Name: Wheat Gulgule Recipe
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1 cup wheat flour; 1/2 cup sugar; 2 tsp fennel seeds (saunf); 1-1.5 cup milk (can adjust); 2 cup refined oil for frying (can use any other oil)

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Indian Kitchen is incomplete without the aroma of fried food. Festivals and celebrations are the best time to make them! These wheat gulgule are sweet fried fritters flavoured with Saunf (Fennel Seeds) made on the occasion of Holi and Basora in India.

Whole wheat Gulgule or Pua are made by frying the smooth batter of wheat flour, sugar and milk flavoured with fennel seeds.

They are amazingly delicious and I love that they are crispy brown from the outside and soft within. A few people add baking soda to get the fluffy gulgule. This wheat gulgule recipe ensures that no baking soda or any other thing is required for soft and moist gulgula.

We make these in the puja of Ahoi Ashtami and Basora that comes after Holi. Making sweet fried food these days is considered auspicious and that’s why they were given as offerings to Goddess.

Ingredients Overview

The ingredients are easily available in your pantry: Wheat flour, Milk, Sugar, and fennel seeds (Whole saunf), and oil for frying.

I have used refined oil for frying. One may use any vegan oil or desi ghee as well.

Can Gulgule be made Vegan?

Yes. One may use coconut milk and coconut oil instead of normal milk.

I haven’t tried it though but I have tried other dessert recipes with coconut milk and they turned out really good. I guess coconut flavour in sweets is loved by most of us and it’s surely worth trying.

Since coconut oil is a bit thickened, one may adjust the ratios and add little warm water to make a smooth batter.

Can Jaggery be added instead of sugar?

I have always added sugar in this recipe. For health perspective, one may add jaggery instead. The better option is to use powdered jaggery or shakkar.

Using jaggery means the sweetness won’t be the same. As far as taste is concerned, it would be delicious. I know this as I made Pumpkin Muffins with jaggery sometime back and they were really good.

Can we add banana to Gulgule batter?

One may use banana surely. This reminds me of Banana cake and Banana ragi pancakes. When I made ragi pancakes with ripe banana, I didn’t have to add any sugar.

The only thing is when we make gulgule without bananas, they have longer shelf life, which is around 2-3 days. However, with banana one may consume them in a day.

Are Malpua and Gulgule same?

Well, they are similar. Malpuas are more like wheat flour sweet pancakes that are shallow fried whereas gulgule are fried fritters (round ball-shaped) that are deep-fried.

Can Gulgule be made gluten-free?

The authentic recipe is made by using wheat flour. One may try making it with gluten-free flours like ragi, buckwheat flour or water chestnut flour.

The only thing is these are denser than wheat flour so may require less milk while mixing the batter.

Tips to make perfect Gulgule

Use Warm Milk for making the batter
Never add more sugar as it makes sticky gulgule. Slightly less than normal is good.
Mix batter really well. That’s the key step to ensure there are no lumps and the gulgule are round/oval in shape.
Place the gulgule batter in hot oil and not warm or they might split up.
You shall make sure that the Kadai is almost full or else the gulgule might be cooked up faster, which means cooked from out but raw from within. Also, the flame shall be low while frying and high just before you take them out.
Use Iron Kadai

Stories from Kitchen

I learnt to make gulgule from my mother-in-law on the occasion of Ashtami Hui Vrat. She was a very religious woman who was adept at cooking. I am not even close to her skill set.

The tips that I have shared with you above, are the ones I learnt from her and they definitely helped me in making delicious gulgule.

My daughter loves these sweet puas and we really don’t know how to stop ourselves from binge-eating.

Although I prefer making them on festivals, but a foodie needs just a rain for making a fried food!

As I type, weather has changed and it has started raining here. I am guessing its the God Signal!

Detailed Recipe

1)Gather all the ingredients. Make sure milk is warm and not hot. The room temperature is also fine. It’s just that you have to mix it really well. I prefer to use a large bowl rather than a blender. Since we add sugar, the mixture is sticky and I avoid wasting it in blender.

Take a large bowl, add wheat flour preferably after sieving. Add sugar and saunf. Gradually add milk and keep mixing.

2) Initially, it would look like bread crumbs. Gradually add milk so that no lumps are formed. It takes about 5 minutes of mixing. The batter should not be very runny rather a little thick.

Take an Iron Kadai and heat oil while you mix the batter. Take half-full spatula and carefully put it in Kadai for frying. Make sure the oil is hot and flame is low. Keep adding till the Kadai is almost full.

3) If everything is right, you will find tough to flip the gulgule for frying from the other side. Nothing to worry as its normal. I use a dry knife to flip them and hold with spatula.

4) Once they are fried from both sides, you may take them out on a high flame. Simmer the flame again. They would become dark brown from outside.

Keep them on a clean newspaper. They might stick to tissue so avoid it.

Make another batch.

5) The soft Gulgule are ready! Enjoy!

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