Servings : Makes approx 20-24
Gulab Jamuns are soft, sweet and utterly addictive. There are a few tips that are necessary to bear in mind BEFORE making them in order to achieve PERFECT results.
Ingredients for Sheera/Syrup
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 cups water
- tiny pinch of orange colour or some strands of saffron
- 1/4 tsp. powdered cardamon
Ingredients for Gulab Jamuns
- 1 cup NIDO or any good quality powdered milk (or 2 palm-sized mawas approximately)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp. semolina/sooji
- 2 tbsp. plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- oil as needed
Instructions
How to achieve perfect Gulab Jamuns:
1. Make sure you are using a good quality FULL-FAT milk powder. I prefer using Nido. Lesser qualities or low-fat powders may result in gulab jamuns which have a hard center.
2. If the dough doesn’t come together easily, do not add any oil. You can add a bit of extra egg OR a few drops of milk until the dough is soft and comes together well.
3. Once the dough is prepared and the balls shaped, fry them on LOW heat. This ensures they are fully cooked all the way through. Frying them on high heat will result in hard centers as the jamuns will not get fully cooked.
4. Make sure the sheera/syrup that you will be adding the fried jamuns into is at ROOM TEMPERATURE or just WARM. It should not be boiling hot when you add the hot fried gulab jamuns. Adding hot jamuns to very hot syrup will tighten and shrink them and they will lose the lovely texture and shape.
That’s it! Once you have these important points down, you will achieve the most perfect gulab jamuns.
For the Syrup/Sheera
Heat all the ingredients together until the sugar dissolves, then give it a boil on low heat for about 3-5 minutes so it thickens slightly. Let it cool. This will make a bit extra sheera, you can store any excess in the fridge for your next batch of gulab jamuns. It keeps well.
For the Gulab Jamuns
Combine the milk powder, baking powder, semolina and flour together.
Add in the egg, then mix it gently to make a soft dough. Now make small balls out of the dough. This should make about 16 balls. If the dough feels sticky, touch a bit of oil with your fingertips and then form the balls. If the dough is too hard, add a few drops of milk and knead it in until you can form smooth balls. Make sure you fry the balls immediately so that they don’t dry out.
Heat oil on medium, add the gulab jamuns one at a time. Carefully, splash some of the oil over them gently. Lower the heat, if the oil is too hot they will burn from the outside and stay raw on the inside. So keep the oil really low whilst they fry, gently stirring the oil AROUND them so they turn around and get evenly colored. When they have doubled in size and are evenly browned all over, remove with a slotted spoon and put them directly into the sheera/syrup. Remember, the sheera should not be boiling hot, it should be kept on very low heat so that it’s JUST slightly warm. They will expand a bit more as they soak up the syrup.
If you want the fried gulab jamuns softer, boil them in the sheera on very low heat for about 5 minutes whilst covered (put on dum). Then switch off and serve.
Garnish with chopped nuts and serve warm! 🙂
If we don’t want to add egg then milk will be the alternate?
Have never tried the eggless version, sorry!
Assallam oalikum..dear i made2 ,3 time but when i give shapein balls its looks crack wholeballs then i fry its not look good….what should i do?plzz reply???
W/Salaam, could be that the egg you used is too small so the dough is too dry, add a few drops of milk and knead until the dough is smooth then shape them.
dear i fallow ur all tips…its made soft but only balls not make smoth..very cracks????
When cracks form it could mean the dough is crumbly, even if it is soft. Try the tip of adding a bit of milk to the dough so when you shape the balls they become very smooth.
Thanks dear i will try….Allah bless you…
AOA ! Thanks for the recipe.My dough was also very crumbly and i kept on adding milk but still did’t work. In the end i just fried them, the taste was ok but from outside they were really hard. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance 🙂
Maybe the egg you used was very small, try using a bigger egg or add a small amount from another egg next time that happens.
assalamu alaikum.y do we use samolina?
W/Salaam, it adds texture.
Salaams,my family prefers cold jamuns,so is it ok if I make d gulab-jamuns n after sometime I keep them in fridge,hope they won’t become hard.Wanna try ur version of gulabjamuns.JazakALLAH
W/Salaam, normally I store my leftovers in the fridge and they do not go hard. InshaAllah yours will be fine too. 🙂
I made it today but after thn I put jamans in sheera they were just shrink in their sizes and dark in color else the taste is awesome and they r too soft as well kindly help me this whts wrong with this . Did I kept jamans in sheera too long tht at y this happens or else I follow all ur steps .
No I don’t think being in the sheera long made them dark, although they do darken slightly once they absorb the syrup. Try frying them for slightly less time next attempt so they are not very dark after frying. 🙂
i would love to have a recipe without egg please thankyou
Sorry I do not have an eggless version yet.
Salams cn anchor or lakspray b used in plce of nido
W/Salaam, I am told anchor is good but I personally have only used NIDO
Salam Fauzia !! kindly tell me by 1 cup of nido u mean tea cup or dessert cup ??
W/Salaam, 120 gm measuring cup.
Thanku for ur kind reply Fauzia but now I know what blunder I did with gulab jamans actually I used baking soda instead of baking powder thay might b the jamans shrink result now I will try with baking powder . Well Fauzia kindly tell us ras milai recipe as well I luv all ur recipes and trying each recipe daily 🙂
Assalam alaikum.. I have tried ur recipie twice but i got holes on them whilst frying.. It was amazingly soft but became shapeless when i added them in sheera, they sucked large quantity of sheera, thats why became juicy..
W/Salaam, did you make any changes to the recipe? Did you whip the egg before adding it?
Aoa, Fauzia whenever I try any recipe from your website it turns out very well… I tried gulab jamuns yesterday and they turned out awesome!!! Really tasty and soft! Though I used self raising flour but still they were so good especially after refrigerating them. 🙂 My husband loved it… Thanks alot Fauzia.. May God Bless You!
Mashallah. my gulab jamun turned out good. but there was one problem. that in each gulab janum thr were sum parts that were dry. dunno y? can u help me out.. whr i must hv gone wrong.
Thanks for the feedback, could be that you didn’t mix/knead the dough well enough. Next time knead the dough a bit longer and see if that helps. 🙂
A A what is mawas
Concentrated milk, in solid form.
Thanks Fauzia i tried gulab Jamuns they were perfect n yummy!!
i tried them and theyyyyyy came out really well..
thanks
Fauzia the gulab jamuns look lovely and i cant wait to try them. Would appreciate if you could tel me how many grams is 1 cup khoya?
Also can we use homemade instant khoya (milk podwer + cream mixed and microwaved) for making these gulab juamuns….
Awaiting your reply…
Thanks dear. I believe one cup khoya would be about 125-150 gm but since I mostly use the milk powder, cannot be very sure of it. You can try with home made instant khoya, let me know how it works out! 🙂
asak tried the gulab jamun recipe yesterday..the gulab jamuns weree very hard n dint soak the sugar syrup.. n my sugar syrup after coolin bcame hard so had to warm it up again but after sumtym it again turned hard …i folowed ur recipe acc to the instructions but dunno wat went wrong ,, i always have this prob wid the sugar syrup….
W/Salaam, jamuns hardness most prolly could mean you have not followed the instructions closely during making or frying OR the baking powder or milk powder used was not a good quality. As for the sugar crystalising, it means you stirred it when it was boiling, you should never ever stir sugar syrup as it boils coz that will make it crystalise.
ok thanxx for da sugar syrup trick,,,i used n ido ..will try again inshaAllah ..jazakAllah khair..
Salams
I tried this recipie but gulab jamuns were too soft on the outside inside was well cooked wer did i go wrong?
W/Salaam, did you add anything extra in the ingredients? Or maybe you left them in the syrup for too long?