Gulab Jamun with Milk Powder
Gulab jamun doesn’t need any introduction! In its authentic preparation, mawa is the key ingredient but its not generally readily available and you need to prepare it at home. So to make things easier, this step by step photo recipe explains how to make Gujab Jamun with milk powder. The main difference between gulab jamuns made from milk powder and gulab jamuns made from mawa is the texture; milk powder gulab jamuns have little porous texture from inside while mawa gulab jamuns have smoother texture.
If you are staying at a place where mawa is not easily available or you don’t want to make it at home, we recommend you to try this gulab jamun with milk powder recipe as milk powder is easily available at every grocery store. Making gulab jamun with milk powder requires the person to be comfortable with cooking and little experience since it requires perfect dough consistency and deep frying process for perfect texture. With the guidance of stepwise photos, detailed explanation of each step and tips given below, you will be able to make melt in the mouth gulab jamuns at home in just 30 minutes.
| Ingredients: |
| 1 cup Sugar |
| 3 Green Cardamom pods |
| 1½ cups Water |
| 1-2 drops of Lemon Juice, optional |
| 1/4 cup Milk Powder |
| 1/4 cup Maida (all purpose flour) |
| 1/8 teaspoon (a small pinch) Baking Soda |
| 1 tablespoon Ghee |
| 2-3 tablespoons Milk |
| Oil or Ghee, for deep frying |
Directions:
- Take 1-cup sugar, 3 green cardamom pods, 1½ cups water and 1-2 drops of lemon juice in a deep pot or pan. Lemon juice is added to prevent syrup from solidifying when it cools.
- Heat it over medium flame and cook until it reaches 1/2 string consistency or turns little sticky while stirring occasionally in between. It will take around 8-10 minutes over medium flame to reach the required consistency. When sugar syrup is ready, turn off the flame.
- Take 1/4 cup milk powder, 1/4 cup maida and 1/8 teaspoon baking soda in a wide mouthed bowl.
- Mix it well with a spoon and then add 1-tablespoon ghee.
- Mix well. Use your hand to mix it so that ghee mixes evenly with milk powder.
- Sprinkle 2 tablespoons milk evenly over mixture and gently mix it.
- If required, add few more teaspoons of milk and mix lightly. Mixture should be soft. It may be sticky but do not worry about it. Do not over mix or knead the mixture, just lightly mix it. If you over mix it, gluten forms and jamun will turn dense and will not absorb sugar syrup properly.
- Grease your palms with oil and divide mixture into marble sized small portions (around 9-10). Take each portion and make a round shaped crack free ball from it. If crack appears, it means mixture is dry. Add a teaspoon of milk (or few drops of milk) to the mixture, mix well and make the ball. Do not make larger balls as its size will increase to almost double after deep frying and soaking in sugar syrup.
- Heat the ghee or oil for deep frying in a deep kadai or a small pan over medium flame. When oil is medium hot, pinch a small portion of mixture and drop it into hot oil, if it comes upward immediately without changing its color the oil is medium hot and ready for deep frying. (If it comes upward immediately and turns brown then oil is too hot and needs to be cooled a bit, if it doesn’t come upward then oil is not hot enough and needs to be heated little bit more.) Slowly drop 3-4 balls (according to the size of a kadai) from sides of a kadai and reduce the flame to low.
- Stir gently with a slotted spoon and deep fry over low flame. Within 2-3 minutes their color will start to turn light golden.
- Deep fry until they turn golden brown, it will take around 6-7 minutes. Transfer them over to kitchen napkin to absorb excess oil using slotted spoon. Maintain the temperature of oil even by increasing or decreasing the flame to medium or low. Increase the flame to medium and deep fry remaining balls as mentioned in step-9, 10 and 11.
- Heat the sugar syrup for 3-4 minutes and add deep fried jamuns in it. Keep the jamuns in syrup for at least 2 hours before serving to allow it to absorb the syrup properly. You will notice their increase in size as syrup gets absorbed. Jamuns are ready for serving at this time.
Tips and Variations:
- To reduce the cooking time, before starting to make balls from the mixture in step-8, start heating ghee or oil for deep frying in a deep kadai or a small pan over medium flame so that when the balls are ready, it will hot enough for deep frying in step-9.
- If you overcook the sugar syrup by mistake, it will turn hard when it cools. If that happens, add little water, stir well and cook again for few minutes to get the right consistency of syrup.
- Do not over mix or knead the mixture into dough in step-7 to prevent jamuns from turning hard.
- Do not change the quantity of baking soda to prevent them from turning chewy.
- Deep fry the jamun over medium-low flame for proper frying.
- To check whether oil is hot enough or not for deep frying, follow this – when oil is medium hot, pinch a small portion of mixture and drop it into hot oil, if it comes upward immediately without changing its color the oil is medium hot. If it comes upward immediately and turns brown then oil is too hot. If it doesn’t come upward and dips to the bottom of pan then oil is not hot enough.
- Add saffron strands or rose petal in sugar syrup for variation in flavor.
Taste: Sweet with mild fragrance of cardamom
Serving Ideas: Serve warm gulab jamun with vanilla ice cream as a dessert in party or serve it as a sweet with meal.