Ghujia/Ghugra/Karanji

I had initially posted this recipe in Oct 2010.  This Diwali I am finally revising the recipe and yes with lots of pics this time.  The one thing I miss about India is Diwali, the festival of lights. Just like Christmas here, there is a feel of joy, happiness, customs, ceremonies, traditions, fun, sharing, shopping and festivities with lot of cheer in the atmosphere. Diwali (based on lunar calendar) falls around the beautiful season of autumn. Various flavors of good food and good spirit in the air, everything and everyone feels so festive and joyful, that it is contagious. 

 The name Diwali is itself a contraction of the word Deepavali  which translates into row of lamps. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas) (or Deep in Sanskrit:) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends. Indian business communities begin the financial year on the first day of Diwali, hoping for prosperity the following year. If you like to read more about Diwali and its religious significance, please refer to the source of the description at end of this recipe.

These sweet dumplings are made of wheat flour and stuffed with dry fruits, nuts and dry coconut delicacies. Generally, they are most popularly consumed around the time of Diwali in Western and Southern India. They are a very popular delicacy among Maharastrians and South Indians. The presentation of a Ghujia or Ghugra is very much like that of a samosa, however the it has a very distinct shape. It  is filled with a mixture of grated and roasted dry fruits, Khoya (the solid mass remaining after milk has been heated for a very long time and when all the water has evaporated from it), coconuts and to add a grainy texture, a little cream of wheat. In Uttar Pradesh, Gujia are usually made on the occasion of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. Here they dip the ghujia in sugar syrup.  Gujia is also popular as "Karanji" (Marathi) in Maharashtra or "Karachika" (Tamil), "Kajjikayi" (Kannada, Telugu) South India respectively. The traditional recipe calls for deep frying these ghugra's in ghee (clarified butter). But you can bake them for a healthier version. This recipe will make about 45-50 pieces.  It is a lengthy recipe, therefore I apologize in advance if there are any typing errors on my part.

This year I actually made them on the day of Diwali, Nov 15, 2020. With stress of Pandemic on entire world and political drama here in USA it was a good stress reliever for me.  I decided to make three versions first one:  plane one like they make in almost entire India during Diwali, second version which they make it in Uttar Pradesh during holi that is  dipped in sugar syrup and the third version I created my own American version and  sprinkles with powdered sugar.  All of them tasted great. It is a lengthy process to make these from scratch, but final product is much better than what you can buy from local Indian Grocers.

 

So here is how I made them here in USA with my own version from a recipe adapted from my mother in law, who had verbally told me many years ago how to make them.

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for Crust: 

• 3 cups of AP flour and 1 cup of durum wheat flour, or you can just use  4 cups of AP flour.
• 1/2 cup Ghee, ( I did not have Ghee so actually I made ghee first :) that is what the first picture is on left.
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 and 1/4 + 2 tablespoon cup of water or as needed to make firm dough. (make sure the dough is not of very loose consistency)
  

Ingredients for Sealant:

• 3 tbl spoon (AP flour) Maida
• 4 tbl spoon water
  
  
  • You will also need Vegetable shortening for frying, or you can bake these in preheated oven at 390 F for  20-30 min till they are golden brown. I did not bake them, I fried them.
    

   

 

Method to prepare dough:

• Mix AP flour and wheat flour in a stand up mixer bowl 
  
• Add salt and mix and add melted ghee on the flours.
• Mix the ghee and flour rubbing with you fingers so the ghee is well incorporated forming crumb like texture.

 

• Attach the hook on to stand up mixture and secure the bowl.
• Gradually add water mixing it low speed first.
• Once the water is well incorporated you can increase the speed and  knead the dough to firm texture.
  

•  Cover the dough with saran wrap and keep it aside for 30 min
  

   

   

  
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for the stuffing:

• One 15 oz container of Traditional Ricotta cheese (whole milk)
  
• Same 15 oz empty ricotta cheese container of dry milk powder
  
• 1 tablespoon Ghee
• 1/2 can of Condensed milk 
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (you can use 1 cup if not using sweetened coconut as note below)
• 1/2 cup of sweetened dry coconuts flakes (this is is optional, if you omit this then you can add little more sugar or more figs for sweetness) 
  
• 4 tablespoon of Sooji (cream of wheat) (you may want roast the cream of wheat on slow heat on a griddle and then set aside to cool)
  
• 1 cup of Almonds 
• 1 cup of roasted pistachios (I used salted one from Costco but you can use regular one un-roasted and unsalted
• 1 cup of unsalted roasted cashews 
• 1 cup walnuts
  
• 15-20 dried figs (the one from Costco are the best to use but you can also find them in regular Indian or Mediterranean grocer
  
• ½ cup of golden raisins 
• 2-3 teaspoons of  ground cardamom (best to grind  the seeds in mortar and pestle) (also  depending on how strong cardamom flavor you like, my kids don't like cardamom so I use very little)
  
•  You will also need Vegetable shortening or Ghee for frying (I use Crisco). You must fry them at very low heat. The shortening temp should be between  332-338 degrees F.
  

• Or you can  bake these in preheated oven at 390 F for  20-30 min till they are golden brown. I did not bake them, I fried them. 
• If you bake them brush them all with ghee and place them in preheated oven at 425 degrees F and then once you place the Ghujia for baking turn the temp down to 390 degrees  F and bake for 20-30 min until golden brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method to make the filling with Mawa/Khoya:

• First I will show you how to make Mawa here then will go over putting the filling together with nuts and rest of the ingredients. 
• Melt one tablespoon of Ghee in  nonstick pan on low medium heat.
• Add 15 oz of ricotta cheese and cook it for 5 min constantly stirring it.  

• Add 1/2 can of condensed milk and mix well.
• Continue to cook on low medium heat for another 5 min  stirring it intermittently, at this point will start to splatter so you can partially cover it in between (I use silicon cover, it works very well).
• Then fill the empty container of ricotta cheese that you just used with dry milk powder and mix well keeping it on stove.
• Cook for another 2 min until everything is well incorporated.
• Turn the stove off and transfer the content in microwave safe bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Cook the mawa/khoya in microwave for 5-6 min on 100% power, but taking the container out after every min and stirring the mixture and then placing it back in Microwave and cooking it until it starts receding the bowl.
• You will see the ghee separating from the content but don't make it too dry.
• Set aside to let it cool.
• While this is cooling you can prep the nut mix.

Note: In India ore even here in USA in  some Indian stores you can get ready made Mawa, if you use that, you still need to roast it a in ghee until it be turns pink and then you can follow the same instruction of adding condensed milk and milk powder. However, you can then just cook it on the stove and can skip the microwave cooking as the Ricotta cheese is more runny than ready made Mawa. Here in USA whenever a recipe calls for Mawa/Khoya, I use whole milk ricotta cheese and I use Microwave to cook to get all the water part out of it also if you do it on stove it splatters a lot and can cause burns, unless you keep covering it in between.

 

• Roast the sooji (Cream of wheat) in a non stick  frying pan on low heat unit light brown and starts emitting roasted flavor.
• Turn the heat off a set it aside.
• In a food processor chop/grind the pistachios, and almond and cashew then add walnuts, cream of wheat and sweetened coconut flakes. (if not using coconut you can add 1/2 cup or powdered sugar instead) 
• Grind everything to semi fine consistency or to desired consistency.
• Empty the content in mixing bowl.

• On a chopping board finely chop the figs and then in the empty food processor bowl add raisins and chopped figs and chop them little more  in food processor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Take the cardamom seeds and crush/coarsely grind them in mortar and pestle and add the ground cardamom to mixed nuts.
  

 

• Now take the cooled Mawa/khoya and crumble it. 
• Add the nut mix and chopped figs and raisins and little more cardamom powder if needed.
• Mix well until everything is well incorporated.
• Taste to see if sugar is to your liking, if not you can add little more powdered sugar.
  
• Your stuffing for Ghujia/Ghughra is ready !
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now prepare the work station as follows:

• Mix the sealant: AP flour and water in a small bowl until smooth paste.
  
• Take rolling board and rolling pin and stuffing all ready. 
• Divide the dough in 48-50 small balls and keep them covered with a damp cloth.
• Now you are ready to roll.
• If you like, you can prepare  all the Ghujia at the same time and then fry them or you can fry them as you prepare.  However my suggestion is that  prep about 15-20 Ghujia first so you get used to the rolling and stuffing rhythm and then heat the vegetable shortening at low  heat and you can fry them while you continue to roll.  This is a long tedious process of entire recipe. Need lot of patience like our moms used to have :) 
  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rolling and Stuffing Ghujia/Ghughra:

• Roll each roll with palm of hand to make a smooth round ball and keep the rest under a moist towel.
• Roll each ball on rolling board with rolling pin to 4-5" circle.
• With your fingertips apply the sealant to edge of circle.
• Place ~ 2 teaspoon of stuffing on one side of circle keeping the edge empty and don't over stuff it.
• Carefully fold the circle and bring both the edges together in crescent shape and press it with your finger tips sealing the roll,
• You can use your finger to make a twisted /pleated design on edge sealing the roll or you can use a fork to press the edges of roll making sure it is sealed so the content does not come out when you are frying them.
• Prepare rest of the Ghujia/Ghugra same way and place them in a tray and cover them with wet cloth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method of Frying: 

• Heat the vegetable shortening on very low flame.
• The temp of oil should be between 165-170 C   (332-338 F) .

• First test the temp of shortening before frying by adding a small piece of dough in the heating shortening. If the dough comes up gradually, it is ready to fry.  If dough sits in the bottom then the oil is still cold and needs some more heating. If the dough comes up too quickly then shortening may be too hot.
• Gently slide the Ghujia/Ghugra rolls in the heated shortening 3-4 at at time, do not overcrowd.
  

• Gently turn them over with strainer and deep fry the other side, till golden light brown. 
• The entire frying process of each batch would take 5-6 min, do not rush it.
• Place the fried Ghujia on layers of newspapers and with  top layer of paper towel to drain extra shortening. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Now at this point you can serve or store them when cool just like this, or you may want to sprinkle with powdered sugar like I did for fun or may briefly dip them in warm syrup and garnish with pistachio like they make them in North India during Holi festival.
• You will need some powdered sugar to garnish the Ghujia if you decide to do so.
• And next I will show you how to make the syrup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ingredients for Syrup:

• 1 and 1/2 cup of sugar (I used cane sugar)
• 1 cup of water
• Handful of chopped pistachios some to put in syrup and some to garnish
• Few strands of Saffron
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground cardamom seeds
  

Method to make Syrup:

• While batch of Ghujia that you want to put in syrup is frying, you can make the syrup on another stove.  
• Amount of syrup needed would  depend on how many you want to dip in syrup.  Out of  this recipe I only dipped 12 in the syrup.
  

• For this I used about measurement of ingredients for syrup.
• Mix sugar and water and heat it on stove until comes to boil. 
• Add pistachios, saffron and cardamom and boil the syrup until sticky.
• To test this you can put drop of syrup on a cool dish and test it in between your fingers when it is sticky between your thumb and first finger giving you broken strand (1/2 a taar (for Indians who are familiar with this term, just like Gulab Jamun syrup) 
• Dip the fried warm dumpling in warm syrup and just dunk it and turn it few time for few seconds and take it out. 
• Do not let it sit in the syrup. 
• Take out and let it drain on strainer and garnish with pistachios.
  

• Fried or baked, let them cool in open air and then store them in airtight container when completely cool. 

Hints: 

• If you want to keep the pastry for longer than a week, you may want to omit the Mawa/Khoya and add more nuts to the recipe. Milk based pastry may not stay good for more than a week.
  

• You can make there ahead of time and put them in the freezer. 
• You can always make variations in the filling ingredients based on your taste, likes and dislikes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy and Happy Diwali and Happy New and Prosperous New Year.. to all...

According to Hindu calendar it will be 2077 !! Recipe suggestions by My dearest mother in law Mrs. Hemlata. Image and description of Gujia Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gujia Description of Diwali source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwali

Rest of  Recipe and Photographs by Surekha.