Jalebi Recipe (With Yeast)

Jalebi is an immensely popular mithai in India. It is sold all over the country in sweet shops. Deep fried, crunchy, spiral shaped, batter that is soaked in warm sugar syrup, quite similar to funnel cakes.In north india, hot juicy jalebis are usually served with warm milk or a bowl of tart yogurt for a flavor contrast.

In this post, I am sharing a traditional method of making jalebis using yeast, flour, ghee, sugar and yogurt. These homemade jalebi turn out super crispy and irresistible! If you are in a mood for a seasonal twist, may I suggest my pumpkin jalebi recipe?

Come end of September and its time for autumn festivities. Hindus all over India celebrate Navratri (nine days of fasting & feasting), worshipping Goddess Durga  in nine pristine forms, each form depicting a virtue.

Ramlila  is a nine to ten-day long drama staged during these days in northern parts of india to portray the life events of Lord Rama and his victory over the demon king Ravana. The last day is observed as the festival of Dusherra, which denotes the triumph of good over evil. On way back home from ramlila we used to eat jalebis from the mithai shops, and though there is no ramlila here, I love to follow the tradition and make a batch every year.

What is Jalebi

Jalebi is a deep fried indian sweet made with a yeasty flour batter. The fermented batter is pipied into hot oil using either a cloth with hole or, homecooks like me, use a squeeze bottle. Once the concentric spirals are crispy, they are soaked in sugar syrup. Its crispy, mildly tangy and sweet!

Jalebi is quite comparable in appearance to a funnel cake but it's eggless and fermented. When the fermented batter is piped into the hot oil, it swells and comes sizzling up and changes its color to golden. They are quite cloying, however the little tanginess balances it.

Usually, jalebi is served with unsweetened milk (in kulhads) or with rabdi. However, my favorite way to serve hot jalebis is with dahi (plain unsweetened yogurt).

Ingredients

• Maida (all purpose flour)
• Cornstarch or Rice flour - for the crispiness
• Besan - Gram flour
• Active dry yeast
• Ghee - Ghee makes the batter taste nutty and rich.
• Whole milk plain yogurt - Adds a tangy hint
• Pinch ground saffron 
• Orange or yellow food color
• Oil or ghee for frying

For the Sugar Syrup

• Granulated sugar
• Lemon juice
• Green cardamon pods(grind the seeds to make cardamom powder or use store bought)
• 7-8 saffron strands
• Optional Flavorings - Rose water, kewra (screwpine water)

How to make Jalebi

Prepare the Jalebi Batter 

1. In a small bowl, add of scant pinch of sugar and 2-3 tablespoon of warm(not hot) water, sprinkle active dry yeast, mix a little and let sit for 5-8 minutes. Let the yeast bloom (you should see froth on top). If the yeast does not bloom , discard and start the batch again.
2. Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, sift the maida, besan and cornstarch. Add the ghee and yogurt to the flour.
3. Add the bloomed yeast water mix, and slowly add luke warm water to make a smooth,lump free batter. Add the water a little at a time and incorporate.The consistency should be like a thick pancake batter.
4. Cover the bowl with a cling film and set aside in a warm place to ferment for 2-3 hours. (The batter will ferment quickly, about 1-2 hours during summer months but could take longer during winters) Do not disturb during fermenting.

Make the Sugar Syrup

Start making the syrup about 10 minutes before you start frying jalebi.

5. In a medium, wide pot, bring the sugar and water to a boil.
6. Once the sugar syrup is boiling, reduce the heat, add the cardamom and let simmer for 6-7 minutes and let syrup thicken a bit. We are not looking for any string consistency here. If you take a tiny drop of syrup in between your thumb and index finger, it should feel sticky like honey and not watery.
7. Once the sugar has simmered and thickened, add lemon juice, stir and switch off the heat. Wait for 2-3 minutes and then if you are using saffron or any other flavorings, add it to the sugar syrup. Let sit warm near to where you will fry up the jalebis.

Check the Batter

8. At the end of two hours, the fermented batter will not exactly double up in volume but you would see that it is much more light and fluffy than what we started with.
9. Once fermented, do not mix the batter much. We want it to remain airy and fluffy. Just cut and fold once or twice using a spatula ( the way we handle cake batter) and pour it into a squeezable bottle. Tap a few times to make sure that there are no air bubbles.
10. Try to squeeze the batter out of the nozzle, it should come out like how tooth paste comes from a tube. If you feel that the batter is thick, add a little water for the right consistency or if the batter is thin, add a couple of tablespoons of flour and mix gently so that there are no lumps.

You would think that jalebi is simply fried batter, what could go wrong! Trust me, a lot. The key to making perfect jalebi is the consistency of batter. The consistency should be velvety- ribbon like, it should be thick but it should flow in a continuous string when dropped from a height.

It takes practice to understand it fully, however I am writing a lot of tips and tricks that will help you understand the details of jalebi making. Too runny or thin batter, jalebi will be thin and crackly. Too thick batter, they will be thick and doughy and won't absorb the syrup!

In addition to batter, the temperature of the oil also plays an important role. Flat jalebi often result from low heat frying, too high- the jalebi will burn.

Fry & Soak the Jalebi

11. Use the widest pot or wok or pan that you have in your kitchen to fry the jalebis. I use a 12 inch or 14 inch skillet. Pour 1-2 inches of oil in it and let heat up on medium heat.
12. To test the right temperature of oil, drop a small quantity batter in the oil, it should come up sizzling to the top but without changing color (if batter changes color, reduce heat and let the oil temperature reduce a bit).
13. Squeeze the batter out of the nozzle, in a circular motion & applying constant pressure and make 3-4 concentric circles in the oil and sealing them in the middle. Work from inside towards outside. It takes time and experience to get proper shape and it gets better and better batch after batch.
14. Do not fry more than 6-7  jalebis in a batch. Once you have piped the jalebis in hot oil, in 2-3 seconds they will come floating up, flip and let turn golden on the other side too. Once golden brown, take out from the hot oil using tongs or slotted spoon, tilting the spoon so that excess oil is drained.
15. Add the fried jalebi to the warm (not hot) cardamom-infused syrup. Let soak for not more than 20-30 seconds and take out again tilting the ladle to drain excess syrup else they will break and turn soggy. Fry up all the  jalebis and soak in syrup. Serve hot jalebi rightaway!

Tips for Perfect jalebi

Indian Cooking especially mithai (sweets) making rides on a lot of approximations, visual feel and tips and tricks learnt through experience. Mithai making is an art and gets better with practice. Here are few of the things I have learnt from my jalebi making trials.

• Sugar Syrup :-Addition of lemon juice to the syrup prevents crystallization of sugar as well as lends it a mild tart flavor which is typical to  jalebis.
• Food Color :- Adding food coloring to the batter is a choice, if you do not want, skip it. I like to add color because I think it looks nice to the eyes.
• Batter :- Usually the batter gets a little runny after fermentation, so its better to keep it on the thickish side before you set it out to ferment. You can always add water later to get the right consistency.
• Batter Consistency :- One of the ways to check the consistency of batter is to try to drop it in the bowl from a height, about 6-7 inches , it should fall is continuously, similar to how a lace or ribbon flows.
• Piping the Jalebi :-You could use a Ziploc bag with a small opening to make the jalebi. However, I find using the squeeze bottle much easier since if you keep on pressing the ziploc bag, after a few batches, the hole becomes large in size and the jalebis become very very thick. I find the ziploc method quite messy too. The squeezable bottles are available in baking aisle. Attaching a nozzle to a piping bag works fine too,keep in mind that the thickness of the jalebis will depend on the nozzle size. Do not use a very big size nozzle since the jalebis will not cook properly.
• Oil Temerature - While frying if the temperature of oil is too hot, the jalebis will come up sizzling, the batter will tear or have bubbles all over, it might every scatter in the oil and jalebis will turn over crisp and not absorb syrup properly. If the oil temperature is too low, then jalebis will remain flat and raw inside. Once you start frying, it will take you 1-2 minutes to get a feel of the right temperature of oil, the jalebis should come up within few seconds (2-3secs) of piping into oil and swell as you fry but at the same time do not get too brown. Don't worry I also had few over brown ones, so you will know when its right.
• Shape of Jalebi :- Getting the right shape of the jalebis takes time, they do not have to be precise and perfect but as you make more and more, you will get a hang of it. Just keep in mind to squeeze the bottle/piping bag batter with a constant pressure and work in concentric circles, outside towards inside. Again, practice will help. However, whatever shape they come out,they will taste good.
• Texture of Jalebis :- The right texture of the jalebis is crispy on outside, if you take a bite, you will notice the tubular crossection filled with syrup. Without getting more technical,just know that they are not meant to be soft.
• Vegan Version - Skip the yogurt in the recipe and use a little more water to get the right consistency of the batter.

Storage

• Jalebis can be stored for 2-3 days. Do not refrigerate. Just store at room temperature. However, I do not recommend or prefer storing them, the texture is pretty off once they are cold. Make small batches and serve rightaway while still warm.