Rasgulla: Encyclopedia - Rasgulla

Rasgulla

Rasgulla (pundor balls in sugar syrup) is one of the most widely available and popular sweetmeats in Eastern India.

Rasgulla - History

Rasgulla was first made by Haradhan Maira, a confectioner of Phulia district, during the time of Bengal renaissance. These white cottage cheese balls in sugar syrup not only created a revolution in the confectionary industry and but also set the trend for the main sweets of today. Nabinchandra Roy of Bagbazar, Kolkata, was the first person to make 'sponge' Rasgulla in 1868, and is immortalised in the local limerick "Rasgulla got a Columbus/ In Bagbazar's Nabin Das". KC Das of Kolkata was the first to invent the canned version of this highly perishable sweet, which led to much wider availability.

Rasgulla - Method

Rasgulla is produced by mixing the sweetened cottage cheese with a small amount of semolina to lighten it, and then forming the mix into small balls, which are then boiled in a light sugar syrup until the syrup permeates the ball.

Rasgulla - Varieties

Apart from the basic white plain Rasgullas there are several other popular flavoured and coloured varieties like Kamala bhog – a variety of Rasgulla produced by mixing orange extracts with the cottage cheese, and Rasomalai – where the syrup is replaced by sweetened milk.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rasgulla", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki