Gulab Jamuns (Fried Milk Balls in Rose Water -Sugar Syrup)

Good day to you all, dear friends!! After my daring pizza toss for the DB challenge, I thought that I should come back to active blogging with a "dessert". Hmm, yes! A dessert with which most of you would be familiar - the golden brown milk balls which are decadent, sweet and spongy - Gulab Jamuns! GlabIn India, you can get these plump cuties from anywhere either ready-made or as ready-to-make mixes. But in the US, I had to search for a recipe to satisfy my craving for these beauties. I honestly can down a few in a sitting! ;-) When I found this recipe, I set out to make them then and there. Over the course of time, I have made them multiple times, with slight changes, because the actual recipe didnt work well for me. Anyways, the recipe given below gave me the best result so far, but I am sure I would continue to experiment with the proportion of ingredients to truly make it the best recipe ever!! The recipe below gave me small jamuns which were spongy, soft and soaked through with the syrup. The addition of rose water (which makes for the 'Gulab' in the Gulab Jamuns) and cardamom truly elevated the flavor and smell of the dessert. I hope you all like my "come-back recipe" and would try it out soon.

I am sending this to Sweet series: Milk sweets with spongy texture event at Mythreyee's Paajaka. Its my first event entry after soooo long! :-)

Recipe (Makes about 32 small jamuns):

Milk powder - 1 cup
All-purpose flour - 2 tbsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
Whole milk - enough to make a dough
Oil - for frying the dough balls

Rose Water - Sugar Syrup:

Granulated sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Water - 1 1/4 cup
Cardamom pods - 2, crushed
Rose Water - 1 tsp

Method:

Add the sugar, cardamom pods and water to a small saucepan.

Stir the sugar and dissolve in water.

Bring the sugar solution to a boil and remove from heat.

Pour the rose water and keep warm.

Mix the milk powder, all purpose flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

Prepare a dough out of the mix with whole milk, adding just enough to make the dry ingredients come together.

Make small balls of the dough and smoothen them into perfectly round balls.

Heat oil on a very low flame (*).

Carefully toss in a few balls at a time and fry them until golden brown.

Gently move them around with a slotted spoon so that they are evenly browned.

Drain the balls using the slotted spoon and put them in the warm sugar syrup.

Repeat for the remaining balls.

Allow the balls to soak in the sugar syrup until they are soaked through.

Serve cold or at room temperature.

Source: www.indianfoodforever.com

Tips:

1. While making the dough, be sure to add just enough whole milk.
2. To make shaping easier, grease your hands with oil which prevents the dough from sticking to your hands.
3. The sugar solution should be runny and not thick. Only then will the balls soak up the sugar solution and become plump. The syrup will thicken in time.
4. (*)The temperature is key while frying the jamuns. The oil should only be slightly warm when you put the first batch of dough balls. The balls should take a few minutes to pop up. This ensures that the balls are cooked through.
5. Do make smaller balls so that you can be sure that they are cooked through.
6. While frying the jamuns, always heat the oil on low flame.
7. The next time I make the jamuns, I would experiment by adding a bit more of the baking powder to see if it would make the balls more spongy and soft, which would almost melt in the syrup itself.
   

Have a great day, you all. I promise I would post more often now that I am a little bit settled. Dont miss out on any of the posts. My posts are not getting updated on Taste of India. So please check back often or subscribe to Tasty treats.