Rasgulla. Say that word a few times and you will actually get a feel of how the spongy Bengali sweet rasgulla can taste like. You can buy pretty decent rasgullas in cans but nothing beats the taste of making it at home using your own rasgulla recipe, especially during Diwali. TH is not a fan of sweets in general but give him rasgulla or rasmalai and that’ll make his day. So this Diwali, I chose to make a fresh batch of homemade rasgulla and here’s the step by step recipe for you.
The first step in making rasgulla is to making chenna. The process is similar to how paneer is made – curdling milk and separating the cheese from the whey. I am outlining the steps after you have made the fresh chenna so please check out this post on how to make chenna.
The chenna is made into balls and cooked in sugar syrup. I liked how Manjula’s Kitchen had recipe of rasgulla made in a pressure cooker, eliminating a lot of guesswork and standing over the stove so I followed the same method. I made very minor changes in the quantities and such and also made much smaller balls than is usually done.
Check out some easy and delicious milk-based recipes I have shared in the past. They are really our favourite kind. You can make rasmalai using rasgulla in ten minutes, a super quick paneer payasam, delicious sandesh, a popular Bengali sweet, and many more. Check out full list of Diwali sweet recipes for more inspiration too.
Rasgulla Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 litre full fat milk
- 2-3 tbsp of fresh lime juice or vinegar
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 cups water
- 1 tbsp of crushed pistachios for garnish
Instructions
- First, make chenna. Follow this post to see details of how to make chenna
- After the chenna has drained of extra moisture for about 30 minutes, give it a whizz in a blender or mixer to make it smooth and let out more water.
- Remove and knead well for 3 minutes. At the end of it, you should be able to make smooth balls out of the chenna easily. If not, knead for a bit longer. The size of the rasgulla will double on cooking in sugar syrup so remember to makem smaller to begin with
- Add the sugar and water to your pressure cooker and bring to boil. Mix well for the sugar to dissolve, lower heat to very low and add the rasgulla balls gently into the syrup.
- Cover the pressure cooker and cook without whistle for about 7-8 minutes on medium-low flame.
- Turn off heat and wait 5 minutes before opening the cooker lid. You'll find spongy rasgulla that's doubled in size!
- Cool completely, add crushed pistachios on top and refrigerate rasgulla in syrup until ready to serve
Step by Step Rasgulla Recipe
First step is to make chenna. Follow the recipe here for how to make chenna. After the chenna has drained for about 30 minutes, give it a whizz in a blender or mixer to make it smooth and let out more water.
Remove and knead well for 3 minutes. At the end of it, you should be able to make smooth balls out of the chenna easily. If not, knead for a bit longer. The size of the rasgulla will double on cooking in sugar syrup so remember to so start small
Add the sugar and water to your pressure cooker and bring to boil. Mix well for the sugar to dissolve, lower heat to very low and add the rasgulla balls gently into the syrup.
Cover the pressure cooker and cook without whistle for about 7-8 minutes on medium-low flame.
Turn off heat and wait 5 minutes before opening the cooker lid. You’ll find spongy rasgulla that’s doubled in size!
Cool completely, add crushed pistachios on top and refrigerate rasgulla in syrup until ready to serve. It will be delicious, I promise!
NOTES:
– The only step that could go wrong while trying this rasgulla recipe is the kneading and rolling of chenna. It’s best to get the chenna as dry as possible (no need to press like making paneer though) and then knead for a good 3-4 minutes to get it as smooth as possible.
– This recipe has been adapted from the fabulous Manjula’s Kitchen
– I used lesser amount of sugar and these were perfect. The amount of sugar can be increased if you want your rasgulla very sweet
– Rasgulla can stay fresh refrigerated for up to 4 days, in the sugar syrup so make some for your loved ones and share a picture with me or tag #ediblegarden in social media when you try a recipe!
For rasgulla recipe in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, etc please use the Google translate button in the sidebar.
MMM may I know why the rasgullas I make become hard rather than soft? I mean each and everytime.I followed every steps that you did.
I did it on my own too
but in both cases the rasgullas became hard .
you have to knead the paneer much more then. make sure it’s very smooth and soft. also try cooking it for less time in sugar syrup
all steps are ok. after you turn of the stove take the rasgullas out and put them in cold water. squize them and put them again in cold sugar syrup. they will never be hard.
i tried to make rasgulla as said but i do not know why after few minutes all chhana balls broken and became chhanh again. please tell me what is going wrong.
you probably didn’t knead long enough. there shouldn’t be too much moisture or else it will break apart
I tried it was very delicious!!!
Thank you Zehra
I made it using your recipe (with one small change) and will post it soon. They really turned out soft and spongy!
For the person who said they turned out hard, it might be that they are cooking the chhenna too much. As soon as it separates I remove it from the fire and only wait for a few minutes for it clump together before draining.
I remember reading one internet recipe once that even suggested dumping in ice-cubes as soon as the milk separated in order to “stop” the heat abruptly – claimed it would be softer that way.
Hi,
They turned out to be good in taste but not spongy.
Plz can you guide me how to make the rasgulla spongy?
Hello Rutuja, I got spongy rasgulla when I followed this recipe. What texture did you get?
They became hard
It’s hard to say what exactly went wrong but maybe you needed to knead the chenna more. It’s an important step to get soft and spongy rasgulla
Nice