Thursday, 18 September 2014

Instant Gulab Jamun with bread

Gulab Jamun is a classic Indian dessert traditionally made with milk solids and clarified butter. Soft and pillowy balls are fried until golden and then they are infused in a simple syrup. A popular Indian sweet that you shouldn't miss...

This is a variation to the classic Jamun recipe, and here we are using left over white bread to make Jamuns. These are very very soft and delicious and tastes almost like traditional Jamuns. Easy to make and can be made in a jiffy.



                                 


 Ingredients


  • 8 White bread Slices ( I used left over homemade classic white loaf slices)
  • 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
  • 2 Teaspoons of Ghee / unsalted butter at room temperature
  • 1/3 Cup of Full cream milk
  • 1/4 Cup of Instant Mawa / Khoya ( recipe follows)
  • Oil for deep frying

For the Sugar Syrup


  • 1 and 1/2 Cups of Sugar
  • 1 and 1/2 Cups of Water
  • a big pinch of Cardamom Powder

For Instant mawa / Khoya  ( makes 1 Cup )


  • 1 Cup Full Fat Milk Powder 
  • 1 Tablespoon Ghee
  • 1/3 Cup full cream milk

Preparation 


                                        


1. Use white bread slices for softe gulab jamuns. Remove the crust / brown edges of the bread
2. Chop them roughly and add the bread slices to a food processor and pulse it 2 to 3 times to get a coarse powder / bread crumbs. Set aside
3. Make instant mawa or khoya : In a microwave safe bowl, combine milk powder, ghee and milk. Using a spoon mix everything together. Microwave on high for one minute. Remove from the oven and give it a nice stir. Then pop it in the oven again and microwave on high for one more minute. I removed the mixture once in 20 seconds, gave it a stir and returned back to the oven and microwaved it. Total microwaving time is 2 minutes with 3 to 4 stirring in between. At the end of 2 minutes, the mixture will be thick , crumbly and instant khoya is ready. Cool it completely before you use this mawa in your recipes. 
4. Make Sugar Syrup : In a large pot, add equal portions of sugar and water and keep it on medium flame.  I used 1 and 1/2 cups of sugar with equal cups of water to make this syrup. And I did not have any leftover syrup. Fried Jamuns soaked up all the syrup. If you like your jamun with little bit extra syrup, then you may need to increase the sugar and water quantity. Cook the mixture for 6 to7 minutes on medium flame until the syrup thickens a little bit. Now switch off the flame and stir in cardamom powder. Set aside


Direction for making jamun


1. In a large mixing bowl, add the powdered bread / bread crumbs we prepared at step number 1 of preparation
2. Add 1/4 cup of instant mawa / khoya we prepared at step number 3 of preparation
3. Gently rub the khoya / mawa with bread crumbs such that there are no lumps
4. Add in baking powder and ghee and mix everything together
5. Now sprinkle milk little by little and bring it together as a dough. Dough should be soft and non sticky. 
6. Set aside this bread crumb dough for 10 minutes
7. Grease your palm well and pinch out about one scoop of dough and roll it into a smooth ball. Make sure you roll out the ball very very gently without giving much pressure. If the ball is too dense, then it will not soak up sugar syrup. Also, make sure that the ball is smooth without any cracks
8. Roll out balls of equal size with rest of the dough and set aside
9. In a wok / pan heat oil for deep frying the balls. Keep the flame on medium and gently slide in 3 to 4 balls in the hot oil. Fry until the balls are light golden color. It is important to keep the flame medium to get a nice color and also for the balls to get cooked completely from inside
10. Remove the fried Jamun balls from oil and drain it on paper towel. Let them cool a little bit
11. Add the warm fried jamun balls into the warm sugar syrup. It is important to add the jamun balls only when they are cooled a little bit, but still warm. Do not add hot fried jamun balls in the sugar syrup, they might break and dissolve and disintegrate after sometime. Also make sure that the sugar syrup is not too hot, it should be warm. 
12. Allow the jamuns to rest in the sugar syrup for 30 minutes to 1 hour
13. After the soaking time, Jamun should be soft, and the sugar syrup should have gone well deep inside the jamun

                     



14. Serving Suggestion : Top it off with finely chopped pistachios / almonds and serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side

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