Gulab Jaman

  • Average
  • Average budget

Ingredients

  • •Milk powder - Nearly 1 cup [weighed 100 grams ]
  • •Maida / All purpose flour - ¼ cup [Weighed 25 grams]
  • •Ghee - 1 tbsp
  • •Baking soda - ¼ tsp
  • •Milk -¼ cup [80 ml]
  • •Sugar - 1 cup [weighed 100 grams]
  • •Water - 1 cup [150 ml]
  • •Cardamom - 3 pods
  • •Rose essence - 1 drop (optional)
  • •Oil - For deep frying

Preparation

Step 1

• Take a bowl and mix maida, milk powder and baking soda, mix well and sieve to remove the lumps in it.
• Add ghee and mix well, once done, pour milk little by little and mix well and knead until it forms a soft sticky dough.
• Now pinch small portions and roll between your palms to make a ball. See that there are no big cracks. Set aside. (grease your palms with little ghee to avoid the dough from sticking to your hands)
• Place a frying pan on flame and pour oil to deep fry the balls.
• Meanwhile to a saucepan add sugar, pour 200 ml of water, add crushed cardamom pods and stir well, place on low flame. Stir well until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens slightly, this may take 5 minutes. (no string consistencies needed). Then remove from flame and add a drop of rose essence, set aside.
• Now after the oil heats up, (oil should not be too hot), gently slide the prepared balls into it. See that you do not crowd the pan. And check that the flame is in low mode.
• The balls will sink to the bottom and then it will gently rise up. Slowly turn each balls with a slotted spoon, at frequent intervals to make sure that the balls brown evenly.
• Remove balls from flame and place on a tissue paper to remove excess oil.
• After the balls cool down, slide them into the prepared sugar syrup and set aside for an hour or until it softens up well. (see that the syrup is warm when you add the fried balls)
• Serve!! (You can also top with some chopped nuts and serve)

TIP 1: Never fry the balls in hot oil, the oil must not be too hot nor too low in temperature, a medium temperature will be the best. If you fry the gulab jamuns in hot oil the outer portion will brown soon, but the inner portion will remain uncooked. Also do not crowd the pan, fry them in batches.

TIP 2: See that you do not add too much of baking soda too. I have heard that adding too much of soda will make the break and disperse in oil when frying.

TIP 3: You can alter the size of the balls according to your wish. You can also make oval shaped gulab jamuns.

TIP 4: To make the jamuns more softer you can add a tsp of vinegar to the dough.

TIP 5: Smoothen/roll your balls well to make sure that they are bit firm and do not crack open easily, else these will easily crack open while frying.