Gulab Jamun with Milk Powder | Gulab Jamun | Diwali Sweets

Gulab Jamun, a delicious milk based Indian Sweet ! It's traditionally made with khoya(milk solids) and today we're taking the shortcut and using milk powder to make this delicious sweet without compromising on taste ! 

Gulab Jamun and Murukku are the two must dishes that we made for Diwali while we grew up !  Without those two,  Diwali seems incomplete in our home. I remember that on one diwali, due to some other outside chores  Amma wasn't able to make Gulab jamun on the day before diwali. On Diwali day, i kept on pestering her and finally around 8 PM she made the gulab jamun. Still I can't imagine Diwali without Gulab jamun and make them on every diwali without fail.

As i have already posted the Khoya Jamun  recipe before , i thought of making milk powder jamun for this year. It's way better than store brought mix and it's  almost as soft as khoya jamun. Give a try to this easy way of making home made jamun for this diwali and enjoy with your family. 

Gulab Jamun with Milk Powder

Preparation Time : 10 mins+2 hrs soaking time | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 22 Jamuns 
Recipe Category: Sweets | Recipe Cuisine: Indian Gulab Jamun Using Milk Powder, Easy Gulab Jamun Soft and juicy gulab jamun using milk powder.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Milk Powder - 1 cup
Curd - 2 tbsp
Baking Soda - a fat pinch
Maida/All Purpose flour - 11/2 tbsp
Oil/ Ghee - 1 tbsp
Oil - for deep frying
For Sugar Syrup
Sugar - 1 1/4 cup
Water - 1 3/4 cup
Cardamon - 2
Saffron - few strands

Procedure

In a bowl, add milk powder, baking soda and all purpose flour , mix well till all ingredients incorporated well.

Add oil(1 tbsp) & curd into milk powder mixture, mix it well with your hands, then add enough water and make a smooth dough. Don't knead well, mix till all ingredients became single mass. Let it aside for 5 mins, then make small balls from the dough.

In the mean time, add sugar and water in a pan for making sugar syrup, let it bring to boil and then add crushed cardamom and saffron.

Let it boil for 5 mins and the syrup turns light yellow in color, switch off the flame and keep it aside. In another sauce pan, heat oil for deep frying jamun.

When  the oil is medium heated (if you drop a piece of dough, it takes fews to come up), add the jamun and with laddle, rotate the jamun for even coloring.

Once the jamun is browned,drain the jamun from oil  and place it on tissue paper, within few secs, transfer into sugar syrup. 

Do the same for the remaining jamun and let it soak for at least 2 hrs. Tasty & soft jamun is ready.

Related : How to make Badam Katli

Notes:

• Curd and baking soda is must for soft jamun.
• Both Jamun and Syrup should be warm,it helps jamun to absorb sugar syrup well.
• While make balls from the dough, dont give too much pressure, it will leads to hard jamun.
• The oil shouldn't be smoky at any time of cooking jamun.
• I have number setting in my stove top and i use 4 throughout the cooking process of jamun, that means in between low and medium.
• If the jamun becomes brown within a sec, it means your oil temperature is high, reduce it and proceed, Other wise the inside of the jamun will be raw.
• It takes minimum of 3- 4 mins to cook one batch of jamun.
• The cooking time varies depends on the size of the jamun.
• Rotating the jamun  while cooking helps to get even coloring.
• Grease your hands with ghee or oil while rolling the balls.

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Gulab Jamun with khoya

I like sweets a lot,so when i got married  and have my own kitchen and no one to supervise :-) , i tried lot of sweets. At first, many turns out disaster. Even i felt guilty about wasting ingredients. So i browse about sweets most of the time, even when i found any new blog as interesting, first thing i would do is click their "sweet tag".

To me, making any indian sweets is more difficult than baking. In baking, if you have good ingredients and followed the instructions carefully, mostly you got it correct at first time itself.But for most of the indian sweets,it requires lot of practice ,experience and patience.

My DH is totally opposite to me, he doesnt like sweets expect few.So whenever i made any sweets,he took one or two, and finally i end up in eating all that.So after getting some awareness about the calories in the sweet. i stopped making sweets(not completely :- ) ,but i reduced the frequency of making sweets)

So for his birthday this year, i thought of making some sweets he likes, so i decided to make "Gulab Jamun", the one sweet he likes a lot and even he asks for more. I tried the jamun with store brought khoya before, we both liked it very much,But for this time I wanted to try this from scratch. so i prepared khoya first and then this gulab jamun. Will share the khoya recipe soon.

I'm very much satisfied with the result.I love the color and texture of the jamuns.Though it seems like easy,there are lot of places you can go wrong. If you are going to try this jamuns,read the "Notes" section completely before starting. 

So enough with the stories , will look into the recipe.

Ingredients
For Jamun

Unsweeted Khoya - 2/3 cup

Maida/All purpose flour -  11/2 tbsp

Baking soda - A generous pinch

Water - To need the dough(approx 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp)

For Sugar Syrup

Sugar - 1 cup

Water - 1 cup

Cardamom - 1 crushed

Rose water - 1 drop

Orange food color - a pinch (optional)

Sliced almonds - few for garnishing

Procedure

First add all the ingredients listed under "For Jamun" except water into bowl and add little by little water and form the dough and keep it aside for 10 mins. I missed to take the dough photos

In a sauce pan, add the sugar and water and bring it to boil for sugar syrup. Then add crushed cardamom and allow to boil until it become sticky. If you are using color, add it now.

Then filter the sugar syrup in a wide bowl and add the rose water and keep it aside.

While making the sugar syrup , simultaneously , pinch a small amount khoya and roll into small balls and keep it aside. Then heat the oil for deep frying.

Once the oil is heated, add the balls, and rotate the oil with slotted spoon, it helps to achieve uniform coloring.At any point of point, the oil should not be smoky,so keep the flame in low.

Once it became deep brown, remove it and put it in tissue paper for few seconds.Then immediately put in sugar syrup.When i put first batch jamuns in sugar syrup, i liked the way jamuns arranged themselves like zigzag(top right)

Similarly, fry all the balls and put it in sugar syrup. Allow it to soak for atleast 2-3 hrs,before serving.

Yummy & Gorgeous looking Gulab Jamun is ready. Add sliced almonds while serving.

Notes:

• Add the water carefully, it doesnt require much, 11/2 - 2 tbsp is enough if the khoya is freshly made
• Dont knead the dough for long time, it makes the jamun rubbery , just gather everything together is enough
• Dont put pressure while rolling the balls, it make the jamun hard and also the jamun become raw in center after frying.
• Roll the ball as smooth as possible, if the ball cracks,apply ghee slightly in hand while rolling the ball, it helps to prevent the cracks.
• Dont forget to add the baking soda, it helps to cook the jamun inside.
• If you wish you can add saffron , instead of cardamom and also you can avoid the color.
• My mom used to add the color and cardamom for flavor, i like that way from childhood onwards . so i prefer  cardamom over saffron flavor. But it's really upto your reference.
• At any point of time, dont increase the flame while frying the jamuns, It should be in low flame. 
• Rotate the oil with slotted spoon, it helps to get even coloring.

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