Gulab jamun with khoya

• Khoya (room temperature) – 1 cup – 200 gms
• All purpose flour – 2 tbsp
• Baking soda – a pinch
• Salt – a pinch
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Water – ¾ cup
• Saffron – 2 strands (optional)
• Cardamom powder – a pinch – to taste
• Lemon/lime juice – 1 tsp
• Oil/ghee – 1 cup – for frying

Dough

• Gently mix together, khoya at room temperature, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt to a crumble like texture
• Then knead it with light hands so that the mixture forms into a dough texture. If the dough seems dry while kneading, add 1 tbsp water at a time.
• Set the dough aside for 5-10 minutes.

Sugar syrup

• Meanwhile, to a deep pan on medium flame, stir in sugar and water till it forms one string consistency. Once it starts to thicken, add the cardamom powder and saffron strands.
• As soon as the sugar syrup turns into one string consistency, stir in, the lemon/lime juice just to prevent crystallization of the sugar on cooling.

Making balls

• Roll the dough to small balls, without applying much pressure and cover the balls with a wet cloth to prevent from drying.
• Heat another pan, with oil/ghee for frying. The oil must only be medium hot, so that the balls are cooked inside out.
• Deep fry the balls, making sure that the balls are evenly cooked.
• Drain them on to a kitchen tissue to remove excess oil/ghee and then transfer it to warm sugar syrup.
• Set aside for at least 2 hours before refrigerating to make sure that the balls are completely soaked in the sugar syrup.

• The consistency of the dough is neither dry nor loose. It should be a little tougher than the chapathi dough.
• In case the dough feels looser than it should be, knead in, 1 tbsp of rawa/semolina, and set aside for 30 mins- 1 hour.
• The size of the ball should be small as it will double up in size while frying.
• Chopped, pistachios and almonds can be used for garnishing.
• The sugar syrup can be set on low flame once the lemon/lime juice is added, to keep the sugar syrup warm till the balls are added into them.