Happy 2016 you’ll ❤
And in the New Year, I reiterate what I always say- Mommies are the best! Mine knows of my madness to recreate restaurant style dishes at home and got me this Gulab Jamun recipe straight from a halwai (professional Indian sweet maker). The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity and the fact that it never fails you! No hard stone like balls, no uncooked centres and no crumbly dough, this is simple perfection. Love you Ma for giving me the recipe for this copper-hued, melt in the mouth goodness!

Gulab Jamuns are  sure to attend all Indian weddings and celebratory occassions and real easy to make at home.No gulab/rose in them, but called so because of their possible Persian origin where ‘gul-aab’ means rose water, which may have been used to flavour the sugar syrup.  Jamun, they say, refers to its  dark colour. It is a milk solid (khoya and paneer)  based fried round dumpling, getting  its dark red colour becasuse of the Khoya/mawa/milk fudge used to make it.

To get 20 medium Gulab Jamuns you need

500 grams of Khoya/Mawa ( I make my own khoya. Find my simple recipe here. Store bought khoya can be used instead)
125 grams maida/all purpose flour/plain flour
160 grams paneer/cottage cheese (the halwai’s instructions were to get paneer from 1 ½ kilos of whole milk. I got 162 grams of paneer. I always make paneer at home. Find the procedure here)
500 grams of desi ghee to fry the jamuns (yeah, Gulab Jamuns have to be fried in ghee, there is no other way. Any other way is blasphemy 😛 )

For the sugar syrup
Boil one litre of water with 750 grams of sugar till the sugar melts completely and the liquid reaches a rolling boil.
Add one teaspoon powdered ilaichi/cardamom and some crushed saffron strands if you like

For the Gulab Jamuns
Mix all the three ingredients very well till you have a smooth dough.
Roll out into balls. I use tablespoon measure to get equal sized balls. Fry on a medium flame till they reach a beautiful copper colour.
I use a heavy bottomed milk pan with a handle to fry the jamuns. This helps me stir them without having to touch them in the early part of frying. This way there is no risk of breaking them
Dip into sugar syrup for 30 minutes at least.

Serve hot or grab cold from the fridge, they are always yummy yum!
Make them this winter and impress 😀
Love
Garima