Gulab Jamun With Milk Powder

5 from 3 votes

This Gulab Jamun With Milk Powder is a cheat's version but tastes equally good. The recipe comes handy if you don’t have khoya or paneer/chenna readily available. All you need is milk powder, curd (yogurt), sugar and water to make a tasty homemade batch of this famous Indian sweet.

Prep Time30

Cook Time20

Total Time50

Course: Sweets

Cuisine: North Indian

Diet: Vegetarian

Difficulty Level: Moderate

Servings: Milk Powder Gulab Jamuns

Calories: 144kcal

Author: Dassana Amit

Ingredients

For the Jamun

1 cup milk powder
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon oil OR ½ teaspoon ghee
1 pinch salt (optional)
1 pinch baking soda
1 to 2 tablespoons Curd (yogurt)
1 tablespoon pistachios - blanched or almond slices; for garnish

For the sugar syrup

1 cup water
1.5 cups sugar
3 to 4 green cardamoms - husked and crushed or powdered or ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
12 to 15 saffron strands – optional
1 tablespoon rose water – optional

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Making Sugar Syrup

First mix the sugar, water, cardamom powder and saffron in a pan and keep it on the stovetop.
Gently bring to a boil and continue to stir occasionally.
Add some pistachios in the syrup. An optional step but tastes good. Make a thick sticky syrup and turn off the stovetop; much before the sugar solution reaches a one thread consistency.
You can cook the sugar syrup till it reaches a half string consistency. On cooling, if the sugar syrup crystallizes, then add 2 to 3 tablespoons water and warm the syrup again. It will again return to a liquid state.

Making Milk Powder Dough Balls

Mix the milk powder, all-purpose flour or maida, a pinch of baking soda, a pinch of salt (optional) in a mixing bowl.
Add 1 teaspoon oil OR ½ teaspoon ghee and 1 to 2 tablespoons fresh curd or yogurt.
Just mix everything lightly. Add some more curd if the mixture looks dry. Don’t over mix or knead.
You don’t want gluten to form, so just mixing well is enough. The all-purpose flour is just added to bind the mixture.
If gluten forms then the dough balls become dense and won’t absorb any of the sugar syrup and the jamun will not be soft.
The mixture will be sticky but smooth. Apply some oil on your palms and make small balls from the dough.
These dough balls almost double when frying and also increase when soaked in the sugar syrup. So don’t make large sized balls.
There should be no cracks on the dough balls. They should be smooth.
If there are cracks, then just add some 1 or 2 teaspoons of curd or milk to the mixture and continue making the balls.
Once done, then cover the balls with a kitchen towel.

Frying

Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or a pan. When the oil becomes medium hot, lower the heat.
Add a small ball in the oil. The ball should slowly rise to the top from the bottom.
If it does not rise then, the oil is not hot enough. If it rises quickly and browns also quickly, then the oil is too hot to fry.
If the small ball does not crack or break while frying, you are alright to proceed further.
If it cracks, then just add some 1 or 2 teaspoons flour to the dough and form the balls again.
In an ideal case, the dough ball should not crack and should rise slowly to the top and should not get browned quickly.
When you know the oil is hot enough and on a low heat or medium-low heat, then add 3 to 4 balls or more depending on the capacity of your kadai or pan.
When the sides touching the oil, become light golden or golden, turn over the dough balls with a slotted spoon and fry the remaining sides.
The balls have to be stirred with a slotted spoon frequently to get even browning.
But take care as hot oil is there in the pan. The balls should also not become browned too soon. They have to be cooked from the inside too.
Keep on turning the balls until they become golden. If the oil becomes cold, then don’t fry the balls. Increase the temperature and then fry.
Otherwise, the balls would have a hard crisp thick cover when fried in a less hot oil and they won’t absorb the sugar syrup. Plus they would absorb a lot of oil too.

Soaking jamun in sugar syrup

When the balls are evenly golden and browned, remove from the slotted spoon and add them directly into the sugar syrup.
Keep the fried golden balls in the sugar syrup for at least 1 to 2 hours before serving.
This is done so that the jamun soaks up the sugar syrup which will make them soft and sweet. That’s why in the sweet shops, the gulab jamun are always soaked in sugar syrup.
If you feel the jamun is not soaking in the sugar syrup, then warm the gulab jamuns together with the sugar syrup on stove-top for a couple of minutes. Cover and set aside. Just warm the sugar syrup, don’t heat.
Gulab jamun can be served warm or cold. If they are at room temperature, then warm in the microwave and serve them topped with sugar syrup and garnished with pistachios or almond slices.

Notes

Ensure to mix the dough ingredients and do not knead like a roti dough. The dough should be mixed enough so as to make neat round balls from it.
Kneading or overdoing the mixing, may result in the development of gluten in the dough, which will make for dense or hard texture in the jamuns.
Do not fry on a high heat as this will brown the jamuns quickly from outside leaving the inside dough undercooked.
Also, do not fry in oil which is not hot enough, as this will make the dough balls absorb too much of oil.

Nutrition