep on forming while cooking.
  12. While cooking the Rajbhog balls, we see that the size of the balls becomes double but shrink back on cooling. The lid should not be opened for long time or else it may shrink. Let the pan be covered before switching off the stove. Also after switching off the stove, keep the pan covered until the sugar syrup completely cools down. It helps in making the Rajbhog spongy.
  13. The total time for cooking the Rajbhog balls under medium to high flame should be at least 20 minutes to get soft and spongy Rajbhog.
  14. The milk whey left behind can be used to prepare atta dough or in dal and curries. It is very nutritious.
  15. If you find it tedious to prepare and stuff the dry fruits stuffing, you can skip this process and prepare Rajbhog without stuffing.