Gulgule

Gulgule is  a north indian sweet  made during special occassions like karvachauth, basauda,teej..etc.It is also called pua in certain areas.Gulgule is very similar to the unniyappam we make in Kerala.Unniyappam uses rice flour whereas gulgules are made from wheat flour.
Traditionally , gulgules are made using wheat flour,jaggery, and fennel seeds.But  we added a south indian touch to it.We added black sesame seeds to it   and skipped the fennel seeds.Also instead of deep frying we used the appa pathram or the ebelskiver pan so that the quantity of ghee can be reduced and we get well shaped gulgules- round and soft.I suppose the meaning of the word gulgule is round and soft ... and this definitely is round, soft and sweet :)



In our home gulgules are made when Navin wants to cook.Yes these gulgules were made by Navin on the Eid weekend.This is something which evokes memories of his mother who is not with us anymore.He used to watch his mom cook and that's how he has learnt these. This is one thing which is made in a big quantity in our home.We keep munching on it for  a week or so.This makes about 60 gulgules(approx).So here is the recipe for our gulgules with a south indian twist!

Ingredients

5 cups wheat
600 gms jaggery
2 tbspn black sesame seeds
7-8 cardamoms- crushed
Baking powder -1tspn(optional)
Water as required to dissolve the jaggery.
Ghee/clarified butter to fry.
We used the unniappa pathram or what can be called ebelskiver pan.

How he made it.

-Mash the jaggery into very small pieces.. (You can do this by putting it in a ziploc /polythene  bag and  beating the hell out of it...angry with something... this is the time.. take it out on the jaggery).
Pour about 600 ml of water to make a fine syrup and then strain this so that the impurities may be removed.
-Now mix this well into the wheat flour to get a thick batter(batter is shown in pic below).

Also add the baking powder if you are using it.You may use a whisk to mix it all well.
-Add in the black  sesame seeds and the cardamom.
-Heat ghee in the pan and sppoon this batter  the ebelskiver pan or  into a deep pan/ kadai for deep frying.
-Keep the stove on low or  medium heat and turn the gulgule so that they are evenly browned.
-When done take them out into tissue paper so that the excess oil can be absorbed.

This will stay in airtight container for almost a week.

Note: Since we used an appam pan we used very little ghee for frying.
If you are deep frying in an ordinary pan,make sure the oil is hot and drop the batter in spoonfuls.Turn so that they are evenly browned.Keep the stove on low or medium heat.
You may also add fried pieces of coconut in this.

Sending this recipe to Gayathri's  WTML event hosted by Priya of Yummy Foods-Priya's Virundhu