Gulab Jamun is the most popular North Indian dessert. It is however famous all overIndiabecause of its mouth-watering aroma and luscious taste.

The gulab jamun dumplings are made out of milk, flour and milk powder and finally soaked in sugar syrup. All major Indian festivals like Holi, Diwali, Dusshera etc are incomplete without gulab jamuns.

I love the sweet so much that I can savor 5-8 gulab jamuns at a time. My mother is very skilled in preparing gulab jamuns. I have inherited the skill from her and now my guests too appreciate the jamuns prepared by me. Here is my recipe of gulab jamun.

Cooking time: 12 hours

Preparation time: 25 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

Carnation milk powder-1 cup

Bisquick pancake mix-1/2 cup

Flour-1/2 cup

Baking soda-1/2 teaspoon

Melted butter-2 tablespoons

Whole milk-enough for dough

Sugar-2 cups

Pure distilled rose water-5 teaspoons

Cardamom pods-4-5

Saffron-few strands

Water-1 cup

Oil for frying

Few rose petals

Method

Mix milk powder, flour, pancake mix, butter and baking soda. Add some whole milk and knead the mixture in to hard dough. Break the dough in to 20 equal sized portions; roll each portion between your palms to make round smooth balls. Heat oil in a kadhai. Slip in the balls gently from one side of the kadhai. The balls will sink to the bottom of the kadhai. Keep rotating the kadhai with the help of a pair of tongs to allow even browning on all sides. After sometime, you will see the balls rising to the surface. Agitate the balls to ensure burning on all sides. While, agitating be gentle, or else you would break the balls. You must also be careful about frying the balls on a medium flame in order to prevent breaking. Once the balls are fried, keep them aside. Then add 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup water. Further add crushed cardamom pods, rose water and saffron. Stir and heat the solution on a medium flame. The sugar will dissolve completely and your sugar syrup will be ready. Keep the basin containing syrup hot on stove and adjust the flame to low. Put the fried gulab jamuns directly in to the warm sugar syrup and let them soak overnight. The next day your gulab jamuns would be ready for serving.

Serving Instructions

Take the gulab jamuns out of warm sugar syrup and serve hot after garnishing with rose petals.