Chashni Wali Mawa Gujiya (Holi Recipe)

Chashni Wali Mawa Gujiya. Gujiya is a traditional, deep fried indian sweet made by stuffing eggless flour pastry with mawa (milk solids) and coconut & nuts filling. Gujiyas are a popular sweet made for Holi festival. In this post, I am sharing delicious and soft chashni mawa gujiya recipe (gujiya dunked in sugar syrup) with lots of helpful tips and step by step pictures of how to stuff and shape the pastry.

Spring has hit full force here in the Vegas. With spring knocking, it means that Holi, the indian festival of colors is fast approaching. Gujiyas are a super popular sweet in north india during festival of holi.

Gujiya is indian dessert empanadas / deep-fried pastry with a sweet, cardamom scented milk solids and nuts filling. We also call them mewa gujiya. Mewa = dry fruits & nuts. They are also called ghughra, karanji, chandrakala in different parts of India.

You can use this same recipe for crispy gujiya as well (skip the chashni). Mawa Gujiya are crispy while chashni wali gujiya are softer and juicer due to dipping in sugar syrup. Just skip dipping in sugar syrup steps in the recipe to make regular mawa gujiya.

Holi was one of the most busy time in my grandma's house. I remember how lunch & sometimes dinner was cooked early so that a good part of the day could be spent in making gujiyas.We are talking hundreds of such homemade pastries. She started the preparations a fortnight ahead. We would gift gujiyas boxes to neighbors and all the house help were also given these as a token.

Ingredients Needed (Notes & Substitutions)

For The Pastry Dough

• Maida or All Purpose Flour/plain flour
• Ghee - You can use half ghee and half shortening as well for a flaky crust. I use only ghee.
• Water
• Ghee or Oil for deep frying

Mawa & Coconut Filling

• Mawa - Mawa/Mava or Khoya is milk solids that remain after milk is cooked and reduced for hours so that all the liquid evaporates.It is an extremely tedious process to make mawa. These days good quality mawa is available at indian stores and you can use it.
• Dessicated Coconut
• Melon seeds - Skip or substitute with unsalted sunflower seeds
• Mixed Nuts - Almonds, raisins(my favorite), cashews, charoli/chironji etc.
• Sugar Powder (Boora) - Add ½ cup sugar to a grinder and grind to a fine powder. You can use store bought boora if available. Dont using powered or confectioners sugar from baking aisle. 
• Green Cardamom Powder

For Sugar Syrup

• Granulated Sugar
• Water
• Few Saffron Strands

How To Make Gujiya

There are 5 steps involved in making chashni wali gujiya. Lets see them one by one.

1 ) Make The Gujiya Dough

• Sift the flour once.Start mixing the flour with ghee ( a tablespoon at a time) and work it with your fingers. Keep mixing ghee slowly and checking if the dough can be held together in a ball. This process is also called checking the moyan. Once a portion of flour can be held together,stop adding the ghee.
• Slowly mix in the warm water. Gently knead make a firm dough. We have to make a stiff dough but not dry. Knead for additional 2-3 minutes, cover it with a damp cloth and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

2 ) Make The Mawa Filling

• In a heavy bottomed pan/kadhai, heat up little ghee on low flame. Add desiccated coconut/coconut powder and lightly toast the coconut till you smell a nice aroma. Transfer the coconut to a large bowl.
• Melt little more ghee and add the nuts & melon seeds(if using) and toast them till lightly browned.Transfer to the same bowl as coconut.
• Next, add the grated khoya/mava to the same kadai and on very low heat, cook the mawa till it softens. You will need to continuously stir it so that it does not stick to the bottom. Once the mawa is soft, dont brown it,transfer to the same bowl.
• Let all the ingredients completely cool. Once cold, add the cardamom powder & powdered sugar (boora) and combine well. Set aside the khoya mixture or refrigerate( if you are making a day ahead).

Later in the post, I am also sharing how to make gujiya filling without mawa.

3) Prepare Chashni (Sugar Syrup)

• Bring the sugar & water to a boil in a pot. Once sugar is dissolved and water is boiling,simmer for 5-6 minutes. We are not looking for any taar(string consistency). The sugar syrup should not thicken. It should be sticky though.
• Add a few saffron strands to warm syrup and mix well. 

4 ) Stuffing & Shaping The Gujiya

• Once the dough has rested, divide into equal portions and keep covered with a damp cloth. Apply some ghee on your hands and press and roll each portion between palms to make a smooth ball. In a small bowl make a thick paste with a tablespoon of flour & little water. This is flour glue.

• On a flat rolling surface, using a rolling pin, roll out each portion into a 3 or 3.5 inch circle. Try to keep the edges slightly thinner than center.Dont dust the rolling surface with flour. If need be, use little oil or melted ghee while rolling. 

Tip:- Use a cookie cutter if you face problem in rolling rounds. Hey, whatever works!

• Dip a finger into the flour glue we made earlier and spread it all around the edge of the rolled dough.

• Pick up the rolled dough into your palms and pinch the center edge on one side in such a way that one of the ends is closed to form a pocket.

• Spoon a tablespoon of the filling and bring all the edges of the dough together to form a crescent.

• Make sure the edges are completely sealed, else the filling will come out while frying.

Tip :-Do not overstuff the filling else when you fry the gujiyas will puff up too much and filling will come out.

• You could leave it as it is or use back or a fork or ravioli cutter to make a pretty edge. I used my hands to pinch the dough and fold it over itself to make a pleated pattern. There is a specific type of mould called gujiya mould available on Amazon, you can use those too. 

• Shape and stuff all the gujiya in similar manner. Keep the shaped gujiyas covered with a damp cloth till ready to fry.

5) Deep Fry the Gujiya & Dunk in Sugar Syrup

Heat up ghee or oil to fry the gujiyas. If you are using oil, add a tablespoon ghee to it.

How to check the oil temperature without thermometer?

Drop a little dough into hot oil and if the dough rises slowly to the surface without sizzling, the oil is at right temperature. Deep fry the gujiyas 4-5 at a time on low heat, turning all around till golden brown in color.Drain on a paper towel.

Note :- Do not fry on high flame else your gujiyas will have puffs and they will be brown on outside but raw in the center. Drain the gujiyas on a paper towel/ absorbent paper.

Dunk slightly cooled gujiyas in sugar syrup for at least 2 minutes. You can dunk longer if you like softer gujiyas

Gujiya Filling Without Mawa /Vegan Gujiya

You can easily make gujiya filling without mawa. My grandmother used to make sooji gujiya. Substitute mawa with fine semolina in the filling recipe. Roast some fine semolina in ghee to light brown and mix with nuts, sugar and green cardamom. My grandmother made suji ki gujiya for variety and they are quite delicious.

To make vegan Gujiya

Use oil instead of ghee for dough, filling & frying. Roast the semolina in vegan butter or coconut oil.

My Tips

• Gujiya Dough:-The dough should be tight & firm but neither dry nor soft. Avoid overkneading the dough and dont skip resting it.
• Moyan :- For a flaky pastry, moyan (addition of ghee to the dough while kneading) is extremely important. Read recipe card on how to check moyan.
• Mawa :- When you are making the mawa filling , do not let the mawa brown. Just when crumbled mawa softens, take it off the heat. When we fry the gujiyas, mawa will cook too becoming brownish in color. If your mawa filling is brown to begin with, it will turn bitter/get spoiled when you deep fry gujiya.
• Keep the dough and shaped gujiya covered with a damp cloth at all times.
• Use a wide and heavy pan or kadai for frying. Make sure that there is enough oil so that the gujiyas are completely covered while frying.
• Oil Temperature :- Oil temperature while deep frying is one of the most important factor. Fry the gujiya on low heat(always).It takes patience but its worth to get the best looking and tasting gujiyas. If you will add them to hot oil, the outer layer will get puffy all over.
• Avoid frying too many gujiya at one time else the temperature of the oil will drop.
• Troubleshooting :-If a gujiya opens while frying, immediately take it out with a slotted spoon and you will have to discard it. Switch off the stove, strain the oil or ghee that you were using for frying and then start frying again.
• Do not over fill the gujiya. When we fry, the dough puffs as it absorbs oil and the filling might come out if gujiya is over filled.
• You can easily double or triple this recipe.

Serving & Storing Gujiya

My recipe makes about 12 chashni gujiya. If you plan to eat them over a week, you can store them refrigerated. However, if you want to store the gujiya longer, you can store the fried gujiya (without dunking in sugar syrup) in an airtight container for up to a month.

Serve gujiya with a chilled glass of thandai.