Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamuns are spongy milky balls deep fried and soaked in rose scented syrup. This delicious sweet is liked by almost all Pakistani and Indian people. You can either serve them warm or cold depending on your own preference, Although I used khoya to make the jamuns, but no worries if you are unable to make khoya at home, you can also make them with powdered milk….

For the sugar syrup:

Sugar 1&1/2 cups

Water 2 cups

Green Cardamom pods 4 (or 1/4 tsp cardamom powder)

Yellow or orange food color 1/4 tsp

Rose water/essence 2-3 drops

Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cardamom pods, rose essence and food color and let it simmer on low heat for 4-5 minutes. Turn off the flame, Make sure it is warm or at room temperature.

Method 

Khoya 1 cup (you can use homemade or store bought)

Maids (plain flour) 1/2 cup

Baking Soda 1/8 tsp (a pinch)

Baking powder ¼ tsp

Mix the homemade Khoya, plain flour (maida) baking soda, and baking powder. Knead it well; you might need a few tsp of water to form smooth dough. Add one tsp at a time until you reach the correct dough consistency. Make small lemon sized balls of this dough, this is important since they will become large while deep frying and larger when soaked in syrup.

Frying the Jamuns:

Heat the oil on medium flame. Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low flame, keeping oil temperature uniform. While frying keep rolling the jamuns around so they are evenly browned. Once they get uniformly brown on all the sides, remove them from the oil with the help of slotted spoon. Leave them on kitchen paper for a few minutes before adding them to the sugar syrup

fry 3-4 jamuns together depending on the size. But make sure not to crowd them since it would bring down the temperature of the oil/ghee and the result would not be that good and the jamuns won’t be cooked inside and might end up being soggy. Drop all the fried jamuns in the syrup and let it soak for at least 30 minutes to an hour.