Even before I say anything I just want to say that this post is dedicated to my dad! He loves imarti (or Emarti), it’s his most favorite sweet in the world. I don’t think anything makes him more happy that eating hot imartis for breakfast. He often goes to Haldiram (a popular chain of restaurant in Delhi] to just eat Imartis, yes that’s how much he loves them! As soon as I made these, I messaged him a picture on Whats app and since then he has been saying it’s so unfair that we live thousands of miles apart.
Imarti is also popularly known as “Jangri” in south India, same thing but different names! ?? Since I’m from North, I know this sweet as Imarti. It’s not a difficult recipe to make but like with any other Indian sweet you have to be careful with the batter and sugar syrup consistency. Let’s talk about the 3 important things in this recipe.
Ingredients½ cup urad dal dhuli soaked overnight (split black gram without skin)
1 tablespoon rice flour or cornstarch
orange food color
ghee clarified butter, for frying the imartis
1 cup granulated white sugar
? cup + 1 teaspoon water
½ teaspoon rose water
3-4 green cardamom pods seeds crushed using mortar & pestle
3-4 strands of saffron
½ teaspoon lemon juice
pistachios crushed to garnish
Method* Soak dhuli urad dal overnight or for a minimum of 6 hours in enough water.
* Transfer the soaked dal to your blender and adding little water at a time, blend the dal to a fine paste.
* Transfer to a bowl and add food color and rice flour to it.
* Using your hands or a spoon, mix the batter for 3-4 minutes continuously. Set aside for 15-20 minutes.
* While the batter is resting for 15 minutes, make the sugar syrup.
* Add sugar in a pan on medium heat and add water just enough to cover the sugar. Stir continuously till sugar is dissolved.
* After 4-5 minutes the syrup will develop a one string consistency which means that if you put a drop of the syrup between your thumb and index finger and move the fingers apart, you will notice the syrup forming one string/thread.
* At this stage add rose water, crushed cardamom seeds, saffron strands, lemon juice and switch off the heat. The sugar syrup is now ready for dipping in the imartis.
* Pour ghee into a kadai on medium-low heat.
* While the ghee is getting hot, transfer the batter into the piping bag or a squeeze bottle. I used wilton tip#10 here, you can simply use a ziplock bag and make a small cut in it to pipe the imartis.
* Pipe the imartis into the ghee once it's mildly hot. Make sure ghee is not super hot else you won't be able to pipe the batter, keep the heat at medium-low.
* Make one round with the batter and then start making small circles adjacent to one another on top of that round that you first made.
* Once you have piped the batter, increase heat to medium and fry till crisp from both sides.
* Once fried, take out the imarti, shaking off the excess ghee.
* Dip the fried imarti in the sugar syrup for few seconds.
* Remember the sugar syrup should be warm at this point.
* Flip the imarti to dip the other side in the sugar syrup too.
* Remove from the sugar syrup and transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.
* Garnish with crushed pistachios immediately.