Living away from home, you don’t always have access to your favorite childhood cultural delicacies. For me, Rasmalai, Gajar ka halwa or Shahi Tukrey are all love letters from home, that I want to open, again and again. And when the craving hits….oh man. But, the lazy ass that I sit on, makes me find a shortcut recipe for all those cravings. But Exhibit A – This Rasamali recipe! To make this shortcut happen, I’ll admit I had to go through a painstakingly long journey, with tears, burst rasmalais, and failed experiments. Some feedback from family and my wonderful family over at IG, I can finally say I have a recipe that is as fool-proof as it gets.
About Rasmalai
Rasmalai is known by various names in South Asia, including rossomalai, or rasa malei. The traditional Rasmalai involves making cottage cheese (paneer) from scratch, shaping it into flattened discs, and dipping it in sweetened milk syrup, seasoned with spices like cardamom and saffron. This version of Rasmalai that I use is a popular shortcut method, where you use milk powder mixture instead of making cottage cheese for the milk balls. It’s quicker, easier, and ready in 30 mins! That literally checks all my boxes: something quick, fancy, and yum! It is one of the “quicker” South Asian desserts and if you follow the tips in this post, no one will EVER believe your Rasmalais are homemade. I will also troubleshoot the common problems that you face when making rasmalai with milkpowder.
Notes on Ingredients
You do require a couple of special ingredients that aren’t readily available in the pantry. But, you’ll find most of these in any South Asian grocery store.
Milk Powder – You need full-fat milk for for this recipe. It is crucial! Skim milked powder or “less fat” powders will not work and your milk balls will likely burst. (ask me how I know) I’ve used Nido, Almarai. And some of you on IG have sent in your remakes with other brands like Olpers, Deep and Carnation with amazing results. Sweet milk Syrup – The syrup needs milk, sugar, and green cardamom powder. As a substitute, you can use whole green cardamom pods. You can also add saffron strands if you are feeling fancy. All-purpose flour – Called “maida” in Urdu, you only need a teaspoon of this. It helps with binding the milk balls together. Ghee – Ghee is clarified butter, and is found in most South Asian stores. You can buy a small tin of ghee, or make ghee at home with butter using my friend Henna’s Homemade Ghee recipe. Ghee is solid when cold and liquid when warm. You need ghee at room temperature where it is semi-solid. Egg – You need a large cold egg. It is important you use refrigerated egg for this recipe, this hack will help you with crack-free milk discs. (Yes, this is different from most baking recipes which require room-temperature eggs.)
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities
Step By Step Instructions
Rasmalai has two components. One is the milk powder discs and the other one is the sweet milk syrup. The common thing to do is to put the syrup on the stove to cook, and in the meantime prepare the milk discs.
Cooking the sweet milk syrup Making the milk ball discs Cooking the milk ball discs in the syrup.
PROTIP: Do not stir the milk with a spoon after you’ve added your rasmalai discs. Your spoon should only enter the pot once you are ready to take the rasmalais out. Gently transfer the rasmalais onto the serving dish. Garnish with sliced pistachios and almonds. Refrigerate for about 6 to 8 hours and serve cold.
Tips for Perfect Rasmalai Discs
Making the sweet milk syrup is a straightforward beginner level task, so that is never the issue anyone runs into. But yes, making and shaping the rasmalai milk discs does require a couple of pointers. The goal is to make smooth crack free milk discs to create as perfect a rasmalai as possible.
MOISTURE CONTROL The bowl you make your dough in should be completely dry and moisture-free. Remember to dry your hands completely before kneading or shaping the discs. QUALITY INGREDIENTSUse good quality full fat milk powder and good quality baking powder (more often than not, expired products are the culprit of bad results). I say it again here to emphasize, you need FULL FAT milk powder for both, Rasmalais and Gulabjamuns. SIFT THE DRY INGREDIENTSSifting the dry ingredients avoids any clumps or impurities from passing through. and gives you more uniform rasmalai TEMPERATUREThis recipe requires the rasmalai dough to be cold. To achieve this, once you mix all your dry ingredients in a bowl, keep the bowl in the freezer for 5 mins. And use refrigerated egg as well. This will give you a sticky dough which is crack free when shaped into discs. A WIDE BOWLThis will help you mix the dough ingredients, and make it easier for you to knead the dough with your palms. MILK SYRUP TEMPERATUREAnd lastly, make sure your sweet milk syrup is simmering at low flame when you add your rasmalai discs. Adding rasmalai to very hot milk will make the eggs in the dough curdle and break your rasmalais.
Similar Desserts
Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!
