No matter how many kinds of sweets, desserts and baked food one tries, our Indian taste sensibility always brings us back, craving for that simple, supple, juicy and khoya-laden brown sweetmeat called Gulab Jamuns. These remain our go-to ball of sweet joy that melts in the mouth. But the traditional process of making one is quite lengthy and time-consuming. So why not make use of the Instant Gulab Jamun mix available plentifully in the market? However, care needs to be taken while kneading the dough, like breaking the lumps in the powdered mix, adding milk slowly to it in 2 to 3 powder, and kneading in a rough dough. The focus shifts then to making a sugar syrup with perfect consistency, the right flavouring of cardamom and saffron, and sans impurities.
Interesting Stories Around The Origin Of Gulab Jamuns
There are multiple stories about the origin of Gulab Jamuns. While some attribute it to come to India from the Turkish dessert, Luqmat Al-Qadi, others believe it to have originated in the hands of one of the expert cooks of Shah Jahan. However, there’s also one more which claims Gulab Jamuns to belong to West Bengal and believes it to have originated from Pantua. According to this story, Lord Canning ordered a cook named Bhim Nag to make a special sweet, on the eve of his wife’s birthday in 1856 and thus came into being oblong shaped deep fried rasgullas named Pantua, which may have later become Gulab Jamuns.
Preparation: 40 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes
Servings: 40 Gulab Jamuns
Ingredients:
• 200 gm Instant Gulab Jamun Mix
• 120 ml milk
• Ghee or refined oil
For sugar syrup
• 4 cups sugar
• 4 cups water
• 2 tsp milk
• 3 cardamom pods
• A pinch of saffron strands
Method:
• Firstly make sugar syrup, by heating water and sugar until sugar dissolves.
• Then add milk and cook sugar syrup until it starts forming foam on the sides of the vessel. Turn off the flame and sieve the sugar syrup to filter impurities in the sugar.
• Then pour the sugar syrup again into the vessel and let it come to a boil.
• Add cardamom pods to it, boil for a minute and then add saffron strands to it and cook the syrup for 5-7 minutes on medium flame.
• Turn off the flame and keep the sugar syrup aside.
• Meanwhile, transfer the contents of the Instant mix to a bowl, add milk little by little and knead the mix into a tight dough.
• Apply ghee on your palms and make small balls out of gulab jamun dough, and deep fry them in hot oil on medium oil.
• Fry them until they become evenly dark golden on all sides and take them out on the plate.
• Immediately dip all the gulab jamuns in the sugar syrup and pour sugar syrup over them to let them soak the syrup.
• Serve after they cool down.
Saffron can be skipped in the recipe if it's not available, however adding it gives a nice flavour aroma and a beautiful yellowish tinge to the syrup. Take care not to knead and rub the dough mixture a lot. You can choose to knead the dough with either water or milk, but milk dough tastes richer after being cooked.