Chocolate Rasgullas

Happy Diwali…

Diwali, the festival of lights, is one of the India’s biggest religious celebration, when homes, institutions and entire neighbourhood are decorated with candles, earthen lamps and fairy lights then how can we forget about food.

This special evening deserves something special, so lets make this diwali memorable with Chocolate Rasgullas.

Chocolate Rasgulla/ Chocolate Roshogolla

Ingredients for making Chena:

Milk- 1litre or 4 cups
3 tbsp Lemon juice or Vinegar
Cocoa Powder -1/4 Cup and Sooji or Rava- 1tsp

Ingredients for making Sugar Syrup:

Sugar-2 cups
Water -4 cups
Cocoa Powder -2tbsp

METHOD OF MAKING CHENA:

In a small bowl mix 1/4 cup cocoa powder with 4 tbsp milk, mix it well to ensure that there are no lumps.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel, add 1 litres of milk and milk mixed cocoa powder and mix well.

Bring it to boil and keep stirring to avoid burning of milk.

Once the milk comes to boil, simmer the gas, start adding the lemon juice or vinegar and keep stirring( if required, add more lemon juice or vinegar), cook for few seconds until the milk solids gets separates from the whey. Switch off the heat.

Pour this curdled milk into a muslin cloth over a strainer, squeeze out the whey water as much as possible

Now, to remove the smell of lemon or vinegar, rinse it under running water.

Tie up the cloth and hang it for 45 mins and drain excess water. Chenna should not have any whey in it.

Now remove the muslincloth, chenna should not have too much moisture nor be too dry.

Add 1 tsp sooji or rava or semolina, adding sooji or semolina helps to bind the mixture. Mix the sooji with chenna and then begin to knead.

Mash the chenna/curd cheese and knead well to make it a smooth dough. This kneading process is very important and it decides the texture of rasgullas .

Take small portions of this and roll to tiny balls. They should be tiny and not big.

 

METHOD OF MAKING SUGAR SYRUP:

In a large pan, mix sugar, water and cocoa powder and bring to boil. Large pan is important because there should be enough space for the rasgullas to cook and increase in size.

When the sugar syrup will start to boil, drop chena/ curd cheese balls gently to the sugar syrup.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 10 mins on a medium high flame. Gently stir every 3 minutes to ensure even cooking and puffing. They double in size when done.

Allow the rasgullas to cool completely.

Notes

• Proper kneading. Kneading to a smooth dough is very important to get good rosgulla
• Boiling the balls for the right amount of time and at the right heat is also needed.
• Overcooking or cooking them at very high heat could result in rubbery balls or break the balls.
• Do not stuff too many balls in a small pan. They must have enough space to float around and puff up in the pan.