Gulab Jamun (simple recipe)

The ingredients to make it are quite simple but it can be technically challenging because the milk dough can quickly get too hard to handle, be too sticky to roll, or crack while frying. Additionally, deep frying anything always requires a bit of finesse so if you are approaching this recipe, these are things you should be cautious of. I browsed several recipes and a lot of them included other ingredients in the dough like semolina or paneer. I went for a simple version to start, sans semolina or paneer. This recipe is based off a recipe by Swasthi’s Recipe’s but of course there are some slight tweaks to the ingredients, in particular the addition of lemon juice (to prevent crystallization) and saffron (for colour and flavour) to the syrup. I also included a few tips I found useful while making these. The word “gulab jamun” means rose berries. In Hindi, the word “gulab” means rose and “jamun” is a java plum also called black plum which is a fruit in India that these treats resemble.

Gulab Jamun

I have such a sweet tooth so it comes at no surprise that this is one of my favourite desserts. Gulab jamun is a sweet confectionary that originated in India and is popular in several other countries like Pakistan, Nepal, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is essentially a deep fried milk ball, soaked in a rose, cardamom, and saffron flavoured syrup. It is decadent and delicious.

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Ingredients

  

Gulab Jamun

• 1 cup of milk powder non fat milk powder works well
• 5 tablespoons of all purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon of plain yogurt
• 4 tablespoons of milk any percentage will work
• 2 teaspoons of ghee

Rose Syrup

• 2 cups of white sugar
• 2 cups of water
• 1 1/4 teaspoon of rose water
• pinch of saffron strands
• 5 green cardamon pods crushed
• 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Instructions

 

Make Syrup

• In a small sauce pan, add sugar, water, saffron strands, cardamom pods and heat on medium until it boils.
• Once it is boiling, stir in rose water, remove from heat, add your teaspoon of lemon juice, to prevent crystallization of sugar and set aside. Keep warm. You can do this my either keep it on the stove at a very very low heat so it is not boiling or just sitting covered, and turning on the stove only if it cools significantly.

Make Dough

• In a large mixing bowl add powdered milk, baking soda, all purpose flour, and mix.
• Add ghee and mix with your whisk until an even crumbly mixture forms.
• In a separate small bowl, mix together your milk and yogurt.
• Add your milk and yogurt mixture to your milk powder, flour and ghee mixture, a tablespoon at a time, until a malleable dough comes together. You will need to start using your hands to text the texture of the dough.
• I typically add about 2-3 tablespoons of liquid. Adding liquid is the trickiest part because you want a dough that is soft enough to be smoothed out with no cracks, but firm enough so it isn’t too sticky.
• You should be able to form one round ball, without any creases. You can add ghee to your palms to help with stickiness if any.
• Divide this big dough ball into 16 pieces and work quickly to roll each pieces into a small smooth ball. The balls will seem very small but they expand when they cook and soak and liquid.
• When all the small, smooth milk dough balls are formed, set aside and get ready to fry.

Frying and Soaking Gulab Jamun

• In a deep frying pan or a pot, heat up enough neutral vegetable oil (do not use olive oil or it will burn) or ghee to at least 2 inches deep. If I have more oil, the deeper the better because balls float and tend to burn less because they are further away from the bottom of the pan.
• When oil is hot, add a test dough ball to the hot oil and fry, turning often the entire time. The dough ball should brown evenly and not too quickly. If it is browning too quickly or burning, your oil is too hot.
• After test dough ball is fried, remove, place on a paper towel to remove excess oil and into your syrup
• Fry the rest of the dough balls, turning often so they brown evenly and don’t stick to the bottom of the pan (in the case of oil that is more shallow).
• When ready, golden brown on the outside, place on a paper towel to remove excess oil and place into your syrup.
• Keep your syrup on low heat for 2 minutes with dough balls in the syrup this will help softens balls. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Syrup and dough balls should remain at room temp for 4 hours to soak.
• You can serve after your delicious treats 4 hours and store in a container, in the syrup to store. I serve mine with a little bit of crushed pistachios and if I am being fancy, a few strands of saffron on top.

Notes

• Work fast because the pieces tend to dry out while your form your balls. You can try and prevent drying out but covering your divided pieces with a kitchen towel as you work. 
• Keep the bowl of extra milk and yogurt beside you as your form your balls because you may need to wet the pieces of dough a little to make them malleable. 
• It is totally okay to wet finger tips of palm and ‘re knead’ the small piece of dough in your palm so you can form a smooth dough ball.