Jalebies are traditionally known as a celebration sweet
in India such as for weddings, birth of a child, and Indian festivals. However the Jalebies are evolved from just
a celebration sweet to an extremely popular Indian sweet, savored across India
and Indian subcontinent, from streets to 5-Star Hotels.
But what are Jalebies? Well
this sweet is made by deep-frying wheat flour (giving the jalebi its crunch) in
circular or spiral shapes, and is left to soak, whilst still hot in a syrup
(giving the jalebi its beautiful orange colour).
Although they can be bought
in almost every Indian grocery store and sweet shops, there’s nothing better
than making a fresh batch of jalebies at home and eating them hot. Or leaving
them to cool to enjoy as a dessert.
Ingredients for batter:
-
1/2 Cup White Plain
Flour
-
1 & 1/2
teaspoon bengal gram flour (Besan)
-
1/2 teaspoon dry yeast
(you can use fresh yeast as well, this will significantly reduce the
fermentation duration, honestly I have not yet tried it )
-
1/2 teaspoon oil or
Ghee
-
1/2 teaspoon sugar
-
1/2 cup of lukewarm
water or as required
Ingredients for sugar syrup:
-
2 Cups water or as
required.
-
1/4 Teaspoon of
crushed or powdered cardamom
-
Saffron strands (I
like to be generous here
-
A little more
than 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
- 1$1/2 cup of sugar
To Fry:
1.
Ghee or oil
(Traditional Jalebies are made of ghee, so does this version)
To garnish:
1.
Finely sliced
pistachios
Preparing
jalebi batter:
1. in a mixing bowl, take 1 cup (125 grams) all
purpose flour or maida. add 2 tbsp besan or gram flour, a pinch of baking soda
and ⅛ tsp turmeric powder.
2. mix all the above dry ingredients with a
spoon or spatula.
3. then add water. the amount of water to be
added depends on the quality of flour used. i added 1 cup water. depending on
the quality of flour and besan, you can add from ¾ to 1 cup water.
4. with the spatula or spoon, first mix. break
the small or tiny lumps with the spatula or spoon while mixing.
5. then in round circular directions stir the
batter briskly for 4 minutes. this adds volume to the
batter and makes it even
and smooth.
6. the batter should have a flowing consistency. cover and keep the batter to ferment in a warm place for 12 to 15 hours. i kept
for 15 hours. if you live in a cold climate, you can keep for 20 to 24 hours.
7. this is how the batter looks the next day.
you will see small bubbles on the top.
8. stir the batter and if you carefully see, the
batter would have become thinner than what it was before fermentation.
9. so to thicken the batter again, add 1 to 2
tbsp of all purpose flour.
10. with a spoon mix very well.
11. now pour this batter in the squeezy tomato
ketchup bottles that we get in the market.
Preparing sugar syrup:
1. take 1 cup sugar in a pan. add ¼ tsp saffron
strands to it. do add saffron as it gives a nice orange yellow color and also
its aroma to the jalebies.
2. add ½ cup water.
3. keep this pan on stove top on low flame and
begin to stir, so that the sugar dissolves.
4. on a low to medium flame, cook the sugar
syrup.
5. cook till you get one string consistency in
the sugar syrup.
6. once you get the one string consistency,
switch off the flame and add ¼ tsp lime or lemon juice. stir well. keep the
sugar syrup on the burner itself so that it remains warm when you add the
jalebies in it.
Once this is done, the fun begins! To actually make the
jalebi in simply an extremely hot deep fryer. Move the ketchup bottle in circular
motion to create one spiral and immediately add the jalebi when cooked in the
syrup.
