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.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Indian

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 40

Servings people

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 5x7 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.