Ras Malai Cake
Ras Malai Cake is a twist on a very popular Bengali dessert "Ras Malai". Ras Malai is made with homemade cheese known as “paneer” or “chana”. It consists of soft paneer balls immersed in chilled creamy milk. Ras Malai has been always my favorite dessert for as long as I can remember. Back when I came to the U.S. many years ago, Indian cooking was a challenge as there were very few Indian ingredients available. Indian groceries weren't as plentiful back then. To top that off, I was also a new cook. I remember my friends and I would always experiment with different recipes for Indian food using whatever ingredients we could find. We knew we had to make do with what we had by being creative and learning to cook using the ingredients were available. One thing we discovered is using ricotta cheese as a substitute for paneer as it was the closest in consistency to paneer. We started using ricotta cheese to make many milk-based Indian desserts. It was then that I learned how to make Ras Malai. While it certainly was not the same as the "real thing", it was super simple to make and very tasty! Most importantly, I got to enjoy a little taste of home with my favorite Indian dessert! I have done one more recipe using Ricotta cheese Microwave Milk Cake. Enjoy!This recipe will serve 6.
Ingredients
- 15 oz Ricotta Cheese whole milk
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
Milk for Rasmalai
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 ½ tbsp sugar
- ⅛ tsp crushed cardamom
Garnishing
- 1 tbsp sliced almonds
- 1 tbsp sliced Pistachios
- few strands of saffron
Instructions
- I am also using a 5×7 Pyrex pan for baking the cake, line the pan with parchment paper.
- Mix the ricotta, sugar, cardamom, and saffron together well. Transfer the ricotta cheese mixture into a round Pyrex bowl. It should be around 1/2″ thickness. Bake it at 300 degrees F for 35 minutes.
- After 10 minutes cover the cake with aluminum foil, which will prevent the cake browning from the top. Let it cool off to room temperature.
- While baking the cake, prepared the milk. Boil the milk in a frying pan on medium heat until the milk reduces to about 1 cup (Make sure wet the frying pan before putting the milk to prevent milk not to burn). Stir the milk occasionally. Set aside.
- Take the ricotta cake out into the serving plate, pour the milk over and garnish with almonds and pistachios. Keep it in the fridge for at least one hour, serve chill.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
If I double the quantity, then what size pyrex pan should I use and should I just double everything
Thx
This was a watery mess. I drained the water and rebaked the cake. It came out good after that. I suggest draining the ricotta before using.
Sk, sorry the ricotta we buy here, don’t need to drain water, I was not familiar with other ricotta.
Hello Manjula – I used store bought Galbani Ricotta cheese, though I baked for more than 2 hrs, cheese is still watery and it didn’t turn into a cake. Not sure what have I done wrong. Do we have to drain the water from Ricotta cheese?
If there is whey in your ricotta tub, drain it. You should look at the video above to see the right kind of ricotta consistency for this dish. Kind of like greek yogurt?
Hi Manjula, I am used to not considering paneer recipes much because I have to make the paneer by myself instead of buying it at the market, this recipe comes in handy. Also, sometimes I have used a fresh cheese called primosale in your palak paneer. It has rennet so it melts (so be sure to find it with vegetable rennet if you are a vegetarian), but it melts slowly and to me pleasingly. I just cube it add it at the end. I think ricotta can be also used similarly to paneer in sandwiches, it will have a different consistency. I also have thought to make your butter paneer sauce and, instead of using paneer, spread it on a pizza and top with mozzarella and methi leaves and bake. A “makhani” pizza. I will try that next time.
Thank you, Didina.
Didina, good suggestions
What type of ricotta did you use? Smooth or traditional?
I used smooth ricotta cheese
Smooth
Looks lovely Manjula. In the video you use 1/4 tsp cardamon powder in the milk but written instructions say 1/8 tsp crushed cardamon. Which should I use?
Thank you for this recipe.
Karen sorry should be 1/8 teaspoon