Balushahi (Indian Buttermilk Donut)
Balushahi! This is a North Indian delicacy- a classic dessert which can be found in every street corner sweet shop. Balushahi is flakey from the outside and soft from inside. They literally just melt in your mouth. This is a perfect sweet for any festive occasion!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 cup all purpose flour (maida or plain flour)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter cold cut into small pieces or cold clarified butter ghee
- 1/4 cup yogurt cold(curd, dahi)
Syrup
- 1 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 4 cardamom pods crushed
For Garnish
- About 1 tablespoons sliced pistachios
Instructions
Syrup
- In a sauce pan add water, sugar, and cardamom over medium heat, bring it to a boil. Let it simmer until syrup is almost to one thread on candy thermometer it should be 215 degree. Set aside.
Balushahi
- In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda and baking powder.
- Add butter mix with your fingers, mixture should be crumby.
- Add the yogurt slowly as needed making into soft dough. Do not knead the dough.
- Cover the dough and let it sit for about half an hour.
- Take the dough and knead just enough to hold it together.
- Divide the dough into 12 equal parts.
- Make the dough balls, Balls will not be very smooth and will have cracks all around; make a deep dent in the center of the balls.
- Heat the oil in a flat frying pan over low heat.
- The frying pan should have about 1 ½ inch of oil. To check if oil is ready put a little piece of dough in the oil. It should make oil lightly sizzle, if dough float oil is too hot.
- Place the Balushahi in the frying pan don’t overcrowd as Balushahi will expend to about 1-1/2 time and they should not overlap.
- It should take about 2 minutes before Balushahi will come up. Wait another 3-4 minutes before turning over Balushahi should be light brown from bottom. Fry the Balushahi until they are golden brown from both sides; do not turn more then three times. This should take about 10 minutes. Balushahi will look very flakey If the Balushahi are fried on high heat, they will not be cooked inside.
- Take them out over layered of paper towel so it can absorb the extra oil.
- Dip Balushahi in the syrup all around and remove them. Don’t leave them in syrup.
- Mouthwatering flaky Balushahis are ready and looking great read. Garnish them with pistachios.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
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Thank you the receipe. Please tell me how to store these balushahis? For how many days i can store them ? I have to travel by train with this.
Mahee, Balushahi should be good for five to six days
Hii manjula!!
I have added 1/2 tablespoon on baking spda and 1/2 tablespoon of baking powder in 1/2 kg of maida…due to which when I put balushahi in oil, it is melting!! Will u please suggest what should I do
Hello Manjula ji
I tried this recipe for Diwali and it turned out very good and delish! Thank you so very much for all the wonderful recipes you share.
with warm regards,
Meera
Meera, thank you
hi Aunty
can I increase count by changing the quantity to double ?
2 cups of maida and 1/2 cup butter and dahi???
pls advise
Ankur, that will work I have done many time.
my balushahi came out really bad any suugestions about wat can I do with it. don’t want to throw it away
thanks
meenal
Meenal, sorry but I need to know more why it happened
Plz also tell that should I dip balushahi in the syrup rightaway or should wait to let it cool down first, and should the syrup on heat at that time or not?
Mona, syrup should be hot not boiling, you can dip the balushahi warm or at room temperature. Some time I want to serve them warm I make them before but dip in the hot syrup just before serving.
Hi,
I made balushahi at a very low heat, and it absorbed alot of oil, second problem was that it came out flaky outside but not from inside,
please help, I love balushahi and want to make it perfectly at home.
Mona, I think you knead the dough, and yes they do absorb the oil after frying take them out over few sheets of paper towel or over the wire rack, This is one of those sweets
How to store balushai without fridge, I put in the air tight container on third day it becomes soggy Please help
Sonia, leave them on plate for 2-3 hours before you put them in container, any snack before putting in container they should be at room temperature.
I meant 2-3 years, not 5 years! Sorry!
Hi Ma’am
I am a regular follower of your recipes ..In desserts , the only thing i don’t like is that you advise to fry in oil which we find incorrect, all indian sweets are always fried in GHEE not never in oil….keep posting yr recipes , we love the way to give demo…
LOVE YOUR RECPIES!!!
Amazing taste wow best chef ever
Thanks
Hi Manjula Aunty,
Can you please tell me for how long can we store Balushahi for (in the refrigerator)?
Diksha,
For at least a month
Aunty my aunty she is a good fan of urs… she always try ur recipe n it turns out very well… so can u plz send me a recipe of gewour .. I think its a gujrathi sweet .
Hi Manjula,
I have seen Balushahi in sweet shops and in appearance it is soft. Hope you have got my point. My question is how make shop quality Balushahi?
Thanks Manjula Madam for such a wonderful recipe. My husband like balushahi very much and when i made your recipe he was all praise for me and the credit for this goes to you. I deeply follow and try your recipe. Once again thank u for making this recipe look so easy.
Hi Manjula Aunty,
Balushahi is a very popular sweet in my family, so I was happy to see this recipe on your youtube channel and as it was so simple I decided to try it straight away.
The balushahi turned out amazing. Everyone liked them a lot. My mum actually said they are the best balushahi she has ever tried.
So thank you so much for this recipe.
Take care
Happy Diwali Aunty!
I made your balushahi today. Although it tasted great ,it did not look like yours. Some of my balushahi broke into pieces when I put them in oil for frying. Why do you think this happened?
I followed your recipe 100%. The only think that was different was that I used homemade yogurt and it looked watery than yours. D you think this might be the reason for balushahi breaking up?
Thanks
shalini,
May be baking soda or baking powder was little too much.
Dear Manjula Aunty
Happy Diwali. Thank you for this wonderful recipe. I made Delicious Balusahi for diwali 2012 following your recipe. My husband and all of my friends who i distributed that to, enjoyed it and appreciated very much.
I love the way how you make complicated recipes simple and make it easier for us.
I’m a big fan of your recipes and introduced a few of your recipes to my friends out of which Baklava became so popular. I’m sure that Balusahi is going to beat Baklava and its going to be even popular.
Thank you once more for all the delicious recipes.
With a lots of Thanks and Appreciation
Saritha
Hi Ms Manjula
Loved the recipe …. Just a lil thought…in the video u have said 1/4 cup of unsalted butter …but here u have written 1/8 th cup of unsalted butter….may be a typing error…as I followed the video and the Balushahi came out wonderful…..
Thanks for the wonderful recipes …especially for all of us who are in US….eating good sweets would be a dream without your site.
With lots of regards…
Niharika
Niharika,
Thank you for pointing out the mistake it should be 1/4 cup, I am correcting the written recipe.
Thanks for giving this beautiful recipe. It looks really yummy. I”’ tell my mom to try this during Navaraatri Season.
Find proper Cookware for healthier cooking at borosil
Thanks,
Krishnendu
Was looking for this recipe for a long time. Finally I got it. Thanks a lot.
Manjula Aunty, I’ve alway wanted to make balushahi, will definitely try it out. In the stores, they have balushahi with a layer of white sugar crystal on top, how is that done?
@Kiran, when the balu shahi gets cooled down, the syrup makes a white layer around. if the syrup is thick, the white layer will be thicker.
Thanks Sonal. Will definitely try this recipe.