Balushahi
A delicious sweet, dunked in sugar syrup, which is crisp and flaky on the outside and soft on the inside.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 3 cups all-purpose flour / maida
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup ghee
- 1/4 cup curd, chilled
- cold water, to knead the dough
- ghee / oil, for frying
For the sugar syrup
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- a pinch of saffron
- some lemon juice, optional
- pistachios / almonds silvered, for garnishing
Instructions
To prepare the dough
- In a mixing bowl, add maida / all purpose flour, salt and baking soda. Mix well.
- Add ghee and incorporate it with the flour mixture well.
- Add yogurt to the flour mixture and mix well.
- Add cold water and knead to make a soft dough.
- Cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
To make the sugar syrup
- In a kadai or pan on heat, add sugar and water and let the sugar melt.
- Add saffron strands to the sugar syrup.
- Add cardamom powder to the syrup. Boil the sugar syrup until it reaches a single thread consistency. Turn off the heat.
To prepare balushahi
- Divide the dough into 18-20 equal sized balls.
- Press each dough ball in the middle with your thumb.
- Heat ghee/oil in a kadai on low heat.
- When the oil is hot, add each dough ball and fry them on low heat until golden-brown on all sides.
- Dip each fried ball in the warm sugar syrup and remove onto a plate.
- Let it rest for sometime and serve with some silvered pistachios or almonds.
Notes
- Add ghee which is at room temperature to the flour mixture.
- Add chilled yogurt to make the dough.
- While kneading, add ice cold water to form a smooth dough.
- Boil the sugar syrup until it reaches a single thread consistency. (To check for single thread consistency, take some syrup onto the spoon and press some between your index and thumb finger. It should form a thread when the fingers are released apart.)
- While making the sugar syrup, add some lemon juice to avoid crystallization of sugar when cooled down.
- Divide the dough into uniform balls.
- You can also flatten each dough ball if you want to.
- While frying the dough balls, make sure that the ghee or oil is not too hot. Fry them on low heat.
- Do not overcrowd the pan. Fry the balls in batches.
- Keep in mind that each dough ball will expand when fried. So fry them accordingly.
- You can also flatten each dough ball to a very thick disc before frying.
- Each batch will take around 25-30 minutes to fry.
- Always ensure that the ghee is on low heat to make sure that both the inside and the outside is cooked well.
- Dip the fried balls in warm sugar syrup and let it rest for sometime before serving.