Rasmalai cheese cake

Hi everyone, the first month of 2018 is finally over. It was a super busy month for me, but I won't complain. I travelled to 2 countries already this year, so on the travel front, this year seems to be taking shape beautifully. As I sit and ponder on how my January went, I feel the absolute urge to share one of my dessert recipes from last month. I had been meaning to try this fusion dessert for a while now. And since I had a lovely family get together at my place, I finally got to try it out. The get together was around the Indian Replubic day, which further probed me into giving my dinner that Indian touch. I made Green chicken biryani, bread rolls with ground beef filling,  rose rolls with ground chicken filling and the Rasmalai cheese cake. This dessert was my star performer of the night and that's why I'd love to share this recipe with all of you today.
Super quick, super simple and a great fusion recipe to marry the Indian rasmalai and the New York cheese cake.
For this recipe, I bought store bought rasmalai, but I shall hopefully share my homemade ras malai recipe with you all soon, in another post.

Ingredients:

For the crust:

• Graham crackers, crushed 
• Pistachios, ground 
• Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup
• Green food coloring (Optional) 

For the cheesecake:

• Cream cheese, softened - 16 oz
• Rasmalai - 12 pieces 
• Gelatin - 1 tsp (can substitute with Agar agar)
• Water - 1/4 cup (to disolve gelatin) 
• 1 cup whipped cream
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• a few strands of Saffron 

Directions:

1. First, grind the pistachios to a granular powder consistency. If you want to make the mixture richer, you can mix other nuts with pistachios, but I chose to go ahead only with pistachios.
2. Crush the graham crackers and mix the two with 1/4 cup of melted butter. Then add a few drops of green coloring to enhance the color. Press this mixture against the base of your springform pan to create the crust. Once the crust is well spread and even, refrigerate it until you make your cheesecake filling.
3. Next, separate the rasgullas from the ras malai mixture and kept that aside to use later. 
4. If using gelatin, sprinkle it over the water and keep aside for 5 mins. Once soaked microwave it for 30 sec until completely melted. Add it to the rasmalai milk. If you are substituting gelatin with agar agar powder, boil the agar powder with the rasmalai milk directly, instead of soaking it in water. 
5. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese on a low speed until it is smooth. Then add the sugar in small parts and beat until the sugar is completely incorporated in the cream cheese. You can increase or decrease the sugar as per your taste. Next add the rasmalai milk and gelatin mixture and beat until even. Add a few strands of saffron to this mixture. 
6. Lastly, fold the whipping cream to your mixture and make sure you don't overmix or overfold the whipping cream to your cheesecake mixture. 
7. To assemble, place the pieces of rasgullas on the crust making sure you spread them evenly. Then pour the rest of the cheesecake filling on top of the rasgullas, and keep it refrigerated over night or minimum 5 to 6 hours till set. 
8. Once set, demould and decorate with the remaining whipped cream and pistachio crumbs or whole pistachios. I forgot to save my pistachio crumbs in the beginning so used whole pistachios instead.
9. Serve cold 

Please let me know if you do give recipe a try. If you are a rasmalai and a cheesecake lover like me and my husband, this combination is definitely a must try! Feel free to comment if you have any questions/suggestions and share this recipe with your loved one.. until then, Live, Love, Laugh & Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!