Ghewar (3 ways - with powdered sugar, sugar syrup, rabri)

Ghewar is a traditional Rajasthani deep fried disc shaped dessert served with sugar syrup or rabri. It is not only made made in festivals falling in the month of Shravan such as Teej, Janmashthami, or Rakshabhandan b but can be enjoyed in other festivals such as Holi or Diwali . The ghewar disc is made of flour, ghee , milk and water is deep fried in hot oil /ghee in a way that it gives honey comb texture to it. These deep fried honey comb discs are then soaked in sugar syrup and served with nuts topped on it. It can be also served with thickened flavored milk (rabri) or can be enjoyed by sprinkling just powdered sugar and nuts on it straight from the oil. The process of making ghewar is very exciting and all the efforts are worth as the dessert tastes divine and is full of flavors. I bet you will want more.

Course Dessert, festivalfood, sweet

Cuisine Indian, Rajasthani

Keyword deep fried, dessert, diwali, diwali sweet, dry nuts, ghewar, holi, indiansweet, janmashthami, rabri, rajasthani sweet, rose petal, saffron, sharavmonth sweet, sugarsyrup, teej

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 3 hours

Servings GHEWAR

Calories 404kcal

Equipment

bowl x 1
mixer jar
spatula
big bowl x 1
plate
perforated plate
pot around 15 cm diameter for deep frying
pot for making sugar syrup
spoon
pot for making rabri
spoon
sauce bottle

Ingredients

Ghewar Batter and deep frying ghewar

2 cup all purpose flour maida
2 tsp chick pea flour besan
1/2 cup ghee melted
6 ice cubes for making batter and then some more extra to keep the batter cool.
1 cup milk chilled straight from the fridge
3 cup water chilled straight from the fridge, and little more if needed to adjust the consistency of the batter
oil for deep frying. You use ghee too.

Sugar Syrup

1 cup sugar I had used raw sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp cardamom powder elaichi
1 tsp saffron strands kesar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Rabri

1 l full fat milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tsp saffron strands kesar
1/2 tsp cardamom powder elaichi
1/2 cup milk powder optional

Assembling Ghevar

2 tbsp almonds slivered
2 tbsp cashew nut chopped
2 tbsp pistachio chopped
few saffron strands to garnish
few dry rose petals to garnish

Instructions

Ghewar Batter and deep frying ghewar

Take melted ghee.
In a mixer jar add melted ghee and 5-6 ice cubes.
Pulse the mixer 2-3 times slowly. The ghee will solidify. Do not run the mixer on high speed or else the ghee will curdle.
The ghee is solidified. (This process is vert important to get crisp and melt in mouth texture of the ghewar). Scrap ghee from the sides with spatula.
Add 1/2 cup some milk and pulse till everything is mixed.
Add remaining milk and pulse again. Again do not run the mixer on high speed.
Gradually add 1/4 cup all purpose flour mixture and run mixer on low speed to mix flour well.
It will look like paste.
Add a cup of chilled water. Again run mixer on slow speed. Add again 1/4 cup of flour and pulse the mixer. Add again water and mix. Similarly do with other 1/4 cup of flour and water.
Add remaining flour mixture. Add chick pea flour . Add 1 cup of water and run the mixture.
Blend well now. The batter should be lump free as shown.
Add remaining chilled water if needed and blend everything well. Since the ghee will solidify it is good to scrap the edges of the mixer jar in between while blending the mixture. The batter should be runny, lump free and thin consistency as shown. It should look like buttermilk consistency. When you drop the thin batter from height into hot oil it will help to create that net like or honey comb like texture of the ghewar.
Remove the batter in the bowl. Put it on the ice packs or put the the bowl in another big bowl filled with ice cubes.
Add lemon juice and mix well.
Keep the batter chilled. It is very important to keep the batter chilled. When not using it is better to keep the batter refrigerated.
It is good to use the sauce bottle to drop the batter when you are making ghewar for the first time. It helps in the dropping the batter as needed to make the ghewar and is less risky while working with the hot oil. I had filled the batter in the sauce bottle and kept it refrigerated till the oil was getting heated.
Put the oil to heat on medium to high heat in the deep pot. The pot should be half filled with oil. It is highly recommended to use deep pot while frying the ghewar to avoid the oil from spilling out of the vessel.
Check by dropping some batter to see if the oil is heated well.
With the help of the bottle drop very little batter into the hot oil on medium to high heat. The batter will scatter in drops and start moving towards the edges of the pan. The oil will be bubbly. The bubble will settle down in 10 seconds. (if you do not want to use sauce bottle then remove some chilled batter in a bowl around 2 laddles and then pour in a stream slowly with the help of laddle. Keep the laddle on the height from oil and be careful).
Now again drop very little batter with the bottle in the center. (Do not drop more batter or else the hot oil will rise and overflow the pot).
Again once the bubble settle down drop some more batter in the center. The hole will start to form as the batter scatters to the edges. Or Put the butter knife or back of the spoon in the center and move the batter towards the edges.
Put some more batter this ways 7-8 times till a nice thick ring is formed. Keep the remaining batter in the fridge.
Once the ring is golden as shown, run the knife over the edges of the pan and loosen the edges of the ghewar.
With the help of butter knife or wooden skewer insert push gently the ghewar in the oil so that the top surface is fried well in the oil. You can bring the heat to medium while doing this.
Gently put the butter knife in the center hole of the ghewar and lift it up from the oil. Let the excess oil drip back in the pot. Keep the ghewar for 2 minutes this way. You can now increase back the heat so that the oil is heated up again and ready for the next batch of ghewar to be deep fried. Remove the ghewar and put on the perforated plate or round hole ring or sieve placed on the plate so that the extra oil is dripped and collected in the plate below.
Similarly deep fry the remaining ghewar. Stack them on each other after some time. I could make around 10 ghewar with this quantity of batter deep fried in a 15 cm pot diameter. After deep frying 5-6 ghewar you may notice the quantity of the oil is reduced you can add some more oil and wait to deep fry till it gets heated up. The flour will settle at the bottom so every time while deep frying mix the batter well. By the end if you feel the batter looks thick then add some more chilled water to make it thin. You can

Sugar Syrup

Add sugar in a pot or pan. Add water on it. Put on medium heat.
After 5 minutes the mixture will start to boil. Stir and let the mixture boil for 4-5 minutes more. Stir in between.
Add saffron and cardamom, lemon juice and mix well. (lemon juice will prevent the syrup for crystallizing after cooling)
Check the mixture by taking some syrup between the fingers. When you move the fingers , a string is formed. This is one string consistency syrup. Remove the syrup from the heat.
Remove the sugar syrup in a bowl and let it become luke warm before using.

Rabri

Add water to the bottom of the pan. Add milk to it and put it to boil of low to medium heat stirring in between.
It will take around 7-8 minutes to milk to boil. You can keep the heat on medium if you are near the vessel and continuously stirring the milk.
Once the milk has started boiling, add saffron.
Mix well and continuously heat the milk on high heat till it is reduced to half. The layer of cream will form on the top of the milk. Stir it and also scrap the sides of the vessel to remove the cream and mix it with boiling milk. After 8-10 minutes the colour of saffron will nicely infuse in the milk and the milk will be reduced.
Add sugar to the reduced milk and stir till the sugar is dissolved.
Add cardamom powder to it and mix well.
The milk is reduced to half and is nice thick and creamy. This is the consistency of basundi.
Reduce milk further for 3-4 minutes to get the thick rabri like consistency. Scrap the edges and stir milk.
The milk is reduced further and thickened. Remove from heat and let it cook. Remove in a bowl and refrigerate till chilled. (I forgot to click the pic of the rabri in bowl). Add some milk powder to the prepared chilled rabri to achieve a nice thick spreadable consistency and mix well. Adding milk powder is optional. I liked the taste and texture of the rabri for ghewar after adding it.

Assembling Ghevar - 3 ways Powdered sugar, sugar syrup and rabri

GHEWAR WITH POWDERED SUGAR - You can add some powdered sugar , cardamom powder and saffron over the fresh fried ghewar and enjoy it straightaway. No need to make sugar syrup. This way the ghewar can be stored for a week in an air tight container. Put the remaining ghewar in the airtight container and store for a month. I prefer putting them on the paper napkin so that the excess oil is absorbed.
GHEWAR WITH SUGAR SYRUP - Take ghewar. Pour 3-4 tbsp of luke warm sugar syrup on it.
Garnish with chopped nuts and saffron and serve.
Ghewar with sugar syrup is ready to serve. This ghewar can stay for 3-4 days at room temperature.
GHEWAR WITH RABRI - Take the ghewar in the serving plate. Pour the preapared sugar syrup around 4-5 tbsp.
Pour 4-5 tbsp of prepared rabri.
Garsnish with dry chopped nuts, saffron, rose petal and serve . I prefer adding rabri while serving as it will prevent ghewar from becoming soggy.

Nutrition