Gulab Jamun
December 23rd, 2006 filed under Desserts
Gulab jamuns are an Indian version of donuts immeresed in the warm sweet syrup. Served as a dessert, this is a staple in most parts of India.
Makes 20.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup nonfat milk powder
- 1/4 cup All Purpose flour (plain flour, maida)
- 3 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup room temperature whole milk
- Pinch of baking soda
- 1 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cup water
- 4 coarsely grounded cardamom seeds
- 1 tablespoon sliced almonds and pistachio
- Oil for deep-frying
Method:
Syrup:
- In a large pan, add water, sugar, and ground cardamom seeds and bring it to a boil.
- Let the syrup boil for a minute then remove it from the heat.
- Stir the syrup until the sugar is dissolved.
- Set the syrup aside.
Gulab Jamun:
- In a bowl, mix milk powder, flour and baking soda.
- Add the butter and mix well.
- Now add milk to make soft dough. The dough will be sticky.
- Let the dough sit for a few minutes. Milk powder will absorb the extra milk. If the dough is dry, add more milk, as the dough should be soft.
- Knead the dough. Grease your hands with butter before working with the dough.
- Divide the dough into about 20 equal portions and roll them into round balls.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat. The frying pan should have at least 1 ½ inch of oil. To test if the oil is the right temperature, place a small piece of dough into the oil; it should take a minute to rise. If dough rises faster, oil is too hot; if dough just sits without rising, oil is not hot enough.
- Place the gulab Jamuns in the frying pan. Note: remember gulab jamuns will expand in double the volume, so give them enough space.
- It should take about 7 minutes to fry the gulab jamuns. While frying keep rolling the gulab jamuns around so they are evenly browned. Fry until the gulab jamuns become dark brown.
- Let the gulab jamuns cool off for a few minutes before placing in the hot syrup.
- The gulab jamuns should sit in the hot syrup for at least 20 minutes prior to serving. Gulab jamuns can be kept at room temperature for about a week and up to one month when refrigerated. Gulab jamuns can be frozen for months.
Tips:
- If the gulab jamuns are fried on high heat, they will become hard inside and not fully cooked.
- Too much baking soda will cause the gulab jamuns to get too soft or they will break apart when frying.
- Don’t place the gulab jamuns in the syrup immediately after frying. This will cause the gulab jamuns to lose their shape and become chewy.
Variations:
- Using the same recipe, make slightly smaller gulab jamuns (say, 24 instead of 20). After the gulab jamuns are soaked in the syrup, take gulab jamuns out of the syrup and roll them in ½ cup of unsweetened coconut powder. Also, you can substitute coarsely ground almonds for the coconut powder.
- Using the same recipe, make about 10 larger gulab jamuns. Cut the gulab jamuns in half when they are at room temperature. Garnish with sliced almonds and pistachios.
Hello Aunty! Thank you so much for the Gulab Jamun recipe. I have finally mastered it after so many attempts from other recipes. It turned out perfect. My family loved it. Many thanks….
Love,
Dimpal
Hi Manjula aunty,
Thanks for the awesome recipe! But I’m doing something wrong..I literally tried the recipe 4 times and the gulab jamuns tasted great except that they are CHEWY…kind of taste like rubbery/spongy when you bite. I did not put the gulab jamuns immediately into the syrup after frying. The dough that I made was very soft and very-2 sticky.
Please help me out!! And, I will try this for the 5th time…
ThAnK YoU sO mUcH!
Joti
namaste manjulaji
please tell me how to make yogert with euro cuisine yogurt starter. i already bouth pouches of it but i did not understand how to use it.
thanks
anjali
Anjali, if you just Google “euro cuisine yogurt” all kinds of information comes up including a variety of instructions. Give that a try. Or go back to the store you bought it from and see if someone there knows how to use the machine and can explain it to you. Good Luck.
hello aunty..i just want to ask if i can use brown sugar or powdered sugar instead??
Fati,
I have never tried that; if you try please let us know the out come.
I made the gulab jamuns with the above recipe. They were good except for the fact that their brown skin was hard. I fried them at the right tempearture as suggested above. And Soaked them in room temperature syrup. Any suggestions to make my Gulab Jamuns soft???
Manjusha Aunty,
I have Milk-Mawa powder (deep) at home. Can I substitue that for whole milk and non-fat milk powder? In other words, can I use 1 1/4 cups of milk mawa powder with 1/4 cup of all purpose flour to make jamuns?
Please reply soon.
Prema.
Prema,
I have never tried Milk- Mawa so I can not tell you how it will work.
hi manjula,
i was wonderin if i could use baking powder instead of baking soda. If so, cud you please let me know how much i should use.
thnks
[...] I rode the bus home totally overexcited. At home, Joel and I practiced making Indian Donuts – Gulab Jamun – for our housewarming party. We also made our own cheese with the help of Mark Bitman, and it [...]
non fat milk powder is not available in india. what can i use. i tried twice with nestle everyday dairy whitner and amul. but it was not good please help
I don’t know what all is available in India as I am in the US.
Namaste Aunti-ji,
I was wondering if there is something I can use besides milk powder, i do not have any in the house.
Shukriya,
Cynthia
hai
you my use mida and kova instead of milk powder i guss u will not even need water to make the dough ,if wanted you can use some milk