Gulab jamun is one of my favorite dessert and I have not met a person who has not liked jamuns.
Traditionally milk is boiled for hours on and reduced to milk solids, mixed into a dough with all purpose flour, deep fried in pure ghee and soaked in sugar syrup... What's not to like about that. Like is an understatement, bordering around insult. lol ! Seriously you need to taste it to believe me.
If you are into traditional Indian Desserts, here is the list
Rice Kheer/Pudding
Mysore Pak
Instant Milk Peda
Carrot Halwa
Kaju Katli
Mishti Doi
Moong Daal Kheer /lentil pudding
Coconut Burfi
Karanjikai
Besan Ladoo
Puri Unde/ Puff rice in sugar syrup
Just to name a few, you can have an endless list of Indian desserts, there are soo many, I can have a blog on Indian desserts and I can blog every day for next decade and still have desserts to blog about, am sure my Indian friends know what am talking about :) For now it’s gulab jamun : a hot favorite in the Jois household.
12 oz (3/4 lb)Khoa
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp saffron
2 tsp cardamom
ghee or oil to deep fry
600 gms sugar
760 ml water
In a deep sauce pan mix water sugar, saffron and cardamom and boil till the sugar is dissolved. Do not over heat the solution, it will crystalize the sugar and we do not want that.
I used store bought frozen khoa, let it thaw for 3-4 hours. Mix it with your hands till it has a crumbly consistency. Add the all purpose and baking powder and about 2-3 tbsp of water make it into a tight and stiff dough ( if the dough is runny, add more all purpose or milk powder to it) But take care to add only 1 tbsp of water at a time. Keep aside. Roll the dough into small balls with you hands and palm, till it is nice and smooth. Sorry could not take pictures of that as it was late night when I made the jamuns.
Heat the oil/ ghee, it should not be over hot but just enough. How do you test that ? Add a small piece of khoa, it should bubble up mildly on the sides. Now add enough khoa balls so it covers the surface of oil and keep the flame on medium-low. It will take a good 6-7 min to brown all around, make sure you turn them with a VERY gentle hand. If not it will disintegrate. Soak excess oil on a napkin and immediately add it to the syrup. Wait for 3-4 hours for the syrup to soak in, serve hot.
Jamun troubleshooting
- Every time you make jamun, even if it the 100th time, make sure you test a small jamun first, make sure it does not disintegrates in oil. If it does disintegrate in oil, take 1/4 of the dough and add little all purpose, test it again if it works - add same amount of all purpose to the complete dough.
- If jamun is too dense, add more water to dough. If jamun is already made and dense, poke it with fork on all sides and heat it in syrup.
- If sugar begins to crystalize, add more water
- If jamun is disintegrating in syrup, cool the jamuns before you add it to the syrup.
sooo soft and tempting
ReplyDeleteThe jamuns look so soft and and so perfect! Happy deepawali to you and your family. Have a great year ahead :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Diwali dear!
ReplyDeleteThis is a divine treat and your pictures are wonderful.
Cheers,
Rosa
Happy Diwali! Those are some gorgeous gulab jamuns and the bowl is beautiful too!
ReplyDeleteHappy Diwaly!
ReplyDeleteLovely pics, super delicious dessert. If I find a substitute for khoa I will make them too.
Happy Diwali. Again gorgeous photos. This is a dessert that I have had several times. And it is most excellently delicious. It was interesting to read that you do a blog just on Indian desserts. You know they are woefully under featured at least in the Pacific NW. Pretty much it is this dessert, the rice pudding, mango ice cream----and that's that.
ReplyDeleteStunning composition Simi!!! I am just starring at your pictures rather than the jamuns :)
ReplyDelete