During March every year, the local outlets serving sweets in many parts of the country start selling the dumpling-like deep fried sweets that dispense off their characteristic aroma. Gujiya – which is also known as Gughara, Pedakiya, karanji, Kajjikayalu, Somas and Karjikai, depending on which part of the country it is being served – is a mouth-watering delicacy popular around the Indian subcontinent for its filling-based mouth melting snacky flavour stuffed within refined wheat flour’s outer crust. The Gujiya filling typically consists of a mixture of sweetened khoya (milk solids), dried or moist coconut, dry fruits and more. The outer crust is made of refined wheat flour.
A large number of Gujiyas are made during festivals to serve the incoming guests during the festive season. People also like to pack a small box of gujiyas while inviting families and relatives over for occasions such as weddings and housewarmings. Depicting a fraternising sense of neighbourhood, in small towns often you find people from a neighbourhood flocking at a place to prepare gujiyas in one home, ensuring that one person would not feel the burden of making so many gujiyas by themselves.
While the typical form of Gujiya has the filling of mawa (khoya) dipped in sugar syrup, other types of gujiya may have the filling of kesar, cashew nuts, pistachio or almond. One can also make a filling of khoya and dry fruits blended together for better results for taste buds to perpetually crave for the gujiya.
Gujiya
For gujiya filling:
1. 600 gm khoya (mawa)
2. 200 gm sooji (semolina)
3. 400 gm powdered sugar
4. 200 gm crushed cashews
5. 100 gm almonds
6. 50 gm raisins
7. 50 gm crushed cardamom
8. 200 gm grated coconut
9. 750 gm refined wheat flour
10. 100 gm milk or buttermilk
11. 200 gm ghee
Method:
1. Heat the crushed dry fruits (almonds, raisins, and cashews) in a thick-bottomed frying pan.
2. Do not add ghee or oil since that would keep the crunchiness of dry fruits intact and the filling will not melt in mouth while relishing the gujiya.
3. Once they turn light brown, take them out in a big utensil like a large sized bowl.
4. Pour ghee in a frying pan and add sooji to it. Keep stirring it continuously to ensure they do not form lumps. Once semolina turns light brown, take it out in a large utensil.
5. Mix the sooji with dry fruits. The filling is ready.
6. Next, filter the refined wheat flour and mix the ghee in it.
7. Ensure that you are adding the least hot but fully melted ghee into the refined wheat flour.
8. Mush the melted ghee with refined wheat flour and add milk or buttermilk to it.
9. Mush the dough and once ready leave it covered with a cloth for about an hour.
10. Make small round pieces from the dough. About 72-80 gujiyas can be prepared from this much flour to be stored as a delicious snack for weeks to come (You may finish it sooner than that).
11. Take out one small round piece and flatten it up to the size of your palm. Repeat the process for all the round pieces and keep them in one big plate.
12. Keep the flattened dough on your palm and put some mixture on it. You can either fold and close it yourself in a spiral shape or use a manual gujiya cast for that (see pic).
13. To ensure that the filling does not spill, apply water on the sides of your palm and moisten the seal of your gujiya with that.
14. Next, in a thick bottomed pan, heat about 500-600 g of ghee.
15. In the hot ghee, put 5-6 Gujiyas at a time and turn them with a frying spoon until they turn light brown.
16. Take them out in a big utensil, 5-6 at a time.
17. Repeat the process until you are done with frying all the Gujiyas you’ve prepared.
