Baked Rasgulla

One of my cousins is getting married soon. Like all big fat Bengali weddings the menu is being planned the first. Even though the wedding is close to an year away that’s what we are mostly discussing over trans-Atlantic calls. I am especially looking forward to the dessert which is baked rasgulla. Since it’s hard to wait that long I decided to make some for ourselves.

Baked rasgulla is rasgulla placed in thick reduced milk and baked to create a crunchy crust on a soft rasgulla base. This combination of soft smooth core and crunchy crust along with cardamom flavored milk is pretty amazing.

Ingredients

• 15 pieces rasgulla (Make your own or use canned)
• 1 cup fresh cream
• 2 cups milk (I used 2%)
• 1/2 cup milk powder
• 3- 4 tbsp. sugar
• 1 pod green cardamom crushed
• 6-8 pistachio blanched and chopped
• 5-6 almonds slivered

Procedure

Arrange rasgullas in a bowl and pour enough water to cover them all. Heat them up in microwave for 30 – 40 seconds. Drain the water. Take out each rasgulla and squeeze out syrup from them. We are removing the syrup so that the rasgulla can absorb the thickened milk.

In a heavy bottom pan take milk along with fresh cream. Add milk powder to it and mix well. Turn on the heat and keep stirring till it reduces to its one third. Now add sugar, and crushed cardamom to it. Let it simmer for one more minute. Turn off the heat and let it cool down. As it cools down the milk mixture will thicken further.

Pre heat the oven at 375F. Take an oven safe serving bowl and spoon a layer of milk mixture. Arrange the rasgullas on top of it. Add another layer of reduced milk on top. At the end sprinkle some chopped dry fruit.

Place the serving bowl on the top rack of your oven and bake it for about 15 – 20 minutes. When the top layer takes a brownish hue you know that baking is done.

Let it come down to room temperature before you serve.