Gulab jamun is a classic Indian sweet made with milk solids, sugar, rose syrup & cardamom powder. It is very famous & is enjoyed in most festive and celebration meals. Traditionally gulab jamun were made using khoya i.e milk solids as the main ingredient. But khoya is not available in many places and is very tedious to make at home. So many people make them with milk powder.
If you are new to Indian foods, then you may be wondering
What is gulab jamun?
Gulab jamun are soft delicious berry sized balls made of milk solids, flour & a leavening agent. These are soaked in rose flavored sugar syrup & enjoyed. The word “Gulab” translates to rose in hindi & “jamun” to berry. So gulab jamun are berry sized balls dunked in rose flavored sugar syrup.
2 ways to make Gulab jamun
In this post I have shared 2 recipes of making them. One with milk powder and the second one with khoya
1. Making gulab jamun with milk powder is for those who do not have access to khoya and do not prefer to toil at home making it for hours. This Gulab jamun recipe using milk powder is good even for beginners to try. I have shown this method in the recipe card & step by step photos.
2. Making gulab jamun with khoya is also easy if you have access to it. Khoya is also known as mawa and is sold in the frozen sections of the Indian grocery stores. There are different kinds of khoya available, this recipe needs plain unsweetened khoya. It is usually labelled as suitable to make gulab jamun.
I have shared this recipe in the video towards the end of the post. For step by step photos you can check this link of Khoya jamun.
Tips to make gulab jamun
The key to milk powder gulab jamun is using curd/yogurt or lemon juice. You will not get the taste of curd or lemon juice in the jamuns if it is used in the mentioned quantities.
In this gulab jamun recipe, soda reacts with the yogurt or lemon juice and then makes the dough light. So we get light and soft jamuns.
I highly suggest not to alter the recipe as it may not work. After several trial I got these right, just the way one would get in North Indian restaurants and sweet stalls. Soft, juicy, mouth melting and delicious.
Please note that this gulab jamun recipe may not work with low fat milk powder. I have used everyday regular milk powder from Nestle.
Gulab jamuns are often made during festivals like Eid, holi, diwali & navratri. If you are making these for a special occasion, then I suggest you halve the recipe and try first. Once you get to know the trick of making the dough correctly then you can easily double or triple the recipe.
For more Indian sweets, you can check
Rasgulla
Rasmalai
Halwa
Kheer recipes
Ladoo recipes
Gulab jamun recipe – Recipe 1
Gulab jamun recipe | How to make gulab jamun
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
To make gulab jamun
- 1 cup milk powder
- 5 tbsp all-purpose flour or maida
- 1 tsp ghee or oil
- 1 tbsp ghee or oil for greasing
- 2 tbsp milk (use more as needed)
- 1 tbsp curd or yogurt or ¾ tbsp lemon juice
- 1 large pinch Baking soda or 1/8 th tsp
- Ghee or oil for deep frying
- 1 tsp pistachios chopped
For sugar syrup
- 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups Sugar
- 1 ½ cup water
- 4 pods green cardamom or ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tsp rose water
How to make the recipe
Preparation of sugar syrup
- Mix together water, sugar and crushed cardamoms in a pot.
- Boil the syrup until it turns slightly sticky.
- Turn off the stove before it goes to a 1 string consistency.
- If it reaches a 1 string consistency, then add 2 tbsp of water and mix.
- Add rose water and mix. Set aside to keep it hot.
Making gulab jamun balls
- Fluff up the flour in the jar with a fork and then measure correctly.
- Mix together flour, milk powder and soda in a bowl. Either sieve it or mix uniformly.
- Add ghee to it. Mix well.
- In a small bowl, mix together lemon juice or yogurt and 2 tbsp milk.
- Pour 1.5 tbsp of this to the flour mixture.
- Begin to bring the flour together to make a dough.
- If the dough is too dry, add little more milk & curd. Do not add a lot. Use only as needed.
- The dough turns sticky. Grease your fingers and make a ball.
- The dough must not be soggy. It must hold the shape well.
- Divide to 14 to 18 equal sized portions. Grease your hands and roll to smooth balls.
- They must be smooth without any cracks or lines otherwise you will find many cracks on the gulab jamuns. Keep them covered.
How to make gulab jamun
- Heat up the pan with ghee or oil on a medium heat.
- Also check if the syrup is hot. If it is not hot, heat it up a bit. It must be hot and not very hot.
- To check the right temp, you can drop a small piece of dough in the oil.
- It must rise slowly without changing its color.
- If it rises rapidly then you will need to cool the oil a bit before frying.
- When the ghee is just medium hot, add the balls.
- Make sure the oil is not very hot else the gulab jamuns will brown without cooking well.
- Fry the balls on a medium flame until golden. Keep stirring gently to fry them uniformly.
- Add them to the hot syrup. Allow them to rest for 3 hours and serve.
- Garnish gulab jamun with chopped pistachios.
Video
Recipe 2 – video of gulab jamun with khoya
You can find the ingredient in the videoNUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
Notes for gulab jamun recipe
- Please use correct measuring spoons and cups. This recipe will not work with approximations.
- The recipe will not work without baking soda. Check the expiry of the baking soda before using.
- If you are trying the recipe for the first time, you can halve the recipe and try.
- The amount of milk & curd mentioned in the recipe may or may not be sufficient. It depends on the milk powder used. If the dough turns dry, then use little more milk.
- This recipe may not work with low fat milk powder.
- Addition of even little more soda may disintegrate the jamuns while frying or while soaking in syrup.
- Frying the balls on a very low flame will make them hard.
If you are a beginner or new to Indian cooking, I highly suggest you to check the supporting step by step photos for best results. Step by step photos with description available below after the recipe card.
Recipe 1 – step by step photos
Making sugar syrup
1. Add 1.5 cups sugar and lightly crushed 4 green cardamoms to a pot. You can also use organic or turbinado sugar, the color of the syrup will be darker.
2. Pour 1.5 cups water.
3. Boil this until the syrup turns slightly sticky. To check this, cool little syrup in a small plate. Dip your fore finger in it and touch with your thumb. You should feel it is slightly sticky. It should not reach one string consistency.
If you fail to make the syrup correctly, then the jamuns will not soak the syrup and turn soft. If you go past the sticky syrup stage, you will end up in a one string consistency. In that case, add little water and stir. Check again. Switch off. Add rose water.
Making dough
4. Measure 1 cup milk powder, ¼ cup +1 tbsps all purpose flour or maida and then a large pinch of soda. If you use more soda then the balls may break.
5. Then mix them up very well or sieve it. Make sure the mixture is uniform. Add 1 tsp of ghee.
6. Next mix well everything.
7. Take 1 tbsp of yogurt or ¾ tbsp lemon juice and 2 tbsp of milk. Mix both together.
8. Pour 1.5 tbsp of this to the flour. Begin to mix. Use up the rest as needed. I used up full 2 tbsp of it. Do not knead the dough. If the dough is too dry use little more milk.
9. The dough turns slightly sticky and refuses to leave the fingers. Grease your fingers and make a stiff yet soft dough. This should be the right consistency of the dough. If by chance it turns sticky sprinkle another tsp of plain flour. This is just to fix and does alter the texture.
10. Divide the dough to 14 to 18 equal portions and make smooth balls without any lines or cracks on them. Do not knead or press the balls. Be gentle in handling the dough.
Check your syrup if it is still hot. If not, heat it up once more. The syrup must be hot and not very hot. When you dip your finger, you must feel it is hot. But not very hot that you cannot tolerate the heat. Leave it on the stove.
How to make gulab jamun
11. Pour ghee or oil to a hot pan. I prefer ghee to oil since ghee has a better smoke point than oil.
12. Ghee or oil must be just medium hot and not very hot. Else the gulab jamun will brown without cooking inside. To check the correct temperature, add a small piece of the dough to the oil.
The ball must rise slowly without changing its color much. This is the right temperature. If the ball rises fast, then it means the temperate is a bit high. Then take off from the stove for a while.
13. Add the balls gently and fry them. I added all of them at one time. But be sure not to crowd them. While frying they will increase in size, so provide them enough space in the pan.
14. Keep stirring gently to fry them evenly. Since I used a flat pan, I tilted my pan slightly and fried to give them a even color.
15. When they turn golden, take them off the pan using a deep fry skimmer or a strainer. Drain them very well.
16. Add them directly to the hot sugar syrup. Do not dunk them with oil dripping. The sugar syrup must be hot, not very hot or steaming hot.
Garnish with chopped pistachios and serve after 3 hours.
Pic of soft gulab jamun after 5 hours of soaking.
Asha says
Awesome recipe!!!!
Thanks you Swathi. I tried the same way, it came up very nicely 😊
swasthi says
Welcome Asha
Glad they turned out good!
Thank you!
Neha says
Awesome recipe… loved it 🙂 thank you …
swasthi says
Welcome Neha
Thank you so much!
Flavia says
Hi Swasthi,
Is there any specific milk powder that needs to be used or any available in the shop cab be used.
Please advise
swasthi says
Hi Flavia,
I always use regular nestle everyday milk powder. I suggest using that if possible. A few readers couldn’t get them right. I guess it is due to the milk powder. There are so many different ones like – low fat, high calcium, etc. The one I use has nothing labelled like that.It is just the regular milk powder. Hope this helps.
Flavia says
Thank you so so much Swasthi🤗
Flavia says
Hi Swasthi,
Looking forward to try this recipe.
Which rose water do I need to use..is it kewra water used in biryani or any other specific.
Please confirm
swasthi says
Hi Flavia,
I use edible rose water. It is not kewra. You can actually skip it if you don’t have. Just add more cardamom powder.
Flavia says
Thank you Swasthi
Is the edible rose water same as the one used in facemasks or is it any different.
Please advise
swasthi says
The facemask one has some preservatives added. You should look for a edible or organic rose water. Here we get the one labelled as edible rose water. Instead skip it if you can’t. Add more of cardamom powder.
Flavia says
Thank you Swasthi
PREETHI says
Hi dear swathi,
Followed pin to pin instructions . It turned out great in the very first attempt. My hubby, son, inlaws everyone liked it . Planning to repeat it for my sons birthday.
Thank you .
swasthi says
Hi Preethi,
You are welcome! So glad you all loved the Jamuns. Thank you so much!
🙂
Amy Braganza says
Perfect .mine are not smooth surface wat to do but very yum
swasthi says
Hi Amy,
If the oil or ghee is even slightly hotter than required the jamuns will have small blisters with a rough surface. The oil should not sizzle when you add the balls, meaning it should not be sizzling hot but just hot. Hope this helps.
Muskan Kashif says
Hi, I tried the 1st one….the 1st recipe….
I used all ingredients properly and measured everything before adding it….
But it did not turn out to be good….
It was so sticky, I added milk, but wasn’t working…..
It did not even turn out to be brown or anything…..
Everything was so messy, even the dough wasn’t good…..
I’m wondering what is missing? What is wrong? Why is it happening?
swasthi says
Hi Muskan
You haven’t told me how your gulab jamuns turned out. Hard, too soft, disintegrated, uncooked etc? With out having those details I cannot guide you well. Yes I have mentioned in the recipe – the dough turns sticky & you should grease your fingers. The jamuns will not turn brown if you don’t cook enough. I feel your jamuns were not fried enough. You can go through the comments of all the readers. Some have made these gulab jamuns many many times with great results & some failed just like you. I myself have tried this recipe several times to ensure no one fails. I understand there are a lot of factors that matter for the perfect jamuns. The kind of milk powder used, the texture of the dough and the flame. You can read the step by step instructions and assess where you went wrong.
Rohini says
Hi swasthi , as I had posted yesterday , I tried your recipient of gulabjamun with milk powder , I used all ingredients very precisely and fried the way you mentioned, still the syrup didn’t get properly into gulab jamuns even after over night soaking . I am wondering what went wrong .could you please guide ?
PS: My yesterday’s comment is also not seen here now !!!
swasthi says
Hi Rohini,
Your yesterday’s comment was in spam. Only now after seeing your today’s comment I checked it in spam folder to know more. The most reasons could be
1. Improper measuring of either flour, milk powder or leavening agent
2. The balls were slightly larger so did not cook through
3. I guess the jamuns need some more cooking. If the dough is not cooked through the syrup will not go inside the raw dough as it will be dense.
4. Pressing the dough too much while making the jamuns can also make them dense and tight inside. In this case even after cooking they will remain hard inside.
To troubleshoot, please rule out one by one to know where you may have gone wrong.
Overall I feel the balls had to cook a little more on a lesser heat. Wish I could help you better but don’t know where you went wrong.
Ramya says
Very easy to cook gulab jamun thank you ms swathi
swasthi says
Welcome Ramya
Diya says
Hi
Everytime I tried this recipe it was a big hit..But this time may be I added too much baking soda and the jamuns are too fluffy and so I stopped doing and doubled the recipe even then no change..what else can be done with that freezed dough other than jamuns..Please suggest
swasthi says
Hi Diya,
I think you can fry them now and check. The soda will no more be so active now. So they may turn out good. Or You can just bake them and add to the syrup. To reduce the fluffy texture you could have simply added more flour instead of making another batch.Hope this helps.
Diya says
Thankyou ..Will try it
Tanusree says
Hi Swasthi my next attempt would be Gulab jamun. As I avoid reusing the oil, is there any option with reduced quantity of oil used for deep frying?
swasthi says
Hi Tanu,
My mom uses a small tadka pan & a tablespoon to fry the jamuns. But then it takes a lot of time to fry them in batches. It will also mess the stove a bit.Hope you enjoy the gulab jamuns!
Tanusree says
Will try your mom’s way.
Ash says
Hi. I am a big fan of gulab jamun. Have tried your recipe 1st time today. Everything looks good except jamuns are not tooo hard but yes still a little hard side. Should i increase baking soda next time?
swasthi says
Hi Ash,
Thanks for trying. Can you please cut the gulab jamun in the center, take some pictures & email me. You can also send them to my fb page. This tells me what could have gone wrong. Sometimes not enough moisture in the dough can also make that. I can guide you once I see the pictures.
Kuenga choden says
Thank you
Rekha Sunkhara Chandan says
Hi, since you have suggested to use precise quantities, could you please define actual measurement of teaspoon and tablespoon you have used? As there are too many differing measures attributed to tsp and tbsp. Thanks
swasthi says
Hi Rekha,
tsp is 5 ml, tbsp is 15 ml
Pooja says
My gulab jamuns turned out very good. Made your vanilla ice cream to go with it. Thank you so much for the recipes.
swasthi says
Welcome Pooja
So happy to know the recipes turned out good. Thanks for the comment.
Erinn says
Hahaha, I FAILED. Failed so hard. The texture was all wrong and it was very solid. My fault though, I forgot the pinch of baking soda and probably made the dough too sticky. Oh well, I’m glad I tried. I couldn’t afford cardamom so I combined an eighth of a teaspoon of nutmeg with an eighth of a teaspoon of cinnamon and it worked fine. Maybe one day, when I’m better at cooking, I’ll try it again! For those concerned about the cost of ghee before the start of the recipe, you can just use normal butter that you find at stores in the US. It’s all melted either way (I believe). Thank you for sharing this recipe, even though it didn’t work out for me.
swasthi says
Hi Erinn
So sorry to hear that. But the recipe will not work without baking soda. They will turn hard. It is normal for the dough to be very sticky but when you grease your fingers you will be able to make a ball. Yes give it another try but read the post completely before you attempt. Thanks for the comment.
🙂
Sid says
Mine turned out hard even though i put in soda and followed recipe to dot.
swasthi says
Pls cut 2 to 3 jamuns and take pictures. Mail them to me I can help you
Erinn says
One last question before I start today! 😀 to check the syrup, do you recommend I stick my finger into something i just boiled? Seems…painful. Is it not actually that hot?
swasthi says
To check the syrup, just take a little in the spoon. Cool it slightly & check.
Erinn says
I’m so excited to make these. Can the rose water be skipped? I’m not sure if my wallet would be happy with me buying it only to end up using a teaspoon. Thank you so much 😊
swasthi says
Hi Erinn,
Feel free to skip the rose water. Cardamoms will be good enough to flavor the syrup. Would love to hear how the jamuns turned out.
🙂
shanoor forbes says
HI THANKS WOULD LOVE TO GET YOUR RECIPES ON MY EMAIL ID.
THE GULAB JAMUNS WERE REALLY TEMPTING.
I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THIS RECIPE.
THANKS
SHANOOR
swasthi says
Welcome Shanoor
You can subscribe to my recipes on the side bar. Thank you.
Chaitali says
Thank you so much for the recipe. I followed the recipe without any changes . Gulab jamun turned out great. 😆
swasthi says
Welcome Chaitali
So glad to know the jamuns turned out good. Happy Diwali
Sajee says
Hi Chaitali
Did you try with milk powder?