Gulab Jamun for Vrat / Fast ~my 100th Post

Today is a very special day in my life because it marks Daily Swad Sugandh's 100th post! Wow, what a journey it has been! can you believe it? I certainly can’t. It seems like yesterday that I started posting recipes, I really never thought I would last this long but over the last 3 and half months, I have discovered a love of cooking and baking and gained a lot of fabulous food blogger friends and acquaintances. Thanks all of you for encouraging and supporting me...
Tomorrow is Janmashtami, a popular Festival across India which celebrates the birth of Lord Krishna! To celebrate Janmashtami and my blog's 100th post celebration, I made Gulab Jamun for Fast / Vrat which has exactly the same taste.

 

Gulab Jamun is a traditional Indian dessert often eaten at festivals or major celebrations such as marriages, Diwali (the Indian festival of light). Soft and spongy milky balls soaked in a light sugar syrup flavored with rose water, saffron and cardamom. 

 

 

Ingredients:

For Gulab jamun:

• 1 cup nonfat milk powder
• 2 tablespoon Arrowroot
• 2 tablespoon butter
• Pinch of baking soda
• 1/4 cup full cream milk

For Syrup:

• 2 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon rose water
• pinch of saffron

Other Ingredients:

• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds
• 1 tablespoon sliced almonds and pistachio
• Oil for deep-frying

Method:

1. For syrup, Mix water, rose water and sugar and boil them up to 1 string (1-tar) consistency. Add Saffron and remove from heat and keep aside.
2. Mix well the milk powder and butter, add Arrowroot powder, baking soda and again mix well. Now add milk and knead to a soft dough.
3. Dough will be little sticky. Let the dough sit for 8-10 minutes. Milk powder will absorb the extra milk. If required add more milk as dough should be soft.
4. Take a teaspoon of dough, place one cardamom seed in it and roll it to a ball. It makes around 15-20 small balls from the dough.
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium flame, drop each ball into hot oil gently and fry them until evenly browned on low flame.
6. Remove the gulab jamuns with a slotted spoon, drain extra oil on kitchen paper and transfer into the hot syrup. Let sit them in the syrup about 1-2 hour before serving.
7. Garnish with pistachio and almond and serve hot or chill.

Note:

• Syrup for this gulab jamun should be thinner with 1 string consistency.
• Don't fry gulab jamuns on high heat otherwise they will become hard inside and not fully cooked.
• You can replace butter and milk with heavy cream. for the same ingredients I used near about half cup heavy cream and Gulab jamun turned out well using heavy cream...
• For non-fasting gulab Jamun, replace Arrowroot by Maida (all purpose flour).