Sunday, March 8, 2009

Mouth watering Gulab jamuns

Gulab jamuns are the most popular dessert of our country. Those soft dumplings soaked in the sugar syrup would make anyone crave for more. Hot gulab jamuns along with ice cream is my husband's favourite combination. Its very easy to make these gulab jamuns from scratch. In India we used to make them with the khova. But after coming here I started using the non-fat dry milk instead of the khova. They are real treat for both our eyes and tongue: 0)





Ingredients:
(Yields 10 medium sized jamuns)

3/4 cup non-fat dry milk
2 tsp all purpose flour
1 tbsp ghee
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp +1 tsp yogurt
oil/ghee for deep frying

For the sugar syrup

2 cups water
2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp cardomom powder
few drops of rose essence

Combine the dry milk, flour, baking soda and ghee together and start crumbling. Then add the Yogurt little by little and start to knead. The dough should be soft but not too sticky so just add enough yogurt to make the dough, don't add all at once. Cover it with a wet cloth or tissue and let it rest for 5 mins.

Mean while boil the sugar and water together to make thin sugar syrup. Add the cardamom powder and rose essence to the syrup for flavour.

Heat oil/ghee in a pan. When you fry the jamuns, the temperature of the oil is very important. It should not be too hot as that would cause uneven cooking. So to check if the oil is hot enough, just drop a pinch of the dough into the oil. If the dough stays down in the oil before rising to the top of the oil then you can start frying the jamuns at medium to low flame. While frying the jamuns make sure to keep stirring the oil with a spoon continously as that would ensure even coloring. Once they turn golden remove the jamuns from the oil and drain them on a paper towel. Let the jamuns cool before adding them to the sugar syrup. Add the jamuns to the hot syrup and allow them to soak for at least 1 1/2 hrs before serving. You can serve them at room temperature or slightly warm them before serving. As I told you earlier, hot gulab jamuns with ice cream is a killer combination so please do try them and let me know how you like it:)