Gulab Jamuns from Sailu's Kitchen

When I was going through Sailu's Kitchen to look for what to make, almost everything was tempting, but this one stood out, especially because I so wanted to try them myself, so I jumped right on it. Thank you very much Sailu for writing such nice recipe and giving step-by-step pics. Please visit her site for more wonderful and delicious recipes. What can be a better entry than this for event Tried and Tasted which is hosted by Lakshmi and originally started by Zlamushka's Spicy Kitchen.

This is the favorite dessert in my house by almost everyone I know. Before my older one was born, I loathed sweets (I wish I stayed that way forever). Anyways, the thing is that even when I loathed sweets, this was the only sweet I would eat and rest I would simply ignore and people will wonder what kind of human being I am who doesn't like sweets of any kinds (not even ice-cream or chocolates, yep, I was that weirdo). Not any more, now I drool over any kind of sweet :(


Also wanted to mention that this recipe makes 15-18 Gulab jamuns of lemon size (the yellow ones we get in India).


Gulab Jamun - गुलाब जामुन (Reduced Milk Balls in Rose Flavored Sugar Syrup)

Ingredients 
For Sugar Syrup:
2 cups water
2 cups sugar
3-4 crushed cardamoms (optional)
Saffron strands - few strands
Rose Water - 2-3 drops
For Making Jamuns
Mawa (Khoya) - 1 cup (I used store bought)
Maida (All Purpose Flour) - 1/2 cup
Cooking Soda - 1/4 tsp
Oil - For deep frying jamuns (Sailu used ghee, but I instead used oil)
Prepared Sugar Syrup (warm) - 3 tbsps 
Warm Milk - 1-2 tbsp
Preparation
For Syrup

• Put everything under "Sugar Syrup" ingredients in a deep bottomed pan and heat on medium till sugar dissolves completely and comes to boil. 
• Remove it from fire and transfer it to a serving dish.

For Jamuns

• Mix all the dry ingredients before in a bowl.
• Add sugar syrup (quantity mentioned above) and mix well.
• Now add milk little by little and make it into a soft and smooth dough.
• Immediately pinch little by little and make them into smooth balls. 
• Make sure there are no cracks in the balls or they will fall apart in oil.
• Heat oil and now deep fry them in medium heat (make sure oil is not super hot) till they turn golden brown.

Assembling Gulab Jamuns

• Immediately put them in warm syrup and let them soak till you are ready to eat them. I would say soak them at least for 4-6 hours and best if overnight.

Serving
In my house, they get emptied right from the serving dish without even letting me serve. But, anyways, if you have any left over, serve them cold or warm (in my house, we prefer warm) in a bowl byt sprinking some chopped almonds or pistachios. My husband likes to eat warm gulab jamuns with vanilla ice-cream. So, there you go, another way of serving :)


Enjoy them !!! Till next post, take care.