Gulab Jamun Recipe

This Gulab Jamun Recipe is made using milk powder and produces melt in your mouth soft gulab jamuns with the most perfect khoya like texture. You will never buy a box mix again nor will miss the texture of khoya after eating these!

I have shared all my tips and step by step instructions for you to recreate this wonder in the comfort of your own home. 

Try my Popular and easy Carrot Halwa Next. If you love kulfi, you are sure to fall for the flavors of this Kulfi Recipe. It is chock full of pistachios, saffron and cardamom. Find all Indian Sweets at one place on the blog.

This sweet was originated in Persia and was introduced in India by Mughals. Since those ancient years, this sweet has been a staple in Indian Celebrations like Diwali, Holi, Eid and many more!

Gulab means rose and jamun is a berry, the dessert is called such because it has fried dough balls that are berry sized dunked in a sweet rose flavored sweet syrup. Hence this name originated.

Lets quickly get into what you will need to make them-

Ingredients for gulab jamun:

• Milk Powder: Always full fat milk powder or dry milk to make Indian sweets like Peda and Burfi. We are replacing khoya in this sweet with milk powder, so we need to make sure to use full fat only. You will easily find it in Indian grocery stores.
• All Purpose Flour: You will need around 3 tablespoons of all purpose flour for this dough. I don't recommend replacing it with any other flours.
• Semolina: We will only need a small amount of semolina for this dough. It gives this sweet its signature texture, do not skip it either. 
• Baking Soda: A little baking soda reacts with yogurt and leavens the dough. Then when you fry the dough balls baking soda will make them puff up.
• Clarified Butter(Ghee): About a teaspoon, you can grease your hands with a little extra to prevent the dough from sticking to your hands while rolling the dough balls.
• Liquids: We will use just a little milk and some yogurt to form a soft dough. Yogurt will soften the dough and in turn your sweet will turn out super soft. Don't skip it. You won't taste yogurt or any sourness in the final outcome.

For Frying:

Ghee/Oil: You can fry the dough balls in oil or ghee as you like. Traditionally these balls are fried in ghee.

If you wish to use oil, you can also mix 3-4 tablespoons of ghee in that oil. This little trick will give this sweet that signature taste of ghee. 

For the Syrup:

Water: You will need water in equal quantity as sugar.

Sugar: Granulated sugar can also be replaced with organic sugar, coconut sugar or turbinado sugar. But flavor would be slightly different in that case.

To Flavor: Rose water and cardamom is typically used to flavor this sweet. A few strands of saffron (kesar) also add to the flavor.

Stuffing: you can stuff about a teaspoon of additional crushed nuts and flavorings to dough balls while rolling them. These stuffings can be cashews, pistachios, saffron and gulkand combined.

How to make this Sweet:

Make the Dough:

Measure all the dry ingredients correctly and keep the wet ingredients (milk and yogurt) at room temperature. Mix milk powder, apf, semolina and baking soda together and knead a soft dough by adding ghee, milk and yogurt to it.

Make sure to knead the dough with light hands and don't knead it too much. We don't want the dough to form gluten. As that can make the final product hard.

When this sweet is made with milk powder the final dough will be very sticky. Just scrape the dough from your hands using a spoon and then grease your hands with some more ghee. Now form a large ball of dough. 

Grease hands as needed in between while you roll the dough balls for frying. Make sur the rolled balls are free from any cracks.

Make Sugar Syrup:

Heat up sugar mixed with water in equal parts in a wide mouthed pan and bring it to a boil. You will need to simmer this syrup till it gets a sticky consistency. 

We are not looking for a one string consistency syrup here. To test if the syrup has reached the right consistency, hold some syrup between your index finger and thumb. Move the finger away from your thumb and you should be able to feel the stickiness in the syrup.

If you find the syrup to be watery and is not sticking to your fingers, cook it some more.

But also remember not to over cook it. If it starts forming strings, the fried dough balls won't be able to soak all the syrup when dumped in it. 

Fry the Dough Balls:

Now when it is time to fry dough balls, you need to keep the temperature of oil/ghee in check. You don't want it to be too hot.

If the oil/ghee is very hot the balls will quickly get a dark color on the outside while they will remain raw in the center.

To avoid this from happening, heat up the oil/ghee then lower the flame down once the oil gets hot. As you pour dough balls in the hot oil/ghee, they should sit at the bottom for a few seconds. Then they slowly rise up and you will notice small bubbles forming around these balls.

Keep moving oil in the pan with a spoon as the balls are getting fried. The idea is to keep moving the dough balls around in the pan so that they get even coloring from all sides.

Once you notice the jamuns are getting a nice and even reddish-brown color on them, remove them from oil. Strain them and directly pour them in syrup.

Dunk the Fried Balls in Sugar Syrup:

When you dip hot fried balls in the syrup, you need to make sure that syrup is hot as well. You don't want to give a temperature shock to those fried balls. Syrup shouldn't be boiling hot either. Or else the fried balls will shrink due to temperature shock.

Tips to make this sweet perfectly in the first try:

Use full fat Milk Powder: My experience says you can never make Indian desserts with a low fat milk powder. Always reach out for a full fat milk powder like Nido or Nestle when making Indian Sweets.

Don't over knead the dough: You don't want this dough to form gluten and yield a herd textured outcome after getting fried. So knead the dough with light hands only till it comes together.

Do not over-crowd the pan: These dough balls need a lot of space in the pan to move around and fry evenly. Crowding them can lead to breakage.

Fry dough balls over medium flame: Ideally the balls must take 7-8  minutes to fry in the pan. If your dough balls are getting a darker color before this time, your oil was over hot.

Make a sticky Sugar Syrup: We don't want the syrup to form strings, but we don't want it to be watery either. This syrup much be slightly sticky to touch. That is the perfect consistency of syrup for this sweet. 

If you liked this sweet or any other recipe, give it a star review. Do tell me in the comments below, how did this turn out for you!

And don’t forget to share your creations with me on Instagram at #greedyeatsblog Let's connect on Pinterest and Facebook too!

Recipe

Gulab Jamun

This Gulab Jamun Recipe is made using milk powder and produces melt in your mouth soft gulab jamuns with the most perfect khoya like texture.

5 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings 5 People

1x2x3x

Calories: 238kcal

Author: Neha

Equipment

• 1 Heavy Bottomed Pan (to fry dough balls)
• Wide Pot/Pan (for sugar syrup)

Ingredients

• ▢ 9 Tablespoons Milk Powder/Dry Milk (Full Fat, I used Nido)
• ▢ 3 and ½ Tablespoons All purpose flour
• ▢ ½ Tablespoons Semolina
• ▢ ¾ teaspoon Baking Soda
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Ghee (Clarified Butter)
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons Yogurt
• ▢ 2 Tablespoons Milk
• ▢ Ghee/Oil (For frying)

For Sugar Syrup:

• ▢ 1 Cup Water
• ▢ 1 and ¼ Cup Sugar
• ▢ 3-4 Cardamom Pods
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon Rose Water
• ▢ few Saffron Strands

Instructions

To make Sugar Syrup:

• Heat up sugar, water, cardamom pods and saffron strands in a wide mouthed pan with heavy bottom. Allow the syrup to come to a boil. Now simmer and cook for just a minute or two. You are looking for a consistency that's sticky. We do not want the syrup to reach one string consistency.
• To test the consistency of Syrup: Take just a small amount of syrup on a spatula or between your index finger and thumb. When you move your finger away from that drop of syrup, it must feel sticky and shouldn't be runny or forming strings.
• Set the syrup aside when it gets ready. Add rose water too and keep it covered.

To make Dough Balls:

• Add and mix well milk powder, all purpose flour, semolina and baking soda in a mixing bowl.
• Next add in ghee and room temperature yogurt to it. Now slowly add milk in 2-3 additions and form a dough kneading with light hands. The dough will be sticky. Grease your hands with some more ghee and form a large ball.
• Divide this dough into 10-12 dough balls with greased hands and roll them. Keep greasing your hands as needed while you roll these dough balls without any cracks. Keep them covered at all times to prevent them from drying out.

Frying the Dough Balls:

• Once you have rolled all the balls, it's time to fry them. Heat ghee/oil moderately, it shouldn't be too hot. Dropped dough balls should stay inside the ghee for a few seconds before rising up.
• As the dough balls rise up slowly you will notice small bubbles all around them. Turn the flame low-medium and keep stirring ghee/oil using a small stainless/wooden spoon at all times. This will rotate the ghee in pan and dough balls will get a uniform color as they fry.
• Frying one batch should take anywhere between 7-8 minutes. Once you notice a reddish brown color on each one of them, strain the balls of excess ghee/oil and they are ready to soak the syrup.

Dunking the Balls in Sugar Syrup:

• Drop the strained dough balls directly into moderately hot sugar syrup. The fried balls will float on the top surface of syrup for a few minutes. Then as they begin soaking syrup, these balls will submerge into the syrup. Allow fried balls to soak for 4-5 hours in the syrup before serving.
• Top with slivered pistachios and almonds. You can also garnish them with dried rose petals. Enjoy!

Notes

Troubleshooting:

• If your syrup turn too thick or starts forming strings, add about 2-3 tablespoons of water to it. Stir and reheat to obtain the right consistency again.
• If the dough sticks too much, grease your hands with ghee as needed while rolling each dough ball between your hands.
• The dough must not be too wet, but just soft enough for you to be able to roll crack free balls from it. If there are cracks on dough balls, they might burst opened when put into hot ghee.
• To check if the ghee/oil for frying is at right consistency, drop a small dough ball into it. If if doesn't rise instantly and browns too quickly, you are good to go. If you notice the oil is too hot, turn the flame off for a minute or two and then begin frying.
• Reheat the syrup till it gets moderately hot again before dumping hot fried dough balls into it.

Nutrition

Serving: 1Person | Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 56g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Sodium: 173mg | Sugar: 51g

Tried this recipe? Pin it for later!Mention @greedyeats or tag #Greedyeats!