If you’re wondering what rasmalai (or ras malai) is, it’s a traditional Indian sweet that consists of cottage cheese-like balls in a sweet creamy and beautifully spiced sauce infused with the flavors of cardamom and saffron, and topped with chopped pistachios. The result is a sort of pudding that’s creamy, delicious, and just bursting with flavor.
By Audrey, Unconventional Baker.
Traditional “rabri” sauce (the sauce rasmalai is served in) is usually a condensed milk-based sauce that’s prominently flavored with saffron and cardamom. The sauce part of this dessert was not super challenging to nail — cashews (aka dairy-free life-savers!) make for delicious creamy things, including a condensed milk-like sauce.
Traditional “rabri” sauce (the sauce rasmalai is served in) is usually a condensed milk-based sauce that’s prominently flavored with saffron and cardamom. The sauce part of this dessert was not super challenging to nail — cashews (aka dairy-free life-savers!) make for delicious creamy things, including a condensed milk-like sauce.
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I sweetened my “rabri” sauce with maple syrup, went for traditional spices only (i.e. no vanilla here, etc. because I wanted it to stay close to the originals I loved so much). I did add some rose water in — I know not all traditional recipes use that, but my first and favorite rasmalai contained it and I absolutely loved it, so in it went, and I have no regrets.
There is a fundamental difference though to the process of making these dairy-free “cottage cheese” balls as compared to the traditional method of making “chena” balls. The traditional cheese balls are made through a process of curdling hot full fat milk with lemon juice, then straining out the liquid. The remaining mixture is (sometimes mixed with a bit of flour or cornstarch and then) kneaded and formed into balls that then get cooked in boiling sugar water before being added to the creamy “rabri” sauce for eating.
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My recipe is definitely an unconventional workaround for this process. The cashew-based “cottage cheese” balls meant to replace the chena here take longer to curdle and form into a workable texture than the traditional (so plan to make a day ahead). Moreover, the initial resulting texture of the mixture is softer and although totally doable, it doesn’t hold up perfectly when boiled and the resulting “cheese” balls are a bit too soft for my liking using the boiling method.
I also from the get go didn’t like the idea of making the boiled “sugar” mixture because I use maple syrup as my sweetener, and it’s certainly not as cheap as plain sugar — to make the boiling syrup (which combines a good dose of maple syrup with water), only to discard this mixture when done boiling the balls felt somewhat wasteful.
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So instead I lightly baked my “cheese” balls to firm them up a little and they worked out great. The texture comes out perfect that way, and the whole process is super simple.
There are two small down sides to this method however that I have to confess up front so nobody comes after me with pitchforks here ;) :
– When the traditional balls get cooked in the sugar water syrup they get infused with sweetness on the inside. Because I skipped that step, I opted for adding in some maple syrup into the “cheese” balls mixture instead. It worked, although they are not as sweet that way (compared to the boiled version I made of this recipe), but the sweetness of the sauce compensates for it. I thought the texture was more important here, and the baked balls worked great for that.
– In the traditional process of making the cheese balls part, the liquid gets squeezed out of the milk and lemon juice mixture really well, and as a result most of the lemon juice gets drained right out so that the tang is gone out of the recipe. In the recipe below though that doesn’t happen as I didn’t want to also squeeze out the maple syrup and lose some of the cashew liquid as well through the nut-milk bag in the process. As a result there is a mild lemony taste to the balls.
Of course, as I continue making this, I’ll keep experimenting and if one day I figure out a better work around to address the few small issues above I’ll be sure to update this space.
For now, I’m sharing this recipe with you knowing that it’s not 100% authentic, but comes very close to the version I used to love and have missed over the years. After experimenting with many, many batches of this treat I finally landed on something I personally enjoyed very much (and yes, there was a happy dance involved when it finally came together!), so I figured some of you out there would love to have this option, imperfect and all, for a dairy-free and refined sugar-free version of this lovely treat. It’s delicious, flavorful, a little unusual, and a lot of fun to make, and all those things make it share-worthy for me.
Prep Time: 40 mins Yield: 7 rasmalai balls
Ingredients
“Cheese” Balls:
“Rabri” Sauce:
Garnish:
There is a fundamental difference though to the process of making these dairy-free “cottage cheese” balls as compared to the traditional method of making “chena” balls. The traditional cheese balls are made through a process of curdling hot full fat milk with lemon juice, then straining out the liquid. The remaining mixture is (sometimes mixed with a bit of flour or cornstarch and then) kneaded and formed into balls that then get cooked in boiling sugar water before being added to the creamy “rabri” sauce for eating.
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I also from the get go didn’t like the idea of making the boiled “sugar” mixture because I use maple syrup as my sweetener, and it’s certainly not as cheap as plain sugar — to make the boiling syrup (which combines a good dose of maple syrup with water), only to discard this mixture when done boiling the balls felt somewhat wasteful.
[post_ads_2]
So instead I lightly baked my “cheese” balls to firm them up a little and they worked out great. The texture comes out perfect that way, and the whole process is super simple.
There are two small down sides to this method however that I have to confess up front so nobody comes after me with pitchforks here ;) :
– When the traditional balls get cooked in the sugar water syrup they get infused with sweetness on the inside. Because I skipped that step, I opted for adding in some maple syrup into the “cheese” balls mixture instead. It worked, although they are not as sweet that way (compared to the boiled version I made of this recipe), but the sweetness of the sauce compensates for it. I thought the texture was more important here, and the baked balls worked great for that.
– In the traditional process of making the cheese balls part, the liquid gets squeezed out of the milk and lemon juice mixture really well, and as a result most of the lemon juice gets drained right out so that the tang is gone out of the recipe. In the recipe below though that doesn’t happen as I didn’t want to also squeeze out the maple syrup and lose some of the cashew liquid as well through the nut-milk bag in the process. As a result there is a mild lemony taste to the balls.
Of course, as I continue making this, I’ll keep experimenting and if one day I figure out a better work around to address the few small issues above I’ll be sure to update this space.
For now, I’m sharing this recipe with you knowing that it’s not 100% authentic, but comes very close to the version I used to love and have missed over the years. After experimenting with many, many batches of this treat I finally landed on something I personally enjoyed very much (and yes, there was a happy dance involved when it finally came together!), so I figured some of you out there would love to have this option, imperfect and all, for a dairy-free and refined sugar-free version of this lovely treat. It’s delicious, flavorful, a little unusual, and a lot of fun to make, and all those things make it share-worthy for me.
Prep Time: 40 mins Yield: 7 rasmalai balls
Ingredients
“Cheese” Balls:
- 1 ½ cups raw cashews, pre-soaked and strained*
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 5 tbsp maple syrup
- ½ cup hot water (should be hot or very warm, not boiling)
- ⅛ tsp salt
“Rabri” Sauce:
- 1 cup hot boiled water
- a pinch of saffron
- 2 cups raw cashews, pre-soaked and strained*
- ¾ cup maple syrup
- ⅔ cup more water
- 1 tbsp rose water
- ½ tsp salt
- seeds from 2 green cardamom pods**
- ⅛ tsp cardamom powder
Garnish:
- a few tbsp chopped pistachios (or a mix of pistachios and almonds)
- a pinch of crushed dried edible rose petals
