Jalebi is typically served as a ‘celebration sweet’ in India. Jalebi has crispy, juicy texture. In the form of dessert, Jalebi is served with malai, yogurt or rabri. Jalebi is very popular during special occasions like Diwali, Dussehra, Holi, etc…
In other parts of the world, this sweet is popularly eaten as a sweet snack. Sweet taste is offered to Jalebi, by dipping the fried stuff in sugar syrup. Often kewra essence, kewra water or rose water is incorporated into the batter for authentic flavor.
Ingredients
1 cup Maida/All Purpose Flour
¼ tsp Baking Soda
¼ tsp Cardamom Powder
½ cup Yogurt/Dahi
2 Pinch Orange Food Color
1 tsp Kewra Water (Optional)
Oil/Ghee for Deep Frying
For Sugar Syrup1 cup Sugar
1 cup Water
4-5 Cardamom Pods
½ tsp Saffron Stings/Threads
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
Sliced Pistachios for Garnishing
Method
For Batter* Sieve the flour, baking soda, cardamom powder and orange food color all together in a mixing bowl.
* Add yogurt into the flour mixture and mix it till no lumps.
* Add kewra water and mix it and make a thick, smooth paste like dropping consistency, but not too thin, add required water if necessary.
* Cover the mixing bowl and leave to ferment for 7-8 hours (time is depending on the weather).
* Once the batter is ready, it should be spongy and you can able to see bubbles on top of the batter surface, that means it’s perfectly ready.
For Sugar Syrup* In a deep pan, add sugar, water, saffron strings, cardamom pods and lemon juice, and cook it on high flame till thick syrup.
* Check the syrup, take a drop of syrup (cooled) in between your thumb and finger and then pull the fingers apart, it should be one thread/string. Keep warm aside till you fry the Jalebis.
Process
* Heat oil or ghee in a broad pan on low to medium.
* Mix the batter using a spoon, then take a squeeze bottle and fill it with the prepared batter.
* Check oil is ready, drop in a little bit of batter in the oil, and see if it comes up at once. If it does, that means oil is ready for frying.
* Now hold the bottle upside down and squeeze it and make a swirl into the hot oil, make more swirls straight into the hot oil and make as many as swirls you can, keep the space between Jalebis to avoid sticking.
* Fry both sides of the Jalebis till light golden brown on low to medium flame.
* Once done, drain out the Jalebis from the oil and dip it directly into the warm sugar syrup and leave it for a 1-2 mins then remove it on a plate.
* Use same method for the remaining batter/mixture and make more Jalebis.
* Sweet, crispy, soft, juicy Jalebis are ready. You can garnish it with sliced pistachios and serve it with malai, dahi or basundi and enjoy the festive treat.