Gulab jamun

Name: Gulab jamun
Cook time: 171 min
Total time: 171 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 30 g Wheat flour; 60 ml Milk; 300 g Sugar; 750 ml Vegetable Oil; 1 teaspoon Lemon Juice; 1 pinch Bicarbonate Of Soda; 5 u Cardamom; 1 pinch Saffron; 1 tablespoon Rose water; 1 tablespoon Ghee; 350 ml Water; 120 g Milk powder

Medium

Contains allergens

Cereales con glutenLeche

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Author: Equipo Cocinoa
Preparation time: 3 hr
Servings: 6

Summary

Little balls of milk dough fried slowly until mahogany brown and soaked in a warm cardamom and rosewater syrup. The sweet of weddings and Diwali all over India, soft and juicy right to the centre.

Ingredients

6 servings

Add to Bring!

30 g Wheat flour
60 ml Milk (roughly, at room temperature)
300 g Sugar
750 ml Vegetable Oil (for frying, or ghee)
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1 pinch Bicarbonate Of Soda
5 u Cardamom (pods, lightly crushed)
1 pinch Saffron (optional)
1 tablespoon Rose water
1 tablespoon Ghee (melted, plus a little for your hands)
350 ml Water
120 g Milk powder (full-fat)

Instructions

Make the syrup: put the sugar, water and cardamom in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Simmer for 5 minutes over medium heat, until slightly sticky between your fingers but not yet forming a thread. Add the lemon juice, saffron and rosewater, turn off the heat and keep it warm.
8 min
In a bowl, mix the milk powder, flour and bicarbonate of soda. Add the melted ghee and rub it in with your fingertips until it looks like damp sand.
3 min
Add the milk a little at a time and bring the dough together with your fingers, without kneading or pressing, just until soft, smooth and slightly sticky. Cover and leave to rest.
10 min
Grease your palms with a little ghee and shape about 20 balls of 2.5 cm, rolling them between your hands until there are no cracks at all. Keep them covered with a tea towel while you finish.
10 min
Heat the oil in a deep saucepan over low heat to about 140-150 °C: a small piece of dough should rise slowly, surrounded by tiny bubbles. Fry the balls in batches, without touching them at first, then swirling the oil with a spoon so they roll over by themselves, until they are an even dark brown.
20 min
Drain them briefly and transfer them, still hot, to the warm syrup. Leave them to soak for at least 2 hours, ideally 4, until they swell and are soaked right through. Serve warm or at room temperature with a little of their syrup.
2 hr

Notes

The traditional recipe starts from khoya (or mawa), milk slowly reduced to a paste; full-fat milk powder is the usual home shortcut and gives a very similar result. There are three classic mistakes. Cracks: if the dough splits as you shape the balls, add a few drops of milk and roll them gently until smooth, because any crack will open up in the oil. A raw or hard centre: keep the balls small, as they grow when fried and soaked. And oil that is too hot, which darkens them outside in a minute and leaves them raw inside: fry them over low heat, at about 140-150 °C, so they take a few seconds to rise to the surface. The syrup should be warm and the balls hot, so they soak it up without falling apart. Serve warm or at room temperature; they keep for 4 days in the fridge in their syrup.