Balushahi or Badusha is a deep fried flaky Indian sweet/dessert prepared with all- purpose flour and then dipped in sugar syrup and garnished with pistachios.
Its preparation involves 4 steps:
- Preparing the dough
- Preparing the sugar syrup
- Deep Frying Balushahi
- Soaking Balushahi into the sugar syrup
This recipe looks like a lengthy process, but actually it’s not. Just follow this simple recipe and you will be able to make perfect halwai style balushahi.
PrintBalushahi
- Total Time: 50 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Balushahi or Badusha recipe, deep fried flaky and delicious Indian sweet made with flour, soaked in sugar syrup. You can made this popular Indian sweet quite easily at home.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Dough
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
- 2 tablespoons ghee
- 2 tablespoons curd (dahi)
- A pinch of baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons ice cold water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- A pinch of salt
For the sugar syrup
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup water
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder (optional)
- 10–15 saffron strands soaked in 2 tablespoons water
- Few drops of lemon juice
For garnish
- 2 tablespoons sliced pistachios/almonds
Other Ingredient
- Ghee or oil for deep frying
Instructions
For the dough
- Take a wide bowl, add ghee and with a wired whisk, beat the ghee until it is smooth, light and fluffy. Add fresh curd, baking with a spoon or whisk, whip the curd with the creamed ghee. Mix till light and smooth.
- Now add all- purpose flour ix curd, baking powder and baking soda. Stir. After few seconds, curd will become frothy, at that time add ghee. Whisk well till everything gets combined.
- Now add sugar and salt and mix.
- Then add maida. Using your fingers combine everything till it resembles a crumbly texture.
- Gradually add cold water with a spoon and knead a stiff yet smooth dough. Do not knead too much. Cover and keep aside for 20-25 minutes.
For the sugar syrup
- In a sauce pan add in sugar and water, and cook on a medium flame, keep stirring until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a boil.
- Once the syrup comes to a boil, add few drops of lemon juice and saffron-water mixture and allow to simmer until you get a one string(thread) consistency. Keep aside.
Preparing Balushahi
- After resting time, knead the dough gently with few drops of ghee.
- Divide the dough into 7 equal portions and make round balls. Make a dent in the center of each ball.
- Heat oil. Once the oil is slightly hot, immerse prepared balls. Oil should not be too hot. We have to cook these on low flame. If you find the oil very hot, then switch off the flame while adding balls.
- Once you notice that the balls come floating up to the surface flip over and fry until the bottom half is darker golden brown. Remember it is important to fry on low flame so it gets evenly cooked from inside. This will take about total 20 minutes, approx 10 minutes each side.
- Once these are well cooked, remove from oil. After few seconds, immerse fried balushahis in warm sugar syrup. If the syrup has become thick, you may add little water and warm it.
- Soak for about 15-20 minutes. Make sure balushahis are coated well with the sugar syrup from both sides.
- Remove balushahis from sugar syrup and place on a wire rack/sieve for a few seconds so that excess syrup gets drained.
- Garnish balushahis with sliced pistachios. You may even garnish them with your favourite nuts.
Notes
- Always maintain low flame while frying.
- Do not add more butter then the badusha will dissolve in oil while frying.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Cuisine: Indian
