Kesar Malai Roll: Bread Rasmalai Soaked In Almond And Cream

f you are a diehard Rasmalai fan, you cannot afford to miss this dessert, Kesar Malai Roll created with the similar characters and premises of making a rabdi and soaking a sweetmeat in it. The protagonist or the sweetmeat however changes here for the better. Bread slices, without the brown edges filled with almond powder and cream mixture, and rolled tightly become the mithai here. And these are submerged in super creamy and dulcet milky syrup made with milk, saffron, sugar, milk and cardamom powder. Gone are the days, when you had to try hard to make a perfect market-like Rasmalai. This version will surely bring you close to achieving the Rasmalai feat in drastically less time. 

A Glance At Kesar Malai Roll

Kesar Malai Roll or Bread Malai Roll are newly devised Indian sweets, where white bread slices are used to make delicious sweets by stuffing them with thick cream and dry fruit stuffing. This is then soaked in reduced saffron-flavoured milk syrup. The sweet has a close resemblance to Rasmalais and also appears to be an easier version of the popular Bengali sweet Malai roll. 

Since Rasmalais are being compared as a precursor and inspiration for Kesar Malai Roll, it's important to look back briefly at the legacy of this all-time favourite sweetmeat too. Irrespective of disputes between the claimants, Rasmalai is well known to have originated in Bengal and was first created in the 19th century. Typically, Rasmalai is made with chena obtained from curdled milk and rabdi is cooled in the fridge for several hours before soaking in the rasmalais, and again refrigerated for 6-7 hours to nicely infuse the flavours and juiciness before eating. 

Preparation: 1 hour

Cooking: 15 minutes

Servings: 5 -6

Ingredients:

6 Fresh bread slices

For making rabdi:

½ litre milk

Food colour

1 tsp ghee

½ cup milk powder

2 tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp saffron strands

Cardamom powder

For making malai:

Almond powder (20 almonds)

100 gm homemade cream

4 tbsp powdered sugar

3 tbsp milk powder

Method:

Take homemade cream in a bowl, add 2 tbsp sugar to it and mix well.

Then add almond powder and milk powder, one spoon at a time and mix all well. 

Refrigerate this mixture for 15-20 minutes.

Heat another vessel and add ghee, and spread all over the bottom of the vessel.

Add milk to it and milk powder to it in two parts and keep stirring continuously and cooking on low to medium heat.

Then add sugar and saffron and cook the milk until it reduces to half.

Add cardamom powder to it and then cook for another 5 minutes.

Let the milk syrup cool and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the bread slices with the filling.

Remove the sides of the bread slice and fill it with 1-2 tsp of malai prepared earlier.

Then roll the bread slices tightly like swiss rolls and lay them on a serving tray.

Take out the cool milk syrup and pour over the bread slices with spoons.

Garnish with powdered pistachios.

Do not feel tempted to roll the bread with a rolling pin as it makes them stiff and not good enough for absorbing the milk syrup. The bread slices soaked in the rabdi-like milk syrup swell up with taste and creaminess, and taste pleasantly close to Rasmalais.