Be it any occasion Gulab Jamun is one homely dessert and for me it brings many nostalgic memories. My grandma is an expert in making these and I learned this from her. She always makes them with homemade kova and never goes for any store bought short cuts and believes the best tasting jamuns comes from homemade kova and I can never disagree on it after eating so many of them all my life…. 😛 Today i will be sharing the recipe passed on to me from her and hope you will enjoy making for this diwali!
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| Ingredients for the dough | |
| Homemade Kova / Khoya / Mawa | 1 cup (room temperature) |
| Maida | 2 & 1/2 tablespoons |
| Cooking soda | 1/8 teaspoon |
| Ghee or Vanaspati | 1 teaspoon (room temperature) |
| Water | 1- 2 tablespoons (or as needed) |
| Oil | 3 cups (for deep frying) |
| Almonds (optional) | a few (slivered, for decoration) |
| Ingredients for Sugar Syrup | |
| Sugar | 1 & 1/2 cup |
| Water | 1 & 1/2 cup |
| Orange Food color (kesari color) | a pinch |
| Cardamon powder | a pinch |
| Rose essence | a drop |
To make homemade Kova / Khoya / Mawa – Refer Homemade kova recipe.
First, take 1 teaspoon ghee or vanaspati in a bowl and add cooking soda to it. Rub nicely to mix… either use your hand or mix with a spoon to make it frothy.
Add in kova / khoya to it and mix well. Add in maida little by little to form a soft dough. It will appear like bread crumbs initially.
Sprinkle water and gather the dough to knead it. Do not apply to much pressure, just knead to make a soft dough. Cover with a cloth or plate and let it rest for 10 minutes. Then take a small portion andmake balls by rolling between your palms. Make a smooth ball without any cracks. Keep the dough balls ready for frying. You can either shape them round or longitudinal. Do not make them too big, it will be not cook properly.
Now lets make the sugar syrup. Heat sugar and water in a pan over medium flame.
The sugar will melt and it will come to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 8 to 10 minutes. The syrup will thicken a bit and will look sticky. Switch off at this stage.
Add in cardamon powder and food color and mix gently. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai and start frying the jamuns.
Heat oil on one side and start frying the jamuns over low medium heat. Fry 3- 4 in one batch, do not over crowd. You may fry in ghee / oil depending your preference, I have used regular oil for deep frying.
Deep fry them till dark brown on the outside. Make sure you constantly stir, turn & move the jamuns in the oil to cook & brown them evenly.
They will look slightly burnt in color but once soaked in syrup they get their glowing golden color. Once done, remove from oil and drain excess oil by placing them over a paper towel.
Then immediately soak them in the prepared warm sugar syrup. Add in the rose essence at this stage and let it sit for atleast few hours to absorb the syrup. Sprinkle slivered almond or any nuts of your choice and serve them warm or at room temperature or with ice cream.
Notes
- Makes 20 small jamuns approx (depending on the size)
- To perfectly cook the jamun, always fry them over very low medium flame. High flame will brown the outer layer and inner dough will be be uncooked.
- Do not fry too many jamun the same time. Fry 3 to 4 in a single batch, depending on the size of th epan and oil used.
- Adding too much maida can make the dough very stiff and makes the jamun hard. I have mentioned 2 & 1/2 tablespoons and if your kova is more on the wet side then it may absorb more.
- Make sure your cooking soda is active, otherwise your jamun will not cook properly. Do not use old cooking soda.
- The sugar syrup should be warm when you add the jamun otherwise they won’t absorb the syrup properly.
- Adding food color is optional but gives the syrup a light orange tinge.
- Nuts are optional, used just for decoration.
- Gulab- refers to rose and hence a few drops of rose essence is added to flavor the syrup.
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