nutty123

Hi there ever1, i made these gulab jamuns, and after soaking them for less da a min i took them all out and they became flat, they didnt retain da round shape why?????? but they tasted real nice.

nabz

thanks for the recipe .

will try it!

for those that have tried it...please post pictures!

somegroovychick

CB and everyone else, i want to make these today- what is sooji in english? help! :/

alvena

SGC suji in english is semolina! u get different varieties coarse and fine....my mum uses coarse.

somegroovychick

thanks alvena! so should i get the coarse one for this recipe or it doesn't matter?

somegroovychick

haven't made this yet but from past baking, i can tell you that self-rising flour and all-purpose flour are different varieties. perhaps that contributed to them becoming harder?

somegroovychick

if you only have all-purpose flour, here's how to make it into self-raising (the package says raising not rising lol) flour- Make Self-Rising Flour

somegroovychick

ok so i made these yesterday and everything LOOKED a-ok, and tasted good, but the outside bit was very slightly harder than the inside bit. and i think i might have overdone the rose water- it definitely had its love and hate camps amongst the taste-testers.
so i'm thinking i probably fried it a bit too much and maybe the oil was oh so slightly too hot.

here's another question for ya, CB, and others- how much milk is "much" for the sooji? cos i did a one-to-one ratio. was that ok?
mixture was crumbly for sure, then when i balled it up, it went quite smoove. also i only put in 1.5 tbsp of oil.
i used all purpose plus baking soda and a pinch of salt to convert it into self-rising.
later on today iA, i'm going to try this with cake and pastry flour which is meant to be lighter.

Chicken Biryani

SGC , sorry just about saw all your comments above ..

Sooji is called semolina , any variety , coarse or smooth is fine ...

About your questions , the outer layer goes hard , when the oil is very very hot .. you are supposed to do them in medium heat , basically it should take you at least 20 minutes to fry the jamuns ... and take them out when they are golden brownish.

About how much milk in semoline , just enough to soak it into a thick paste ... one tbls Semolina and almost one spoon milk or half a spoon more if it hasnt soaked well ...

Also SGC , when you are making the balls , dont press them too hard , that will make them harder in the middle ... just focus on lightly making them smooth on the top but not over doing the pressure.

hope inshallah next time they come out nicer ...

Nutty123, its probably too late , but the jamuns went flat probably coz you left them too long in the sheera ...

somegroovychick

thanks CB! you said 10 minutes to fry a batch in your recipe so i was going by that
20 minutes it is!!

yay!

they were really good as they came out, so i can't wait to try this again.

Chicken Biryani

ohhh my bad , I need coffee to get my marbles back

no stick by the 10 minute rule , just make sure you dont put them on high flame .. and when they start turning goldenish brown , remove them from the oil.

and it you want them very very soft , just give an extra few seconds in the sheera , but make sure they arent in there for long or they will absorb too much of the sweet ...

Ophy

When I saw this recipe I got really excited. I looked in lots of shops till I found Nido milk powder.
So last night i tried it. Normally i'm a competent cook and can follow recipes very well, but amreekan recipes? that's another story. anyhow. I read on the forum that a cup of milk powder was required and that a coffee cup will do. Well it didn't say expresso cup so i got out my normal coffee mug. just to be sure I checked the equivalent in grams online as somebody on the forum said it was around 250grams or something. So off I went... followed the recipe, they turned out perfect. lovely colour, amazing smells, I let them cool till we had finished the main meal......

They were like blooming rocks!!!

Annoyed as hell I tried again but this time i looked up the proper equivalencies from a website where it converts according to product. (why oh why can't you amreekuns do anything properly?, whats wrong with grams for petes sake?)
so this came to 125gms for powdered milk. so off i started again.......Same blooming thing! I was well fuming I tell you!

Right, now tell me... the only thing i could think of was that it could be the flour i used. I looked up All pupose flour and it specifically says its plain flour. I saw all sorts of comments about self rising and self raising flour on the forum.

I think i may try again tonight with self raising flour. and if theyre not right im going to throw them at the gupshup forum! so be ready to dodge.

All those that wrote in saying how amazing they were did they actually turn out right or did you just say that? (or you all must be amreekuns using the bloody cup and all purpose flour and sequence instead of sequins blah blah)

Forgive the rant but i was salivating over the prospect of having gulab jamuns all day and was most upset!
Think i may just buy a packet of them and mix them and pretend i made them.

Ophy

or did i mention the second batch, upon noticing they were rock hard i 'cooked' them them in the sheera thinking it would soften them?
Hai takdeer!

Chicken Biryani

Ophy, you must have done something terribly wrong .. coz this recipe is so simple you just cant go wrong

Tell me step by step what you did so I can tell you what went wrong ...

Ophy

I measured the milk powder. 1 cup. measured 1 tablespoon of plain flour, added to mixture, quater of teaspoon baking powder, threw that in. 1 tbsp sooji soaked in a bit of milk, 1 1/2 tbsp of oil, 1.5 tsp of sugar, touch of rose water and mixed the mixture and added a bit of milk to make it crumbly, made into balls and fried slowly, and threw them into the sheera! the only thing extra i did was thre a pinch of elaichi powder into the jamun mix, literally a pinch.

I'm thinking either you use a special cup or ur maida is different.

Shall i post my rocks to you?

Ophy

That little icon of head smaking? i did exactly that when i saw my rocks. they looked like large bakri 's droppings.

Chicken Biryani

Ophy, I think when you were making the balls , that time you pressed them hard ....

The flour is the usual self raising one that we get from ASDA ...

the pinch of ialachi shouldnt really make them that hard ...

I would soften the crumbly mixture a bit more by adding some more liquid milk , so the balls will come out soft.... or add a bit more oil to the crumbly mix... and when you make balls dont press them too hard in your palms .. just get the ball shape and smooth out the outer bit so its smooth or else oil will make it break out when you fry.

Ophy

ok. i'm going to make them again tonight. I'll let you know tomorrow. or i'll just post you the rocks!

Chicken Biryani

*praying that Ophy's jamuns come out nice this time *

Ophy

Update.


I made them again. with self raising flour this time, same thing. Then i got annoyed and watched some tv. returned an hr later and looked at the mess in the bowl and decided to crumble the mixture up like bread crumbs then added more liquid milk. made soft balls and fried them on a low heat and they swelled up beautifully and absorbed the sheera too.

so now i know what i did wrong.

When you said keep it crumbly and not dough like, i tried not adding too much milk, as adding milk was making it doughy, but once the mixture had dried up I added more milk and then made them.
They were almost perfect in the sense that the rocks actually tasted better than the soft jamuns. my next experiment will be to figure that out, but now? my kitchen is fed up of jamun abuse.
But thanks for the recipe, but i still curse you amreekans for ur cups!

Cheerio!