Dry Jamun
These dry jamuns are made with khoya (evaporated milk solids) and cottage cheese.
Servings: 36 to 38 dry jamuns
Ingredients
for the jamun balls
- 250 grams soft khoya or 1 cup tightly packed khoya (mawa or dried evaporated milk solids)
- 100 grams paneer or ½ cup tightly packed grated paneer (cottage cheese)
- 3 tablespoon all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon milk
- oil or ghee for deep frying
for sugar syrup
- 300 grams sugar or 2 cups sugar
- 1.5 cups water
- ¼ teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon rose water
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 12 to 15 strands of saffron
for coating
- 2 to 3 tablespoon fine sugar or desiccated coconut
Instructions
making dry jamun dough
- In a bowl, take 250 grams of khoya or mawa. The khoya used for jamuns is the soft khoya also known as daap ka khoya or chikna khoya. This is a soft khoya, so it mashes and kneads very well.
- Mash the khoya very well with your hands. Keep aside. There should be no lumps or small bits or pieces in the khoya. You can also grate and then mash the khoya. The mashed khoya should not feel granular.
- Grate 100 grams paneer and keep aside. 100 grams paneer yields about ½ cup grated paneer. Use a fine grater to grate the paneer.
- Now add the grated paneer and 3 tbsp all purpose flour (maida) to the mashed khoya.
- Add 1 tbsp milk. Gently mix everything very well.
- Bring together this mixture and form into a dough. Do not knead the dough. Just mix and gather to a dough. If the mixture looks dry and does not cling together to a dough, you can add 1 tbsp more of the milk
- Now pinch small marble sized balls from the dough and roll them in a round shape between your palms. Roll lightly and not heavily.
- Roll all the jamuns this way and keep them covered with a cotton kitchen towel.
making sugar syrup for dry jamun
- Take 2 cups sugar in a pan and add 1.5 cups water.
- Keep this pan on stove top on a low to medium flame and stir so that the sugar begins to dissolve.
- When all the sugar is dissolved, add ¼ tsp lemon juice. The lemon juice does not allow the sugar syrup to crystallize.
- Cook the sugar syrup on a low to medium flame till you get ½ string consistency or the syrup becomes sticky.
- Switch off the flame and add ½ tsp cardamom powder and 12 to 15 strands of saffron, crushed. Also add 1 tbsp rose water.
frying dry jamuns
- When the sugar syrup is cooking, you can begin frying the jamuns. As when you add the fried jamuns, the sugar syrup needs to be hot. Heat oil for deep frying in a kadai or deep pan on a low to medium flame.
- For testing, slid a tiny dough ball in the hot oil. The ball should come up slowly and not quickly. This is the temperature at which we will fry the jamuns.
- Keep the flame to a low and fry this tiny jamun ball.
- Fry this small jamun till it becomes golden. If this jamun ball breaks, then add a few tsp of flour to the dough and mix well again. Before you begin shaping the jamuns, you can do this test.
- Now gently slid the jamuns. The flame should be low. Do not crowd and add the jamuns as per the size of the pan.
- When you see light golden spots, turn over the jamuns gently. The jamuns fry very quickly, so do be attentive.
- Keep on turning them in the oil, like a gentle swirling with the slotted spoon, so that they brown evenly.
- When frying the jamuns have to feel light and not heavy.
- Fry till they turn golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and place them on paper towels to remove excess oil.
soaking dry jamuns in sugar syrup
- Whilst they are hot, quickly add them to the sugar syrup. Fry all the jamuns in the same way and add them to the sugar syrup.
- Note that the Sugar syrup has to be hot. to maintain the hot temperature, you can keep the sugar syrup bowl or pan on a hot water bath. Cover and allow the jamuns to soak in the sugar syrup for about 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, gently strain the jamuns from the sugar syrup. Then take each jamun and roll it in a small plate consisting of 2 to 3 tbsp sugar or 2 to 3 tbsp desiccated coconut.
- Roll them well, so that the sugar or desiccated coconut coats evenly. Place dry jamuns in a bowl or container. Close with a lid and refrigerate.
- Serve dry jamuns as a dessert or sweet. You can garnish with some sliced or chopped pistachios or blanched almonds while serving.