Maple Gulab Jamun – sweet dough balls
Gulab Jamun is the most loved Indian dessert made with milk solids (mawa) dough balls soaked in aromatic sugar syrup laced with green cardamom, saffron and rose petals.
They can be served warm, cold or at room temperature. My favorite is warm gulab jamuns.
I decided to make Gulab Jamun with keeping in mind fall flavors of maple syrup. Gulab Jamuns are so famous at Indian restaurants or when friends or family is visiting. I make them at least once in a year. I love experimenting so few years ago, I decided to ditch the traditional sugar syrup and make Gulab Jamuns in maple syrup. They taste so good in maple syrup also. I will be sharing traditional way of sugar syrup as well if you do not want to stay true to the recipe.
Indian Mithais are so technical and sometimes difficult to make. Hats off the all the halwais for making our life easier with store bought mithai. During holidays, we love making sweets at home.
Meaning of Gulab Jamun
My friends who love Gulab Jamun always ask me the meaning. SO, I feel it’s important I share it here incase if you did not know. Gulab means rose and Jamun means a fruit found in Indian which is like the small round shape of dough balls and dark color. Gulab Jamuns have come to India through the way of Persia at least what we have believed so far.
Difference between Khoya vs. Dry Milk Powder
These are traditionally made with Khoya or Mawa. Khoya is a byproduct of reduced milk. By reducing milk through heat, giving it that caramel taste, flavor, color too, milk is converted to milk solids when all the water content is evaporated and that is used to Gulab Jamuns. Mawa is easily available at Indian grocery stores. In USA, look for in freezer sections Vadilal and Nanak are two brands that usually sells Mawa.
However, I have used full-fat milk powder for this recipe. I have only found milk powder form Indian grocery stores to be useful. I tried using milk powder from regular store and it didn’t work out. I was able to form the balls and, but the structure was so spongy and weird. So, I highly recommend you use full-fat milk powder from Indian grocery stores. These are sold in transparent bags, so if you cannot find it ask the cashier.
In this recipe, I convert milk powder into mawa to get that soft and tender jamuns.
Jamuns are entirely made-up milk solids, but we also use some flour to help in binding the dough and making balls that keep their shape after frying. Other than flour, some recipe also calls for semolina. While I love using semolina, in this recipe I have only used flour and it works.
The dough is brought together with the help of milk and heavy cream.
To fry Gulab Jamun I use a mixture of ghee and neutral oil. Ghee is alone, is preferred choice for many. But I think a mix of fats also works fine.
Once the Gulab Jamuns are fried, they are soaked in sugar syrup spiced with cardamom and saffron. We also use some lemon juice to avoid crystallization of syrup. Because sometimes, the sugar syrup can crystalize and mess the whole pot of Gulab Jamuns at cooler temperatures.
The sugar syrup is formed at soft stage. The best way to test out is when its sticky syrup and when a drop of it is added to a plate, it runny and but sticky.
Fried Jamuns are dunked in sugar syrup when they are warm but be mindful not too hot. The syrup should also be warm (not hot), so that they soak up the syrup well. Thick syrup is also not going to help, as the jamuns won’t soak up the syrup.
Tips
Be careful in not over-mixing the dough or kneading the dough, it makes them stiff and dense, rather than creamy soft texture.
Adding acid to the syrup avoids crystallization after cooling.
Maple Gulab Jamun
Ingredients
Mawa
- 1 cup Milk powder
- ½ cup milk
Jamun
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- Mix of oil and ghee for frying
Syrup
- 1 ½ cup Maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp saffron strands
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- Rose petals, edible silver, pistachios
Or Regular Sugar Syrup
- 2 cup water
- 1 ¼ cup Sugar
Instructions
- Mix milk powder and milk in a pan, mix, and stir. Keep cooking it until all the liquid has evaporated and it looks like dough or paste. Leave this to cool off.
- Crumble or grate cooled mawa or store bought mawa in a large mixing bowl. Add all purpose flour and baking powder to it.
- Mix everything well and add 1-2 tablespoons milk to bring the dough together. Be gentle in mixing and bringing the dough together. If you knead the dough vigorously the gulab jamun will turn hard.
- The dough should look smooth not crumbly at all, once you have dough that looks uniform and soft, cover it and set it aside for few minutes.
- Make Sugar syrup or maple syrup while dough rests.
- Add 2 cups water to deep pot. To the pot add sugar. Add crushed cardamom and few strands of saffron.
- Let this cook on medium heat. We are looking for slightly thick syrup with sticky consistency
- Once you feel that the water has evaporated, and the mixture looks thickened like syrup. Add a tiny squeeze of lemon juice to prevent crystallization. Let the sugar syrup cool a bit before adding the jamuns.
- When we add fried jamuns to the syrup make sure the syrup is warm not too hot nor cold. It must be warm when we add the fried jamuns.
- Take the dough knead it very gently for few seconds. Roll it out in a log and divide the mixture into 18-20 equal parts and shape them into ball very gently. Put light pressure while rolling them. There should be no cracks in the dough balls. If there are cracks or dough looks dry, add some milk, or use ghee and roll them.
- Heat ghee and oil mix for deep frying on medium heat. Before adding all the dough balls at once, fry on small piece to test frying the jamuns do a test by dropping a small piece of dough in the oil. If it raises immediately, oil is very hot, if it sinks and does not rise, oil is not hot enough. The dough ball should rise after a second or 2 and get fried, that is the correct temperature.
- Slide the prepared gulab jamun balls and deep fry in low flame till they turn dark brown.
- Remove the fried jamuns using a slotted spoon to a plate lined with paper towels or a strainer. Cool slightly for a minute.
- Add them to warm syrup. Add garnishes and edible silver.
- After few hours, they will be ready to be served or enjoyed.
- Maple Syrup
- Take 1.5 cups maple syrup, add ½ cup water to it. Add cardamom powder. Also add saffron strands. Let it warm up and then add the gulab Jamun.