​​​​​Rasgulla

Rasgulla is a traditional sweet which actually originated from Odisha. It is so much soft and spongy chhena (cottage cheese) balls cooked in light and sweet cardamom flavored sugar syrup. Really this is an easy to make sweet.

So below are the step by step method of preparation.

Preparation Time : 25 mins      |      Cooking Time : 15 mins

Ingredients :        

​Method :

1. Take freshly madechenna. Crumble it with hand. It should be crumbly & little moist. If it is too dry, then rasgulla will turn hard and if it is too soft, they will break while cooking and will not retain their shape after cooking. So be careful in this step.
2. Knead it using hand until it all comes together like dough and it starts to release some fat. Palm will turn little greasy, it is an indication that it has started to release fat. Stop kneading after that.
3. Take small portions of kneaded dough and roll to tiny balls. The size of balls will increase to almost double after boiling in sugar syrup, so remember to make smaller sizes than the rasgullas to end up as.
4. Heat sugar with water and cardamom pods in a pressure cooker over medium flame and bring to boil. Mix well for the sugar to dissolve.
5. When it comes to rolling boil, gently drop prepared balls in it. Just put the lid over cooker, do not use whistle. 
6. After about 5 minutes, remove the lid and stir it gently with a spatula. Again cover it with lid and let it boil over medium-high flame for 7-8 minutes, stir it gently once in between. Remove lid and turn off the flame.
7. The size of balls has increased to almost double and they are spongy too. They will shrink a little after turning off the flame but it is normal. (If it shrinks too much then its an indication that something has gone wrong) 
8. Transfer them to a large bowl. Cool completely, add crushed pistachios on top and refrigerate rasgulla in syrup until ready to serve !

Notes :

• Kneading to a smooth dough is very important to get good rasgulla. Do not kneadchennaafter it starts to release the fat.
• Boiling the balls for the right amount of time and at the right heat is also needed. Overcooking / cooking them at very very high heat could result in rubbery balls / break the balls.
• It is necessary to keep the syrup boiling all the time while cooking the rasgulla in it. Do not cook it over very low flame. If required, increase the flame to high to keep the syrup boiling.
• Do not change the quantity of water and do not reduce the quantity of sugar mentioned here (can add more sugar) as they are required to cook them perfectly.
• If you want to double the recipe, cook them in batches. You can use the same sugar syrup for the second batch. If syrup is not enough, add water and sugar in same ratio as given above for cooking the second batch.
• Do not stuff too many balls in a small pan / vessel. They must have enough space to float around and puff up while boiling.
• If there is any fear of breaking of rasgulla, then just use 1 tsp semolina / ½ tbsp corn flour while kneading the chenna.
• Rasgulla can stay fresh refrigerated for up to 4 days in the sugar syrup.

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