Gujiya, Gughara,Pedakiya, karanji, or Kajjikaya is a sweet fried/baked pastry which is very popular in India during festivals.

Overview

Gujiya is a festival special recipe is made of all purpose flour (maida) patty filled with mawa (khoya or milk solids), nuts(dried fruits) mixture which is then fried/baked. This sweet delicacy is named in different languages throughout India. The preparation of gujiya is very similar to a samosa or any other patty. This half moon or crescent shape sweet treat is especially made and consumed during Teej, Holi and Chhath in India.

Tips

I would like to share few tips and tricks for a perfect gujiya recipe.

1. Use mawa or khoya as pure as possible. If possible, please try to make homemade mawa. This will enhance the taste and shelf life of gujiya.
2. While making dough for gujiya, ghee should be well mixed in all purpose flour (maida) before adding water to knead it. A clear sign that ghee (clarified butter) is mixed well in gujiya is when you take flour in your hand, it forms a lump. It shows that ghee is mixed well and now the gujiyas will be very crispy.
3. To check for the sticky consistency of sugar syrup: If you take sugar syrup between your fingers, the syrup feels sticky to your fingers.
4. While putting gujiya into oil for frying, the oil’s temperature should be low and very small bubbles are produced.
5. Cook gujiya on low-medium heat so that it is evenly cooked on all sides.

Video Recipe

Ingredients

Homemade Mawa/Khoya

• Milk - 1 cup
• Milk Powder - 2 cups
• Ghee - 3 tbsp

Mawa Gujiya Filling

• Desiccated coconut - 1 cup
• Cashews - 2 tbsp
• Pistachios - 2 tbsp
• Almonds - 2 tbsp
• Suji or rawa (semolina) - 1/2 cup
• Mawa/khoya - 2 cups
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Cardamom powder (illaichi) - 1 tsp
• Ghee for roasting

Gujiya Dough

• All purpose flour (maida) - 2 cups
• Ghee - 1/2 cup
• Water - for kneading dough

Sugar Syrup

• Water - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Kewra - 1 tsp
• Cardamom powder (illaichi) - 1/4 tsp
• Saffron or kesar - 10-15 strands

Preparation of Gujiya

• Gujiya Dough
• Mawa Filling
• Add 1 tsp of all purpose flour to 3 tsp water to make slurry
• fork for designing gujiya
• oil for frying

Instructions

Homemade Mawa/Khoya - Preparation Steps

• Add ghee to pan.
• Next add milk and stir well.
• Further, add milk powder in small batches to the milk and ghee mixture. Also while adding milk powder, keep the flame very low so that milk powder mixes very well.
• Slowly milk starts thickening.
• Homemade Mawa/khoya is formed when mixture comes together in form of a dough.

Mawa/Khoya Gujiya Filling - Preparation Steps

• Roast desiccated coconut in some ghee for 2 - 3 minutes on low flame. Roasting coconut, nuts increase shelf life of the gujiya.
• Roast cashews, almonds, pistachios in ghee for 2 minutes on low flame. Grind the nuts or dried fruits. Also mortar & pestle can be used for crushing the nuts.
• Roast suji or rawa in ghee for 5 minutes on low flame.
• Add homemade mawa/khoya, desiccated coconut, grinded nuts or dried fruits, suji or rawa, cardamom powder and sugar. Mix well and gujiya filling is ready.

Gujiya Dough - Preparation Steps

• Add all purpose flour in a big mixing bowl. Add ghee to the flour. Mix ghee in the flour. Ghee is mixed well in flour, when a small lump of dough is formed in hands.
• Add little water at a time to the flour and make a stiff dough.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for 1 hour.

Sugar Syrup - Preparation Steps

• Add water and sugar to a pan. Let it boil and cook until a sticky consistency in the sugar syrup is reached. To check for the sticky consistency of sugar syrup: If you take sugar syrup between your fingers, the syrup feels sticky to your fingers.
• Switch off the gas flame. Further add kewra, saffron and cardamom powder to syrup. This will give nice flavors to the syrup

Gujiya - Preparation Steps

• Take a dough ball and start rolling it. Roll a oversized chapati or roti out of it.
• Take a round cookie cutter or small household katori (bowl). Cut roti/chapati from cookie cutter or bowl. This will ensure that all gujiya are of same size. Remove extra dough around small roti.
• Now take one small roti and add slurry (1 tsp all purpose flour mixed with some water) to the sides of roti.
• Hold roti with one side closed with thumb and finger.
• Fill roti with mawa/khoya gujiya filling.
• Seal the sides to form a crescent (half moon) shaped gujiya.
• Now press one part of gujiya and fold inside (as described in the video link) to give a design to the gujiya.

• Alternatively, a fork can be used to give design to gujiya (as described in video link).
• Heat oil and oil should be low heated.
• Add gujiya to oil and keep stirring gujiya so that this delicious sweet is cookied from all sides.
• When gujiya is fried to light golden brown color. Transfer gujiya to sugar syrup and flip it so that all sides are coated with sugar syrup. Keep gujiya in sugar syrup for 2 -3 minutes.
• Voilà, this delicious sweet delicacy is ready to melt in your mouth. You can store it outside in an airtight container for 15-20 days.