Gunjiya - Gujiya - Gujia - Indian Sweet

With Holi, the festival of color, coming up in a few days, my home is teaming with joy and is ready to kick-start one of our favorite festivals. Every year, we color the town and ourselves with various types of colored powder and water guns! One of the traditional foods that each Holi celebration has to have is the gunjiya (gujiya). Gunjiyas (Gujiyas) are sweet fried dumplings stuffed with khoya and nuts. The crisp outside covering and the soft inside stuffing makes for the perfect dessert to eat and enjoy on the go while you’re running away from people attacking you with colored powder!

Gunjiya (Gujiya)

By mohini

Skill Scale: Moderate
Serving: 22-24
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 60 minutes

Ingredients

Dough:
all-purpose flour - 3 cup
ghee/oil - ½ cup, melted
water
Stuffing:
khoya - 1 cup, (found in Indian stores)
powdered sugar - 1 ½ cup
wheat flour - ¼ cup
elaichi powder - ½ tsp
assorted nuts - ½ cup, (chopped)
Ghee or oil - for frying

Instructions

In a mixing bowl, mix the all-purpose flour and melted ghee or oil and make a dough with the help of water. NOTE: Make sure the dough is medium-firm
Place the dough in a moist cheesecloth for 5 minutes and set aside
While the dough is being prepared, we’re going to make the stuffing
In a frying pan, continuously stir the wheat flour on a medium flame for 2-3 minutes until it become slightly pink and then turn off the flame
Grate/crumble the khoya in a mixing bowl
Add the wheat flour, powdered sugar, elaichi powder and chopped nuts to the mixing bowl containing the khoya, mix well and set aside
Grab the dough again and knead it well
Make about 22-24 small balls (approximately 1 inch in diameter)
Using a rolling pin, roll 8 balls of dough so it expands to 2 ½-3 inches in diameter
Spoon about 2 tsps of stuffing mixture in the center of each rolled dough. NOTE: Make sure the stuffing is in the center and is NOT anywhere near the edge of the dough (approximately ½ inch from the edge of each side)
Moisten your finger tip and moisten half of the edge of the dough (in a semi-circle)
Then fold the dry semi-circle over the moistened semi-circle and firmly press the edges together so they stick to each other well
After you've stuffed and sealed about 8 of them, set aside
Heat the ghee or oil in a frying pan on high flame for 1-2 minutes
Once the ghee or oil looks like it is heated to a medium temperature, reduce the flame to low-medium and place the 8 stuffed and sealed gunjiyas into the frying pan
Fry for about 18-20 minutes until they turn golden and take them out and place them on paper towels to absorb the excess oil or ghee
Repeat steps 9-13 while the 1^st batch is being fried and then place the 2^nd batch into the frying pan after you’ve taken the 1^st batch out
Repeat steps 9-13 while the 2^nd batch is being fried and then place the 3^rd batch into the frying pan after you've taken the 3^rd batch out
If you have any dough and stuffing, repeat the same steps until all of your gunjiyas have been stuffed, sealed and fried.
Serve

NOTE: Gunjiyas can be served immediately and they can also be stored in air-tight containers (in room temperature) for about 1 month
NOTE: Although ghee is preferred to be used in the recipe for taste purposes, if you’d like, you can use ghee to make the dough and oil for frying.