Brigadeiro Chocolate Fudge Balls

I got this recipe from the GULF NEWS COOKERY BOOK and thought of giving it a shot as it was too easy to prepare and required just three ingredients which were already there in my pantry. I think it’s rather a kid’s recipe. But I and my mom couldn’t stop munching them :)

Ingredients: (Serves 6 )
1 can condensed milk
15 gm/ 1 tbsp butter
50 gm/ 3 tbsp cocoa powder
For covering:
Granulated chocolate, cocoa powder or desiccated coconut.

Preparation:
1. Mix the condensed milk, butter and cocoa powder in a non-stick pan.
2. Cook on a medium heat, mixing vigorously until the mixture thickens (it should be quite stiff)
3. Let the mixture cool completely and then make golf ball-sized balls (grease your palms with butter in order to form balls without sticking to your palms).
4. Roll the balls on granulated chocolate, dessicated coconut or dust with cocoa

Gulab Jamun

Finally, I am back to UK and back to blogging. It has been a long vacation back in UAE where I had splendid time with my family. But the time just flew away so soon. I swill restart my blogging with the very Indian favourite dessert recipe- Gulab Jamun. I made it quite a few times at home and it turned out perfect and all my family loved it. In the beginning I was a bit reluctant to make this recipe since I thought it was difficult for such recipes to come out good. So the first time I made it, I made it using half the amount. If the recipe is followed with exact measurements as given here, they ought to come out excellent.

Dry ingredients:
2 cups Milk powder
3 tbsful Semolina
2 tbs Plain flour
2 tspful Baking powder

Wet ingredients:
2 medium eggs beaten lightly
2 tbs vegetable oil
3 tbs Thick cream
Oil for frying the jamuns

For Syrup:
1 1/2 cups water
3 cups sugar
6 cardamoms
A squeeze of lemon

Preparation:
1. Mix all the dry ingredients well with a wire whisk or sieve all the dry ingredients together.
2. Add vegetable oil and mix well. Add cream and mix well. Add enough egg to make smooth dough. Here I have never used all the egg. A little bit was left behind. The dough will be a bit sticky.
3. Smear oil in palms, take a large pinch of the dough and roll it by placing in the palm to make a gooseberry sized ball. Make sure there are no cracks on the surface of the ball.
4. Repeat the process with the entire dough.
6. Heat up a large wok or kadai and pour-in enough oil to deep fry few balls at a time. Add 5-8 balls and fry them at LOW flame until you get a light golden colour and the jamuns puff up. Drain excess oil. Repeat the process until all the jamun balls are fried.
5. Meanwhile heat another sauce pan and add water and sugar and boil for about 8 minutes until all the sugar is dissolved and the liquid is syrupy. Add cardamoms and a good squeeze of lemon to this and boil for a minute more.
7. Add the fried jamuns to this syrup and boil for about 3 minutes until the jamuns soften. Turn off the flame and let them cool.
8. Garnish with crushed pistachios and serve warm or room temperature.
(If refrigerating, leave them in room temperature for an hour or two else it may be a bit hard.)

Notes:
1. I have used the shop-bought measuring spoons and cups to get the exact measurements which gave me perfect results every time I made it.
2. Here in the recipe, I have mentioned tbs and tbsful. Tbs refers to sharp tablespoon measure and tbsful is a heaped tablespoon measure and is the same for teaspoon.
3. Lemon or lime juice is added to the syrup to stop the syrup from solidifying into sugar crystals.
4. Don’t fry the jamuns at high flame because it gets charred very quickly thus obtaining an undercooked inside part and overcooked outside.