Holi or Diwali, gujiyas are a must in North India. Gujiyas are popular homemade sweets in Bihar, UP, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Rajasthan. While I was in Pune, my Bai (maid) used to bring gujiyas during Diwali and Holi. However, in Marathi, it is known as karanji and the stuffing has predominantly coconut. There are several kinds of gujiyas that are there in different cultures. This post is about mawa gujiya and how to made them at home. Unfortunately, we Bengalis, prefer having mangsho (mutton curry) for Holi or Kali Pujo. Having said that, we are born with a sweet tooth and we adapt to other cultures quite naturally. Hence, when I made gujiyas last year, my family finished it in a couple of days and asked me to repeat them every Holi and Diwali.

Gujiya Memories

Around Holi, when you open social media, you see so many recipes of gujiya floating around. Everyone is talking about their childhood memories of gujiya. Incidentally, Anindya and Tugga are a big admirer of Chef Ranveer Brar and they follow his you tube channel. And for holi, to our surprise, he came up with gujiya recipe. Thanks to that, I got to learn that the mawa needs to be browned and not just softened. These are the small tips and tricks which only your mother tells you.

Later in the evening, we met up with our best friends Diipjoy and Sakshi. Sakshi is from Kanpur and she went down memory lane with her gujiya stories. How her mother and her help prepared gujiyas the entire day and how it was her resposibility to put the gujiyas’ to bed’. Meaning, she had to keep the trays of unfried gujiya in a cool place and cover them wth a paper or a cloth. In the evening, her mother would start frying them and the whole house would be filled with the scent of ghee. Sakshi’s mom used to make a trunk full of gujiyas which used to last them a month and every guest who would come in would be treated to those sweet deep fried goodness.

Here are some other recipes of Holi which you can try –

The traditional Indian Aloo Tokri Chaat and how to make it

These yummy Dahi Bhallas are a must have in Holi

How to make Mawa Gujiya

Have you seen the gujiyas made with the pleats? They look so pretty. They need patience and practiced hands. I tried using a plastic gujiya cutter, one which I bought from amazon but I did not like the outcome. Plus they were giant sized. So I borrowed an aluminium gujiya cutter from my friend Sudarshana. These were perfect sized, 3 inches and little more.

The steps

The first step is to make the dough. This dough is quite similar to that of a luchi with little extra moyen or fat.
Mix 2 cups of flour with 1/4 cup of ghee, a pinch of salt and a tsp of sugar. Then slowly add a little warm water and make a tight but elastic dough.
Once the dough is ready, cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.
While the dough is resting, make the stuffing.
For the stuffing, you need to brown 1/3rd cup of sooji (semolina) in a couple of tbsp of ghee. Once the sooji has browned (not burnt), you need to keep it aside in a mixing bowl.
In the same pan, fry the mawa. You can use about 3/4 cup of mawa for this or one cup, depending on your choice of richness of this dish. Once the mawa has a little brown colour, transfer it to the sooji.
Dry roast the chopped nuts and add to the mixing bowl.
Add the raisins and once the mix has cooled down a bit, add 3/4 cup powdered sugar to the mixing bowl. You can adjust the quantity of sugar and remove a 2 tbsp of sugar if you don’t want it too sweet. Also, ideally ‘bura’ is used for making gujiya. Bura is a grainy powdered sugar which can be made at home. Nowadays you get them in big basket as well. However, if you cannot manage to find bura, use normal superfine sugar instead.
Then mix everything together and keep aside. This is your filling which needs to cool down before you stuff it in the dough.

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Assembling the dough to make Mawa Gujiya

You need to make small balls out of the dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a circle or 3 to 4 cm diameter. In case you are using a cutter, then make the circle a little larger than the cutter. It has to be rolled out equally on all sides and rolled out thin.
Then place the rolled out dough on the cutter. Fill the hollow with the stuffing. Usually it is about 1 tbsp of stuffing. Brush water on the edges of the dough and then close to seal the gujiya.
Slowly remove from the shell and keep on a tray.
When your raw gujiyas are ready, heat ghee or any vegetable oil for deep frying.
Add the mawa gujiyas slowly into the oil when it is medium hot. Fry them on a medium heat or else they will burn from outside and not cook inside.
Once the bottom has colour, flip them and cook the other side till you have even golden brown coloured gujiyas.
Drain them out on a paper towel and keep aside.
Serve the gujiyas hot or in room temperature.

While making this we also made a video for Behind the scenes for making this Gujiya which you can check here on Instagram

Tips and Tricks to make the perfect gujiyas

Crispiness of the gujiyas come from the amount of ghee that you have added to the dough vis a vis water. Make sure to not add more water and the dough needs to be kneaded tight, just like a luchi or a poori.

While filling the dough, it’s important that we fill out exactly the amount that is required. If the stuffing comes out to the edge of the dough while sealing, then it will spill out while frying.

The dough has to be sealed properly with the help of water or a mix of flour and water. If there is even the slightest of gap, it will open up in the oil.

Fry slowly over medium heat for best results.

Serving and storing suggestions

Serve gujiyas at room temperature. You can store them in air tight containers only when they have cooled down. You can keep them for 5 to 7 days since the mawa is thoroughly cooked. The filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also make the shapes and keep them covered with a cloth in a cool place (not under the fan), so that it doesn’t dry out. When you have completed making all the shapes, fry them.

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Mawa Gujiya

Madhushree Basu Roy

Mawa Gujiya is an Indian sweet snack or a dessert made during Holi or Diwali. It is a deep fried pastry stuffed with mawa and dry fruits and nuts

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Prep Time 1

Cook Time 20

Resting Time 15

Total Time 1 35

Course Indian Sweets

Cuisine Indian, North Indian

Servings 22 nos approx

Equipment

gujiya mould or cutter

Ingredients

For the dough

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup ghee
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

For Stuffing

2 tbsp ghee
1/3 cup sooji semolina
3/4 cup mawa or khoya
3/4 cup powdered sugar Ideal use Bura if you can find it
15 nos cashews chopped
15 nos almonds chopped
15 nos pistachios chopped
15 nos raisins chopped
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg powder

Other Ingredients

Any vegetable oil or ghee for deep frying

Instructions

Making the dough

The first step is to make the dough. This dough is quite similar to that of a luchi with little extra moyen or fat.
Mix flour with ghee, salt and sugar. Then slowly add a little warm water and make a tight but elastic dough. The water should be as little as possible. We don't want to use any extra flour to dust while rolling out the dough.
Once the dough is ready, cover it with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Making the stuffing

For the stuffing, heat the ghee in a frying pan and add sooji to it. Stir fry the sooji till it has browned over medium heat. Take the sooji out in a mixing bowl.
In the same pan, fry the mawa. Once the mawa has slightly browned, transfer it to the sooji.
Dry roast the nuts and add to the mixing bowl.
Let the mawa and sooji cool down a bit before adding powdered sugar, raisins and the spices to the mixing bowl.
Mix everything thoroughly using a spoon or your fingers and then keep it aside to cool down before stuffing.

Making Mawa Gujiya

You need to make small balls out of the dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a circle or 3 to 4 cm diameter. In case you are using a cutter, then make the circle a little larger than the cutter. It has to be rolled out equally on all sides and rolled out thin.
Then place the rolled out dough on the cutter. Fill the hollow with the stuffing. Usually it is about 1 tbsp of stuffing. Brush water on the edges of the dough and then close to seal the gujiya.
Slowly remove from the shell and keep on a tray.
When your raw gujiyas are ready, heat ghee or any vegetable oil for deep frying.
Add the mawa gujiyas slowly into the oil when it is medium hot. Fry them on a medium heat or else they will burn from outside and not cook inside.
Once the bottom has colour, flip them and cook the other side till you have even golden brown coloured gujiyas.
Drain them out on a paper towel and keep aside.
Serve the gujiyas in room temperature. Store them in an airtight container when the gujiyas have cooled down.

Notes

While filling the dough, it's important that we fill out exactly the amount that is required. If the stuffing comes out to the edge of the dough while sealing, then it will spill out while frying.