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Rasgulla Recipe/Bengali Rasogulla/Soft Spongy Rasgulla
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Rasgulla Recipe/Bengali Rasogulla/Soft Spongy Rasgulla

Rasgulla is a popular soft and spongy Bengali dessert sweet dish prepared from Sugar and Chenna. Chenna is prepared by curdling Milk by adding Lemon juice or Vinegar. It is then shaped into round balls and then cooked in sugar syrup.
Course Dessert, Side Dish, Sweets
Cuisine Bengali, Indian
Keyword Bengali Rasgulla, Rasgulla, Rasogulla
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Passive Time 0 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Servings 5 servings
Calories
Author Recipe by Chits

Equipment

  • Deep base Kadai or cooker
  • Muslin Cloth

Ingredients

For Rasgulla Balls:

  • 1 litre Full Cream Milk (or 4 cups)
  • 2-3 tablespoon Lemon Juice or Vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Maida (All-purpose Flour)
  • 4 cups Cold Water
  • Few Strands Saffron (Kesar)

For Sugar Syrup:

  • 1 cup Refined White Sugar
  • 3-4 pieces Green Cardamom Pods (Hari Elaichi)
  • 2 tablespoon Rose Water or Kewra (Optional)
  • 4 cups Water

Instructions

Preparation of Chenna for Rasgulla:

  • Take the Lemon Juice in a bowl. Add equal amount of Water into it and mix it. Keep it aside.
  • Now take the Full Cream Milk in a large pot.
  • Boil the Milk over medium heat till it comes to boil. Keep stirring regularly so that thick layer over the milk is not formed and it does not stick at the bottom of the pan.
  • When the milk comes to boil, switch off the flame and allow it to cool for 4-5 minutes before adding lemon juice or vinegar.
  • If you are using Homogenized Milk (Packet milk), then reduce the heat to the lowest and then add lemon juice or vinegar.
  • After 4-5 minutes when the milk cools down slightly, start adding lemon juice. Initially add 1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice and stir the milk for 30 seconds. Then add the second round of lemon juice. Stir until it curdles. If it doesn’t curdle then add more lemon juice.
  • Stir the Milk till it completely curdles and chenna is formed with green coloured water separated from it.
  • Now place a colander (channi or strainer) in a large bowl. Line with a muslin cloth and strain the curdled milk with the muslin cloth.
  • Add cold water to the chenna and rinse it so that the sour and acidic taste of the lemon juice is removed. It will also help in stopping the chenna from further cooking.
  • Now squeeze the muslin cloth tightly so that the water is completely removed from 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.
  • Remove the muslin cloth and see that the chenna should not be too much dry nor should have too much moisture.

Kneading and Preparing Rasgulla Balls:

  • Take the Chenna in a large plate. Add All Purpose Flour (Maida) to it. You can use Corn Flour in place of Maida. Also if you want you can use any one from suji and corn flour.
  • Mix all the ingredients and knead them till they are soft and smooth. Mash them for at least 10 minutes to prepare the dough. Do not mash too much so that it becomes greasy. Stop kneading when you feel that your palm is starting to get greasy.
  • Take small amount of Chenna dough and make small ball from it. Roll the ball till it is smooth and there is no crack in the outer layer. Keep it in a plate.
  • In the same manner make small balls from the remaining Chenna dough. Keep it aside for few minutes.

Preparation of Sugar Syrup:

  • Take a large flat pan or kadai and heat 4 cups water.
  • Add Sugar and Cardamom Pods. Boil it till all the sugar gets dissolved. If you are using Refined White Sugar, move directly to step no. 6.
  • If you are using normal sugar bought from the market, it may contain some impurities. So add 1-2 tablespoon Milk to the sugar syrup and boil for few more minutes.
  • As the sugar syrup boils, the waste impurities will start flowing on the layer.
  • Take them out from the sugar syrup with the help of spoon or you can strain it with muslin cloth. If there are no impurities, move ahead for the next steps.
  • Next add Rose Water to the syrup and allow it to boil under medium flame for few minutes.
  • When the Sugar Syrup comes to boil, remove the Cardamom Pods. Now we will add the rasgulla balls to cook them.

Preparation of Rasgulla:

  • Now as the sugar syrup is boiling, add the Rasgulla Balls one by one into it.
  • Cover the pan with the lid and allow it to cook for 5 minutes under medium to high flame. At this time bubbles will start forming in the syrup steadily.
  • After 5 minutes open the lid and flip the balls to cook on the other side. The bubbling in the syrup should keep forming and covers the Rasgulla.
  • Cook the Rasgulla Balls for at least 15 minutes more. At this point the balls size will double and should be cooked completely.
  • To check whether it is completely cooked or not, take the rasgulla and dip it into a cup of water. If it sinks, it means it is cooked.
  • The other way to find whether the Rasgullas are cooked or not is by pressing it. When we slightly press it and release it, the rasgulla will regain its size. It means it is cooked.
  • If the Rasgullas are not properly cooked, you can boil it for few more minutes.
  • After the balls are cooked completely, switch off the stove. Remember to keep the pan covered with lid before switching off the stove.
  • Allow the Rasgullas to cool down with the pan covered. Do not touch the Rasgulla or open the lid of the pan for at least 20-25 minutes.
    Rasgulla Recipe/Bengali Rasogulla/Soft Spongy Rasgulla
  • The Rasgulla Balls will be double in size. Bengali Rasgulla is ready to be serve. Serve the Rasgullas by garnishing with Saffron and Sugar Syrup. Serve it chilled.
    Rasgulla Recipe/Bengali Rasogulla/Soft Spongy Rasgulla

Notes

  1. Take the Lemon Juice and add equal amount of water to it with a ratio of 1:1. This is then added to milk for cuddling and preparing chenna from the milk.
  2. While boiling milk, keep stirring it continuously so that thick layer or malai over the milk is not formed.
  3. To make perfect and spongy Rasgullas, use Cow’s milk. If you get Cow’s Milk, prepare it with this milk only. Other type of milk can be also used but cow’s milk is best for spongy rasgullas. Buffalo Milk has too much fat, so it leaves fat while kneading. Also while cooking Rasgullas, Sugar Syrup leaves fats floating on the surface.
  4. The quantity of Lemon Juice or Vinegar required for curdling milk depends on the quality of milk. To prepare the chenna, add the lemon juice at intervals. Initially add 1 tablespoon and stir the milk for a minute. Then add the second round of lemon juice and stir. Do it till the milk completely curdles. If the milk does not curdle completely then add extra lemon juice and mix it so that the milk curdles and green whey is formed.
  5. While squeezing the chenna, we must keep in mind that the chenna should be squeezed such that it is neither too dry nor too wet. It should be little moist so that the rasgullas are spongy. If it is too dry, the rasgullas will be hard. If it has too much moisture, it may break while preparing.
  6. Mash the Chenna for at least 10 minutes so that it is soft and smooth and there is no grain present in it. This is done to ensure that the Rasgullas are soft after cooking. Do not mash too much so that it becomes greasy. As soon as chenna starts leaving fat, stop the process of kneading.
  7. Here we have used All-Purpose Flour (Maida) to prepare the dough. It can be replaced with Corn Flour. It helps in binding the chenna.
  8. While making rasgulla balls, ensure that there are no cracks in them. Else it will break on cooking. So roll the balls till it is completely smooth.
  9. For cooking the Rasgulla balls, use wide and flat bottom pan for preparing the sugar syrup. Here I have used 1 cup of Sugar for every 4 cups of Water to prepare the Sugar Syrup. If you want to add extra sweetness to the syrup, add 1/4 cup of more sugar to the syrup.
  10. Addition of Rose Water and Cardamom Pods to the sugar syrup is optional. You can skip both or use any one of these if you want to.
  11. If you do not have Refined White Sugar and are using normal sugar then there is possibility of impurities present in it. These impurities will change the colour of the sugar syrup. So while preparing the Sugar Syrup, add 1-2 tablespoon of milk to clean the sugar syrup. After the milk is added, all the impurities will start floating at the surface of the sugar syrup. Take it out with the help of spatula. If there are no impurities floating on the surface, you can move ahead for cooking the Rasgullas.
  12. While boiling under medium to high heat, if the sugar syrup becomes thick, add warm water to it. Do it whenever required. The consistency and thickness of the sugar should be less so that the rasgulla balls can easily absorb it. It helps in making the rasgullas spongy and soft.
  13. Always cook Rasgullas under medium to high flame. If the flame is too high, there are chances that it may break.
  14. While preparing this recipe, we see that the size of the Rasgullas becomes double while cooking but shrink back on cooling. If the lid of the pan is opened for long time, they will shrink in size. Keep the pan covered before switching off the stove. After switching off the stove, allow it cool down with the lid covered. Do not open the lid unless the temperature has come down completely. It will help in fluffing the Rasgullas.
  15. The total time for cooking the Rasgullas under medium to high flame should be at least 20 minutes to get soft and spongy Rasgullas.
  16. The milk whey left behind after the milk is curdled can be used to prepare atta dough or in dal and curries. It is very nutritious.