Rasmalai

4.68 from 37 votes

A quick version of the traditional South Asian dessert, made with milk powder discs, cooked in a sweet milk syrup and garnished with nuts.

Prep Time15

Cook Time20

Total Time35

Course: Desserts

Cuisine: Indian, pakistani, South Asian

Diet: Halal

Servings: rasmalais

Calories: 51kcal

Author: Wajiha

Ingredients

For the Milk Balls

3/4 cup good quality milk powder I used Nido
1 tbsp ghee clarified butter
1 tsp Maida or White flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 large egg cold

For the Millk mixture (ras)

1 Litre full fat milk
1/2 tsp elaichi powder green cardamom powder
1 cup sugar
Sliced almonds and pistachios for garnish

Instructions

In a wide saucepan (pateeli), add milk, sugar and cardamom powder. Keep it on low heat and allow to simmer. Cover it with a lid, and let it simmer on the side.
In a bowl, add milk powder, baking powder and white flour. Use a spoon and mix well. Put the bowl in the freezer for 5 mins.
Take the bowl out, and make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Now add ghee and a cold egg. Beat the egg with a fork.
Use the palm of your hands to knead the dry ingredients into the egg and form a dough. Your dough will be sticky and thats fine.
Use a teaspoon to roughly portion the dough into 1 teaspoon servings on a plate.
Now use the palm of your hands to roll the dough into discs.
Drop the discs in the simmering milk at low heat and cover the pan with the lid. Let the rasmalai cook for about 15 mins.
After 15 mins your rasmalai balls would have doubled in size. Increase the heat to medium and cook for another 5 mins.
Turn off the heat and let the rasmalai sit in the pot till it comes down to room temperature.
Gently transfer the rasmalai onto the serving dish and chill it in the fridge.
Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios. Serve cold

Notes

The goal is to make smooth crack-free milk discs to create as perfect a rasmalai as possible. Here are a couple of tips to help you with that (for detailed tips, see post)

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.
Use good quality full-fat milk powder and good quality baking powder (more often than not, expired products are the culprit of bad results).
Sifting the dry ingredients prevents any clumps or impurities from passing through.
This 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 that is crack-free when shaped into discs.
Use a wide bowl to mix and knead the rasmalai discs
Use a wide base pot to cook the rasmalais to avoid crowding
And 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.

Nutrition