Rosogulla (Bengali Milk Balls in Syrup)
Serves 6 Time 45 minutes Difficulty 4/5 Ingredients 7 Steps 29
Rasgulla is a milk-based Bengali sweet, popular in West Bengal, India.
Ingredients
Chenna
- ½ tsp citric acid
- ½ cup water
- 1 liter milk
Sugar Syrup
- 5 cups sugar
- ½ cups milk
- 3 cups water
Assembly
- 3 tsp plain wheat flour (maida)
Steps
Chenna
- Dissolve citric acid in the water. Set aside.
- Bring milk to a boil in a saucepan, stirring continuously.
- Remove from heat. Stir 5–7 minutes until milk is slightly cool.
- Add citric acid solution. Stir gently.
- Milk curdles and whey separates; whey must be clear, showing complete curdling. Rest 3–4 minutes.
- Strain out all whey through a clean damp muslin cloth.
- Fold all 4 sides of the muslin and twirl gently to drain the whey evenly.
- Gather cloth from all 4 sides. Squeeze chenna lightly 3 to 4 times to drain most of the whey.
- Remove chenna onto a clean plate. Knead gently, without too much pressure, until free of lumps.
- Use almost immediately.
Sugar syrup
- Combine sugar, milk and water in a large pan about 200 mm (8 inches) wide and 150 mm (6 inches) high. Heat, stirring continuously, until sugar dissolves.
- When syrup boils, a grey layer of impurities floats up. Do not stir; stirring breaks the layer and the syrup will not clarify.
- After about 5 minutes, slowly drizzle 1 cup water from the sides of the pan with a ladle. This lowers the temperature and stops the syrup breaking the grey layer.
- Simmer over medium flame about 10 minutes. Gently remove the grey layer with a slotted spoon.
- Bring to the boil again. Slowly drizzle another cup of water from the sides with a ladle. Remove remaining impurities with a slotted spoon.
- Increase flame. Boil vigorously 1–2 minutes. Set aside.
Assembly
- Divide chenna into 16 equal parts. Roll each into a ball with no cracks on the surface.
- Dust the back of a flat plate (thali) lightly with flour. Place chenna balls on it.
- Mix 2 tsp plain flour with ¾ cup water for a flour solution. Keep aside.
- Heat sugar syrup in a deep pan over high flame. Boil vigorously.
- Sprinkle half the flour solution into the boiling syrup; a frothy layer forms.
- Add chenna balls by upturning the plate. Do not touch the fragile balls.
- If the froth subsides, sprinkle the remaining flour solution.
- Keep sprinkling water (minimum 1 cup) on the syrup surface so it froths throughout cooking.
- Cook about 15 minutes, sprinkling water continuously to keep froth.
- Check doneness: a cooked rasgulla springs back and keeps its shape when pressed, or sinks when dropped in cold water.
- Remove from heat.
- Transfer rasgullas to a bowl with 2 ladles sugar syrup and 1 cup water.
- Cool and chill 3 to 4 hours before serving.
Notes from the original
- Rasgullas should always be cooked on a very high flame.
- While cooking rasgullas, the sugar syrup must froth continuously.
- The sugar syrup should fill about ⅓ of the pan.
- While making rasgulla shapes (see variation below), always ensure that there are no cracks on the surface of the shapes.
- While cooking, rasgullas expand to at least 4 times their original size.
- While sprinkling water on the syrup when the rasgullas are cooking, make sure you sprinkle a little water at a time (about 1 teaspoon at a time using your hands) and not large quantities.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Rosogulla (Bengali Milk Balls in Syrup)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-04-12, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Rasagulla.jpg by No machine-readable author provided. Pamri assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.