Gulab Jamuns

Ingredients:

3 cups- Sugar

1 ½ cup- Water

¼ tsp. Cardamom powder

¼ tsp. Saffron

2-3 drops- Rose water/essence

1 ½ cups- Khoya

1 cup- Maida (all-purpose flour)

3 pinches- Cooking Soda (1 pinch would be 1/8th of tsp.)

Ghee or Oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Combine sugar and water in a flat bottomed broad pan and simmer on a low heat until sugar dissolves.

2. Add cardamom powder, rose water/essence and saffron and keep the sugar syrup on very low heat for few minutes. We want the syrup warm not hot.

3. Now mix the Khova, all-purpose flour (maida) and the cooking soda. Knead all of them together. You might need few tsp. of water to form smooth dough. Add tsp. at a time until you reach the correct dough consistency.

4. Form small balls of this dough. Make sure they are less than say small limes. This is important since they will become large while deep frying and larger when soaked in syrup. Grease your palms, either with ghee or oil while making the balls.

5. Heat ghee or oil on a medium flame.

6. Fry the jamuns till golden brown over a low to medium flame, keeping oil temperature uniform. Oil should not smoke.

7. Once they get golden brown on all the sides, remove them from the oil and drop it on the warm sugar syrup.

8. Drop all the fried jamuns in the syrup and let it soak for at least 1 -2 hours for them to soak the syrup.

9. Gulab Jamuns can be stored in room temperature for a week. Store them closed with a plastic wrap.