Of the many sweets that frequent our homes during festive occasions, Balushahi almost tops my list of favorite Indian sweets. These sugar coated delights sprinkled with crunchy nuts ring all the right bells especially if you have an extra sweet tooth.
The following recipe takes a slightly different route to preparing these sweets. With another festivity just around the corner, its time we put on our cooking hats and plunge into heavenly sweetness.
Ingredients:
- 1½ cup Maida (refined flour)
- 2 cups Sugar
- ¼ cup Soda bicarbonate
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 8 tablespoons beaten yoghurt
- ½ cup finely chopped Pistachios
- 1 tsp Olive oil (frying)
- And another 2/3 cups of Olive oil (to prepare the dough). You can also substitute olive oil with ghee.
Procedure:
- For the dough, sift maida and soda bicarbonate in a bowl.
- Rub olive oil into the mixture. Keep at it till the mixture turns granular.
- Add the beaten yoghurt and knead the dough till soft. Cover and store it for around 45 minutes.
- Divide and roll the dough into 12 soft balls.
- Make a small puncture at the centre of the balls using your thumb. Cover and store.
- Add the dough balls to olive oil heated to medium hot in a kadhai.
- Deep fry on very low heat till the dough balls float up to the surface. Turn them to cook the other side till it gives a golden hue. This takes around 40 minutes.
- Drain the fried dough balls and store it overnight so it cools to reach room temperature.
- Prepare a simple sugar syrup i.e. Heat sugar in water to prepare a two string consistency. Halfway through the process add milk so that the froth surfaces. Remove this scum and throw away the rest.
- Immerse the balushahis in the sugar syrup and soak for 30 minutes.
- Now remove them and wait for the sugar syrup to harden
- Garnish those delicious balushahis with pistachios and serve.
Servings: 4
Preparation Time: Excluding the overnight cooling process, it takes around 2 hours.
http://kanhaiyaconfectioner.com/images/balu-shahi-1.jpg
