Badusha / Balushahi

Badusha / Balushahi is a popular dessert/ sweet from India. It is made from all purpose flour, baking soda, butter and oil. These are made in the form of discs and then deep fried just like donuts and then dipped in sugar syrup. It is soft pillowy and flaky inside and crispy on the outside. When you take a bite, you will have a gush of sugar syrup with this flaky layers and it is sooo heavenly.

I made 3 batches today. First two batches were disasters. First batch badushas were raw from inside. Second batch had too much butter and it just crumbled when I soaked them in sugar syrup. Finally, I searched for badhusha recipe on foodgawker and found one from Nithaskitchen. I decided to try her version before I give up on them. Yes it worked beautifully.

                                    


The trick to make perfectly crispy badusha was 1. Knead the dough nicely for 10 to 12 minutes 2. fry them on the lowest heat setting so that they get cooked from inside. 3. Shape them as thin discs instead of thick discs. This helps them get cooked through

                        



Recipe Source : http://www.nithaskitchen.com/2014/03/badhusha-badusha-balushahi-recipe.html

Yield : 10 Badushas

For the Sugar Syrup :

• 1/2 Cup Sugar
• 3/4 Cup Water
• 2 pinches of Cardamom Powder

For the Dough

• 1 and 1/2 Cups of All purpose Flour / Maida
• 1/4 Cup melted butter
• 2 Tablespoon Plain Yogurt / Curd
• 1 Tablespoon Oil
• 1 Teaspoon Granulated white Sugar
• 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• a pinch of salt
• 1/4 Cup tap water for kneading the dough
• Oil for deep frying the discs

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl , mix together melted butter, yogurt (curd ) , oil and set aside
2. In a separate bowl, mi together All purpose flour, sugar, salt and baking soda
3. Add dry ingredients we prepared from step number 2 into the wet ingredients we prepared at step number 1
4. Use your hand and mix everything together. This mixture will looks like crumble
5. Now start kneading the dough by sprinkling water. Keep sprinkling water and knead until the dough comes together as one big ball
6. Now turn the dough on working surface and using your hands knead the dough nicely for 10 to 12 minutes or until the dough is super soft and there are no cracks and its smooth. You can feel your hands are greased from the dough. At this stage stop kneading the dough
7. Divide the dough into 2 equal big balls. Then make 5 small lemon sized balls from each of the big ball. Totally you will have 10 small balls . Place them in a large bowl / plate
8. Cover the plate or bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes . Otherwise they dry easily if you don't cover them. You can also cover with a lid
9. After 15 minutes, flatten each ball into circular discs. You can compress the edges / crimp to give a attractive edges. This is optional and it comes by little bit of practice

10. Make all the disc and keep it ready for frying once
11. Prepare the sugar syrup : Add water and sugar in a deep pan and bring it boil , stirring occasionally. Once it boils , you need to start watching closely for one string consistency. How to check if the syrup has reached one string consistency ? here is the technique.. Dip a spoon in the boiling syrup and take a spoonful of syrup. a ) When you drop the syrup it should fall smoothly like a continuous string without any break b) Take the syrup from the spoon with your forefinger. Now try pinching your thumb with forefinger and pull them apart gently. You should each one string between your fingers c ) If you drop sugar syrup in a bowl of water, it should dissolve ..you should be able to see the sugar syrup in the water
12. Once the syrup reached one string consistency, add cardamom powder and set aside
13. Now comes the important step of the recipe : Deep frying the badusha discs. Heat oil in a wok / pan
14. When the oil is hot add 2 or 3 badusha dough discs in the hot oil and immediately switch off the flame. Let the discs get fried in the oil with flame off
15. When all the bubbles stop and the sizzling noise stops, switch on the flame and keep it at medium flame and fry the discs till they are golden. Flip side and fry on the other side also
16. Drain on the paper towel to remove excess oil and immediately add the badusha to the warm sugar syrup
17. Please note that the syrup should be warm and not hot
18. Let the badushas be immersed in the syrup for 2 minutes and flip side once so that the other side of the badusha also absorbs syrup
19.  Remove from the syrup and place them on the serving tray
20. Fry remaining badushas and place in the syrup for 2 minutes and then place them on the serving platter
21. Finally, I am done editing the recipe...honestly this must be the longest recipe on my blog..my hands are paining after typing this recipe. But making badushas was fun , challenging and it was much easier than typing the recipe for hours
22. Good Luck with your badusha making :)