Sweetheart sweet of India…
I’ve come across a lot of Indians who just love this particular sweet. In fact almost all women in my family especially my mom, sis, aunt and my cousins are die hard fans of this sweet. They all are born with huge sweet tooth and when they see sweets they just want to finish up the whole thing. I was the only exception in my family as I get dizzy even seeing these sweets and can eat just one or maximum two. I know how unlucky am I!
Now, I am living with someone who has a major sweet tooth, and that happens to be my hubby. Most of the times I make sweets or pastries with the intention of sharing it with my co-workers as well and the truth is that it never lasted even for a day. By morning, I could only see the empty platter. Yup, I’ve even tried hiding from him and it was an yet another terrible failure.
Balushahi for North Indians and Badushah for South Indians, resembles closely to glazed doughnuts without the holes. They are not too soft like doughnuts, but definitely sweet and delicious like them. This sweet is sold in almost all sweet stores in India and is served often for special occasions. Until two days ago I had a feeling that making badushah in my kitchen is something beyond my expertise. Well, I proved myself wrong. The recipe called only for 3 main ingredients and needless to say it was extremely easy to make. You don’t have to master the art of cooking nor you need any expertise to make this in your kitchen, just follow the recipe and you have the most delicious badushahs which will taste exactly like store bought ones.
I adopted the recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor, I had to tweak the amount of flour added to 2 cups as with just 1 1/2 cups of flour it turned watery when combined with the oil. Also, I loved the fact that this is fried in olive oil, but you could always use vegetable oil of your choice.
Balushahi or Badushah
Ingredients
For making the dough:
- All-purpose flour or Maida- 2 cups
- Vegetable oil- 2/3 cup
- Baking soda- 1/4 tsp
- Yogurt, beaten and not sour- 8 tablespoons
For making sugar syrup:
- Sugar- 2 cups
- Water- 1 cup
- Milk- 2 tablespoons
- Saffron- 8 saffron strands
For frying:
- Vegetable oil- enough for deep frying
Instruction
- In a large bowl, combine flour and baking soda using a fork.
- Slowly add oil and rub against the flour till it resembles bread crumbs.
- Add the beaten yogurt and knead it into a soft dough.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth or paper towel and let rest for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, make small balls out of the dough (don’t over mix the dough at this point) and make a small dent in the middle of the ball.
- Heat enough oil for deep frying in a frying pan.
- When the oil gets hot, place the dough and deep fry over medium heat.
- Do not fry over high heat.
- Make sure the balls are fully immersed in the oil for even frying.
- Flip over and fry till both the sides turn golden in color (don’t over fry the balls)
- Transfer to a paper towel.
Making sugar syrup:
- Combine sugar and water in a large saucepan, place over medium heat.
- Stir constantly to dissolve the sugar in water.
- When the sugar water comes to a rolling boil, add 2 tbsp milk to it.
- The scum will rise to the surface, remove them using a slotted spoon.
- Keep removing the scums until the syrup is clear.
- When the syrup is clear add 2 pinches of saffron.
- Boil the sugar syrup till it reaches a two-string consistency.
- When the syrup gets thick, place a drop of syrup between your thumb and index finger and slightly open the fingers if the syrup forms two strings you could stop boiling the syrup, else boil for some more time.
- Let the sugar syrup cool down a bit.
- Soak the fried badushah in the syrup for 30 minutes.
- Gently using a flat spatula remove the badushahs from the sugar syrup, the syrup will be slightly solidified, so be careful not to break the badushahs.
- Place on a serving plate and let stand for sometime
- You could garnish with grated pistachios or cashew nuts.
- Any leftovers can be refrigerated for 2-3 days.
- All purpose flour or Maida- 2 cups
- Vegetable oil- ⅔ cup
- Baking soda- ¼ tsp
- Yogurt, beaten and not sour- 8 tablespoons
- Sugar- 2 cups
- Water- 1 cup
- Milk- 2 tablespoons
- Saffron- 8 strands
- Vegetable oil- enough for deep frying
- In a large bowl, combine flour and baking soda using a fork.
- Slowly add oil and rub against the flour till it resembles bread crumbs.
- Add the beaten yogurt and knead into a soft dough.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth or paper towel and let rest for 45 minutes.
- After 45 minutes, make small balls out of the dough (don't over mix the dough at this point) and make a small dent in the middle of the ball.
- Heat enough oil for deep frying in a frying pan.
- When the oil gets hot, place the dough and deep fry over medium heat.
- Do not increase the heat to high, the inside of the dough will not cook well.
- Make sure the balls are fully immersed in the oil for even frying.
- Flip over and fry till both the sides turn golden in color (don't over fry the balls)
- Transfer to a paper towel.
- Combine sugar and water in a large saucepan, place over medium heat.
- Keep stirring, let sugar dissolve in water.
- When the sugar water comes to a rolling boil, add 2 tbsp milk to it.
- The scum will rise to the surface, remove them using a slotted spoon.
- Keep removing the scums until the syrup gets clear.
- When the syrup is clear add saffron strands.
- Boil the sugar syrup till it reaches a two string consistency.
- When the syrup gets thick, place a drop of syrup between your thumb and index finger and slightly open the fingers if the syrup forms two strings you could stop boiling the syrup, else boil for some more time.
- Let the sugar syrup cool down a bit.
- Soak the fried badushah in the syrup for 30 minutes.
- Gently using a flat spatula remove the badushahs from the sugar syrup, the syrup will be slightly solidified, so be careful not to break the badushahs.
- Place on a serving plate and let rest for a few minutes.
- You could garnish with grated pistachios or cashew nuts.
- Any leftovers can be refrigerated for a few days.
