Kesar Mawa Ghujia

Directions

1. For the dough, rub flour and ghee between your fingers until it resembles coarse bread crumbs.
2. Adding water little by little bind dough. Dough should be firm yet soft. Knead it for 5 minutes. Cover with a wet muslin cloth and set aside.
3. To make filling, in a heavy bottomed pan heat ghee on medium heat, add crumbled mawa and turn the flame to low.
4. On low flame stirring occasionally let mawa turn into light golden in color. At this stage mawa will leave it’s own ghee and start leaving sides of the pan. Turn of the gas and set aside until it cools down.
5. Once mawa cools down mix in sugar, coconut, raisins, mixed nuts, chironji, fennel seeds, cardamom powder and saffron.
6. Using your fingers mix all ingredients nicely crumbling chunks of mawa.
7. For making ghujias, knead the dough again for a minute.
8. Divide the dough into about 30 equal sized small balls. Roll each ball into about 4 to 3 inch diameter (like a poori).
9. Place the rolled dough into gujia mold. Dip your finger in the water and spread it around the edges of the rolled dough.
10. Put about 1 tablespoons of the filling mixture in the center and fold it into a semi-circle along with the mold, press firmly. Make sure the edges are completely sealed otherwise they will open while frying and oil will get in and filling will come out.
11. Remove the excess dough and continue filling the rest of the gujia in the same manner.
12. Heat about 1-1/2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan on medium heat. To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a small piece of dough into the oil. It should sizzle right away but come to the surface slowly.
13. Place the gujia in the frying pan few at a time. After gujiyas are floating on top of the oil, turn them slowly. Fry the gujias until they turn light golden-brown color on all sides. Don’t fry on high heat; the gujia crust will be too soft and not crispy.
14. When they are done cooking, lift them out of the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on an absorbent paper.
15. For making glaze, boil water and sugar in a pan until sugar dissolves and syrup is slightly thickened and sticky.
16. Dip in ghujias in the sugar syrup and and remove on a plate.
17. Let the ghujias cool before storing in airtight container.