Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is a traditional Indian dessert which is essentially a soft, fried dough ball soaked in sugar syrup. This has been one of my favorite desserts ever since I was little, so I finally decided to try to make it. 

Sugar Syrup: 

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 3-5 pods of ground cardamom
• pinch of saffron

Dough:

• 1 cup milk powder (I used non-fat)
• 4 tbsp all purpose flour
• 3 tbsp clarified butter (ghee) or unsalted butter
• 4-5 tbsp milk
• 1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients for the sugar syrup in a pot and boil. After it has boiled, keep it at a warm temperature. 
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients for the dough (milk powder, flour, and baking soda), and add in the melted butter/ghee. 
3. Start to slowly add about 4-5 tablespoons of milk, and continue adding it until the dough is soft and does not stick to the side of the bowl. 
4. Roll the dough into small balls. The gulab jamun balls will expand quite a bit when frying and when it absorbs the sugar syrup, so you want to keep that in mind when you are initially creating the balls.
5. Add oil into a frying pan, and heat it up to a medium hot temperature. Once it has warmed up, add a couple of gulab jamuns into it. They should initially sink down and float to the top in about 30 seconds. 
6. Fry the dough balls on medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until they turn golden brown. Keep turning them while frying so that they will cook evenly. 
7. Once they are fried, immediately soak them in the sugar syrup for about 10 minutes. You should see them swell and become bigger (as seen in the picture below). 
8. Strain the gulab jamun and they are ready to eat!

                                            Gulab Jamuns soaking in the sugar syrup.