Celebrating 4 Years Of Blogging With Some Balushahi/ Badhusha (Sugar Glazed Flaky Pastry Rounds)

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Ingredients

For the pastry dough:

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup ghee
1/2 cup yogurt , lightly whisked / beaten
5 pods cardamom , powdered

For the syrup/ glaze:

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 tsp lemon juice

For garnishing:

4 or 5 pistachios almonds each of and , finely chopped

Instructions

Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, powdered cardamom and salt in a big bowl. Whisk them together to mix. Add the ghee to this and rub it in until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add the whisked yogurt and using a fork, lightly mix everything together until it clumps together. Using your fingers, bring the mixture together and lightly knead it into a dough. The dough should be on the stiffer side, but moist enough to be rolled into a ball. The dough will also not be smooth (like pastry dough) which is fine. Do not overwork the dough , as this will develop the gluten and you will not get the flaky texture in the finished Balushahi.

Notes

Cover the bowl and let the dough rest for about half an hour. In this time make the sugar syrup. Heat the sugar and water in a pan till it comes to a boil. Add the lemon juice and simmer the sugar syrup, stirring frequently, until it reaches a 2-string consistency. Take it off the heat

Now take the dough and divide it into 12 equal pieces, each about the size of a lime. Lightly roll each piece into a ball (remember not to overwork the dough), flatten slightly and using your thumb, make a depression in the centre. Do not push through and make a hole like a doughnut, but make a deep enough depression. This will fill out somewhat when they’re being deep-fried. The edges of the dough/ pastry discs will look uneven/ cracked which is how it should be, as this ensures they cook well during frying.

Heat the oil in a wok so that it is just hot but not smoking. (There should be enough oil in your wok to completely submerge the dough discs.) The pastry discs have to be fried at a low heat for about 15 minutes so they’re cooked through without burning on the outside. You can test if the oil is hot enough by dropping a very small bit of dough into it. If it stays at the bottom and bubbles start rising up from it without the dough bit browning, then the oil is hot enough.

Once the oil is the right temperature, turn down the heat and carefully slide in the flattened dough discs into the oil, 4 or 6 at a time, depending on the size of your wok. They will stay at the bottom and once they’re somewhat cooked will rise up a bit in the oil. Now turn each one over to cook on the other side. Cook them until they’re done (will take about 15 to 20 minutes or so) and uniformly deep golden brown all over. Remove them from the oil and allow to drain on paper towels for a few minutes. Do break one after frying to check the inside is cooked and not raw. Repeat with the remaining dough discs.

Dip the fried dough discs in the hot syrup or about 30 minutes, making sure they’re well coated. If the syrup has cooled and thickened, just warm it up a bit. An easier way of ensuring the fried dough discs are coated well in sugar syrup is to place them in a tray and pour the syrup over them.

After about 30 minutes, take them out of the syrup and place them on a rack to drain the excess syrup. Then sprinkle the chopped nuts on top and let the sugar glaze dry out and set completely. Serve at room temperature.

This sugar syrup forms a thick shiny glaze, but Balushahis are also made with if you would prefer a sugar glaze like the crusty kind doughnuts are dipped in, then leave out the lime juice when making the sugar syrup in the first place.

Then cook the sugar syrup remaining after dipping the Balushahi till it is a little thicker (soft ball stage). Dip the already coated (and dried) Balushahis in this hot syrup till well-coated and let them dry out on a rack. Once they have cooled the sugar coating will dry to a white colour.

The finished Balushahis should have a sugar coated crisp outer layer and be flaky and soft on the inside. This recipe makes 12 Balushahis/ Badushas.