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Gulab Jamun
Milk dumplings in rose-cardamom syrup
👨🍳 Pro🍮 Dessert🥛 Vegetarian🕓 70 min
India’s most famous sweet. Everything about it comes down to temperature: the dough must not be kneaded, the oil must be low, and the syrup warm — not boiling, not cold. Get any one of those three wrong, and the dumplings stay hard.
👨🍳 Pro: Fermenting, deep-frying or layering. Needs time, patience and a quiet afternoon.
Prep30 min
Cook time40 min
Total70 min
Serves18 pieces
Contains:
MilkGlutenTree Nuts
Refers to the recipe as written here. Store-bought ingredients may carry traces — please check the packet.
Ingredients
0 of 11✅ All set to cook!
Method
0 of 7🎉 All done — enjoy!
- First the syrup: bring the sugar, water and cardamom to a boil and cook 6–8 minutes, until slightly sticky but it does NOT form a thread. Stir in the lemon juice and rose water. Keep warm.
- Mix the milk powder, flour and baking powder. Work in the ghee.
- Add the milk a spoonful at a time and just BRING the dough TOGETHER — don’t knead it — one minute at most. It should be soft and slightly tacky. Let it rest 10 minutes.
- With lightly greased hands, roll into 18 perfectly smooth, crack-free balls. Every crack becomes a break point in the oil.
- Heat the oil to just 120–130°C. A ball should rise slowly after 30–40 seconds.
- Add the balls and don’t touch them until they float on their own. Then gently circle them with a slotted spoon and fry 8–10 minutes until evenly dark brown.
- Transfer them straight from the oil into the WARM syrup. Let them soak at least 2 hours, until they’ve doubled in size.
Tips
- The point of no return is the kneading. A kneaded dough develops gluten, and the balls stay hard inside no matter how long they sit in the syrup.
- Low oil temperature, long time. Oil that’s too hot browns the outside in two minutes and leaves the center raw.
- Warm syrup and hot dumplings. Cold meeting hot doesn’t soak in.
- The syrup must not form a thread — that means it’s already cooked too far and will crystallize in the fridge.
Shop the Ingredients
Everything for this recipe is available from us in Munich — in store or delivered.
