Jelabi

Here comes one my favorite sweets which I love to eat anytime and how much ever I want.. :D This is one of the few stuffs which me and my hubby love to enjoy together. It's his favorite sweet too.. Anytime he goes to the Indian sweets he will buy a few pieces for us to enjoy it. I was searching for a simple recipe to try at home. Then came the posting of Jelabi recipe in Show me the curry. It sounded very simple and it was the instant version of jelabi recipe making use of yeast. So with no more time to wait I mixed in all the ingredients and squeezed the bubbly batter into the oil to get my yummy jelabis soaked in sweet syrup. This recipe was great hit and we liked it. I am sure to try this again and next time will try improving on the shape of my jelabis.

Things needed for Jelabi
All purpose flour - 1/2 Cup
Cardamon powder - a pinch
Rapid rise yeast - 1/2 Tsp
Corn starch - 1 Tsp
Oil - 1/2 Tsp
Yogurt - 1/2 Tbsp
Warm water - 1/4 + 1/8 Cup

Things needed for Sugar syrup
Sugar - 1/2 + 1/8 Cup
Water - 1/2 Cup
Lemon juice - 1/2  Tsp
Saffaron - Few starnds ( Optional)
Yellow food color - 1/8 Tsp ( Optional)
Cardamon powder - 1/4 Tsp

Mix flour, corn starch, yeast, cardamon powder throughly. Now add oil, yogurt, water to the flour and mix until there are no lumps to form the jelabi batter. Let this batter rest for atleast 30 minutes for it to ferment.
Meanwhile start preparing the syrup by heating sugar with water until it reaches one string consistency. That's when the syrup is dropped into a glass of water it should stay in without getting dissolved. Once the syrup has reached the desired consistency turn the heat to very low flame.

Heat oil in a pan for frying the jelabis. Pour the jelabi batter into a ziploc bag with very thin hole or a squeeze bottle like ketchup bottle. Press the batter over hot oil in circles until the desired size is achieved. To get proper shape, the batter should be pressed with uniform pressure and the oil should be just medium hot.

If the oil is too hot, the batter will not form jelabi shape instead it will get disintegrated in oil. Also if the oil is not hot enough, the jelabis won't puff up and we won't get the desired texture and crispiness. All this is learned from many trials and errors.. :D

Once the jelabis turn golden brown, shake off the excess oil and drop them into the sugar syrup. Let them get soaked in the syrup for couple of minutes. Once done transfer them to a plate and enjoy warm or cold.
These yummy jelabis go to CMT - Mithai event guest hosted by Mina, started by Jagruthi