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.
Bhabhi,
I tried the Gulab jamun very tasty but the middle part is hard and tastes like dry flour any comments please let me know.
Mazee,
May be the dough was too dry add few more spoons of milk. Dough should be soft and then fry on low heat.
Hello Aunty,
Can I use 1% milk instead of whole milk for preparing dough??
Anu – I used 1% milk and they turned out just fine.
I watched your video three times and read through the recipe twice. I was making these to serve to guests so I was afraid of ruining everything.
I LOVE this recipe! By watching your video I was able to make these up just right the first time. I did, however, burn about 5 of them because my oil was too high, but that was easily remedied. I even tripled the batch and it still worked out just fine.
Alanis – I went with the recipe for the syrup Aunty used in the video (1c. water with 1 1/4c. sugar).
Everything turned out lovely and my guests devoured them (as did my Indian husband). Thank you so much!!
hi manjula aunty!
i tried 30 times gulab jamun recipes but very disappointed so finally i tried urs many many times but sometime they become hard from outside sometime from inside, i dont know where i go wrong. could u plz guide me
thanks
Aisha,
Gulab jamuns are fried on low heat if they are fried on high heat gulab jamuns will be hard, or may be you needed to add little bigger pinch of baking soda, or dough was very dry so you needed to add little more milk.
Hello Aunty,
I just loved your reciepe will try it today.
I never heard gulab jamun by milk powder as my mom always made it by using Khoya(Mawa) can you suggest by using this also..
Thank you….you are doing really great work
Smita,
In US we can not find khoya so here we use milk powder, this will never taste as made with khoya. I have never made gulab jamuns using khoya.
dear manjula aunty,
gulab jamuns have come out very nice,soft ,& tasty. thank you
[...] the recipe for gulab jamun from my favorite Indian recipe site, Manjula’s Kitchen. Gulab Jamun in Cardamon [...]
hi manjula anty.
today first time i view your site.really i like it specially sweets receipes.today i try your gulab jaman but i dont know why they are little powdery form,and not soft from inside..pls can you guide me,where i make mistake…
also today i try namak para/papri….really superb receipe.my 5 years daughter love it…..thank you…..
Saira,
May be dough was too dry, dough should be soft may be you have to use little more milk to dough then I recommended it happens.
Nemaste Munjila jii. I need som help from you. yesterday i tried to made gulab juman. Every things was perfect, but when i wanted to fry the rolls. The balls breaked and become like helwa. Could you please tell me what i did wrong. Nmashkar
Sara,
I think you put too much baking soda.
Thanks for sharing your recipes. I want to try this out, except I am a bit confused about the syrup quantities. In your video, you use 1 1/4 c sugar and 1 cup water, but the listed recipe says 1 3/4 c sugar and 1 1/2 cup water. Which is the preferred amount?
hi manjula, i hope u can answer my question so i can try out this recipe. thanks!
Alanis,
I missed your question please ask again.