Gulab Jam (Gulab Jamun)

We call them “Gullus” at home 🙂 cuz the family favorite dessert certainly needs a sweet pet name!

Sunita Aji made the BEST Gualb Jamuns. This is one dessert that I don’t make a blanket statement about. I don’t think I can just say “I love gulabjam” I only love ones made with my Aji’s recipe. Now although the main ingredient in Sunita Aji’s gulabjams was the special khawa she got from Sangli. She would not make gulab jams with any other khawa, as she thought it was a waste of time and calories, and I have to agree. But obviously, its not always practically possible to get khawa from Sangli 😛 Also, honestly her other secret ingredient makes fabulous gulab jamuns with any khawa. this secret ingredient is Kanik or atta! yes, using whole wheat flour instead of maida when making the dough makes more khamang (sorry cant really translate this word!) gulab jamuns 🙂

Please take my word – they are only slightly more work (basically pulling 4-5 ingredients instead of opening a box is the only difference) than making them with a premix and WAY better tasting. So please please give this recipe a chance, the next time you are planning to make them and skip the box mix!

You will need:

250 g khawa/ mawa – at room temp, fresher the better

1/2 cup (65 g) atta (whole wheat flour – fine)

1 tsp fine sooji

Whole milk (little bit as needed to bind the dough)

a pinch of salt and baking soda

For the sugar syrup

2 cups Sugar

2-2.5 cup water

cardamom powder, a pinch

saffron

Ghee for frying (you can also use refined oil for frying, but gulab jam made in ghee taste exponentially better and trust me they do not soak up any fat)

Procedure:

• Make sure the khawa/ mava is completely at room temperature and soft.
• Mix the atta, sooji, salt and soda in the softened khava and start combining into a soft ball of dough. Add milk, one spoon at a time, to make the dough

• the dough should be sift to touch and foram a smooth homogenous ball of dough. you should easily be able to press into it.
• The sooji acts like a buffer, absorbing any excess moisture and helps in making sure your gulabjams don’t disintegrate while frying
• Set the dough aside to rest, covered, for 1/2 an hour

• While the dough rests, make the sugar syrup – combine the sugar and water and start boiling – let simmer for 5 minutes – the syrup should be just a little sticky to touch, you do not want to let this thicken.
• Next add in a pinch of cardamom powder and saffron to the syrup and set aside. you may need to heat it back up once your gulabjams are done frying, as the syrup needs to be warm when dunking in the fried gulabjams.

• Once the dough has rested well, make small balls with it and arrange them on a plate. Make pretty small balls – they will double in size at the end of the process (they will puff up during frying and bulge some more after soaking in the syrup)
• Simultaneously, start heating ghee in a pan on low flame. I like to fry in a shallow pan, that way you can fry more gulabjams at once in less volume of oil.
• If made well, gulab jams made with this recipe will not soak up any ghee! they will come out dry and you will notice the level of ghee in the pan barely changes at the end of it.
• Test the ghee for hotness with a tiny ball of dough, it should bubble and come to the top – this means the ghee is the right temperature. Start frying the balls on a low-medium flame. if you cook them on high flame, they will brown but remain undercooked insode and will dimple/ buckle when you add them to the syrup

• Keep turning them in the ghee to make sure they are evenly browned
• you can make them in any shade you like – light golden to dark brown, I personally like rich dark brown gulab jamuns. Most people enjoy a medium fry, hence you will see a variety of colors in my pot!!
• Once done frying transfer them on a dish lined with some paper towels just for a few seconds and immediately transfer to the hot sugar syrup and dunk them in with a spoon.
• Fry them in batches of 8-10 and keep transferring to the syrup
• Be careful to use separate spoons for the dunking and frying!

• Let the Gulab jamuns soak in the syrup for 5-6 hours until the syrup comes to room temperature completely. After this point you can store them in the refrigerator.
• Warm slightly before serving