Instant Jalebi

Need I say more ? Jalebis are melt-in-mouth crunchy pretzels, soaked in sugar syrup. Drool worthy indeed! I never had thought I could ever make jalebis at home ; only till I saw this one. This recipe is instant as the name suggests and free of fermenting the batter thus avoiding the looooong wait to munch on these beauties :).

Ingredients :

For the batter :

• AP flour : 1 cup
• Warm water : 3/4 cup
• Corn starch : 2 tbsp
• Yeast ( I used Fleischmann's active dry yeast ) : 1 tsp
• Yogurt : 4 tbsp
• Ghee : 2 tsp
• Orange food color : a pinch
• Oil for frying

For the sugar syrup :

• Sugar : 2 cups
• Water : 2 cups
• Rose essence : 1 tsp
• Lemon juice : 1/2 tsp
• Saffron : 4-5 strands

Cook it up !

Let's make the batter :

1. Add the yeast along with warm water to a mixing bowl and rest it for 5 minutes.
2. When the mixture appears slightly frothy, add AP flour, corn starch, ghee, orange food colour and yogurt and mix well without lumps.
3. Keep aside the batter for an hour in a warm place. 

Now onto the syrup.

1. In a sauce pan, mix water and sugar and let it get cooked till sugar is fully dissolved and the syrup thickens.
2. Add the rose essence, lemon juice and saffron to this. Keep the syrup on lowest possible heat as the jalebis are being fried.

Fry away !

1. Heat oil in a non stick kadai. The heat of the oil must be medium or else the jalebis might break when they are fried. The heat of the oil has to be perfect for the jalebis to be crispy.
2. Pour batter in a ziplog bag/ mustard bottle. Nip off the tip of the ziploc bag to make a small hole.
3. Squeeze the batter into oil forming spiral/pretzel/whatever shapes. ( I did not get the shapes perfect but it did not affect the consumption rate at all !)
4. Deep fry till golden, take off from the oil , dunk it in the sugar syrup, flip both sides to get evenly coated and place on a kitchen-towel-lined-bowl.
5. This process has to be done carefully with speed ; the more time the fried jalebis are in the syrup, the less crunchy they become.
6. The crispy gooey yummy jalebis are now ready to be devoured !

Sending this post to Nivedhanam's authentic indian sweets event