Gulab jamun with khoya
An extremely popular Indian festive sweet, these homemade gulab jamuns with khoya are melt-in-the-mouth delicious. Rich, indulgent and yum you are not going to be able to stop yourself from multiple servings!
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot
- Sauce pan
Ingredients
To make to gulab jamuns
- 200 g khoya/mawa grated
- 4 tbsp plain flour maida
- 5 tbsp milk powder unsweetened
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 3-4 tbsp milk lukewarm
- 1 cup oil/ghee for deep frying
For the sugar syrup
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1½ cups water
- 4 green cardamom pods crushed
- 1 tsp saffron strands optional
Instructions
To make the sugar syrup
- In a saucepan, add the sugar and water and cook over medium heat until the sugar melts. Once it comes to boil, throw in the cardamom pods and saffron strands and cook for another 5-7 mins
- Remove in a larger bowl and set aside
Making the gulab jamun dough
- Take the grated khoya/mawa and knead it (for 3-4 minutes) gently until smooth and grain free. Add the milk powder, baking powder and plain flour to it
- Mix them all well and knead gently - do not over knead - just enough to combine all of them well. You need a soft, smooth dough. If required, gradually add milk to achieve a smooth, soft dough
- Cover with a muslin cloth and let it sit for 10-15 mins
- Pinch out lime sized portions from the dough and roll each of them between your palms to form smooth, crack free balls. These will swell up while soaking in the sugar syrup, so making smaller balls is recommended
- Keep the shaped balls covered, while the oil/ghee heats up
- Heat your cooking pot with the oil/ghee and once hot reduce the heat to low. Slide in the khoya balls - they will first sink in the oil/ghee and then gradually rise up. Using a ladle, gently move the balls around so that they are evenly brown all over
- Remove on absorbent kitchen towels, let it rest for 5-7 mins and then drop them in the warm sugar syrup. Let them sit in the syrup for at least 2 hours before serving
Serving suggestion
- Gulab jamuns are best served warm. They are also enjoyable served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Enjoy!
Notes
- If your khoya has been in the refrigerator, let it come to room temperature before starting with the recipe
- Grating the khoya and using it yields a better texture compared to crumbling it
- Ensure that your khoya balls are crack free otherwise they may disintegrate while frying
- It is imperative to fry the khoya balls in low to medium hot oil, otherwise they will brown from the outside very quickly leaving the insides uncooked
- The sugar syrup will thicken as it cools
- You need the gulab jamuns to be warm when dunking them in the sugar syrup. However, you can fry them up before hand and microwave them, until just warm, and then let them soak in the syrup too
- Make sure that the sugar syrup and the khoya balls are both slightly warm when dunking the latter in them
- You can store the gulab jamuns for up to 10 days in the refrigerator
- 1 cup = 250 milliliters
- tbsp - tablespoon (15 ml)
- tsp - teaspoon (5 ml)
- g - grams