Celebrating Holi with the sweetness of Traditional “Mawa Gujiya”

Holi - the festival of colors - is undoubtedly the most fun-filled and boisterous of Hindu festival. It's an occasion that brings in unadulterated joy and mirth, fun and play, music and dance, and, of course, lots of bright colors and mouthwatering delicacies!

It is one occasion when sprinkling colored powder ('gulal') or colored water on each other breaks all barriers of discrimination so that everyone looks the same and universal brotherhood is reaffirmed. This is one simple reason to participate in this colorful festival.

Personally I like it because it gives us all to unite with our loved ones, be it family or friends and spreading love through color and food. It unites us all by different ways of celebration.

Every year it is celebrated on the day after the full moon in early March and glorifies good harvest and fertility of the land.

Like every year, we celebrated the festival of Holi with loads of colors and varied delicacies ranging from sweets to a lavish lunch menu.

Festival always brings happiness, laughter, joy and lot of smiles on everyone’s face. There are gifts being exchanged, families get together and there is always something special getting prepared in the kitchen. My cooking spree for Holi started with the traditional Indian sweet called “Mawa Gujiya”.This traditional sweet is a specialty of North India and is savored by everyone during this festive occasion and “Gujiya” is undoubtedly our family favorite.

Previously, all members of the family used to come together to prepare the sweets. The traditional gujiya recipe is tedious and time consuming to follow but certainly the best choice in terms of taste. This sweet is no longer restricted to North India, but is available across India.

With the passing of time, variations of gujiya have emerged. All of them follow the traditional gujiya recipe but additions and alterations have been done to suit the local taste. However I still prefer the Traditional gujiya stuffed with Khoya/Mawa* mixture.

(*Wiki meaning of Khoya: It is a milk food widely used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine, made of either dried whole milk or milk thickened by heating in an open iron pan. It is similar to ricotta cheese, but lower in moisture and made from whole milk instead of whey)

You might not accomplish perfection in your first attempt but the trick is to keep trying and to pay attention to seal the gujiya pastry properly so that you don’t spoil it while frying them.

So here is the recipe of Mawa/Khoya Gujiya which is a must for everyone to try during festivals.

Preparation Time: 1 Hour

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 25- 30 pieces of Gujiya

Equipment: 2 readymade Gujiya Molds

Ingredients:

For the Outer Covering:

Maida (All-purpose Flour): 250 gms

Clarified Butter: 3 tsp

Water: As required to knead the dough

For the Filling:

Mawa/Khoya: 300 gms

Powdered Sugar: 200 Gms

Powdered Green Cardamom: 2 tsp

Roughly Chopped Almond: 50 gms

Raisins: 4 tsp

Charoli(Chironzi): 25 gms

Roughly Chopped Cashew Nuts: 50 gms

Saffron stands: 1 tsp

Grated Coconut: 25 gms

Refined Oil for Deep Frying

Method:

1. In a bowl mix the flour and ghee until it's crumbly and it should resemble bread crumbs.
2. Add little water and knead for a short while to make a soft dough (do not knead for too long).
   
3. Keep aside the dough for 15 minutes.
4. For the stuffing, heat a non-stick pan and cook the mawa/khoya for about 2 minutes. Pour it in a bowl and let it cool down.
   
5. Now mix all the ingredients of the gujiya stuffing together in a bowl and mix it uniformly to ensure sugar and other nutty ingredients are consistently mixed.
   
6. It’s time now to shape the gujiya’s. I have used readymade molds to shape them.

7. Take some dough, make a ball and roll it into a thin circle (do not add any flour as you roll the dough). Roll it out like thin puri’s.
8. Place the thin portion on top of the mold and put the stuffing in the center of the hollow portion.
   
9. Apply a little water on the edges and close the molds and press firmly for a minutes. Remove the extra dough on the edges and open the mold. The extra edges can be used again to prepare thin circles for the gujiyas. Keep repeating the process till you are left with no dough for making gujiya’s.
   
10. In a pan or wok, fry enough oil for deep frying these gujiyas.Heat the oil but reduce it to low flame while frying the gujiya’s till they turn pink in color from both the sides.
11. Drain oil and transfer to a plate. When cool store in airtight jar.

           Some key Notes:

Ensure that the edges of the gujiya’s are sealed properly or else it will come out while frying. You need to change oil if this happens or else this filling will get stuck on any gujiyas you fry.

Mix the other ingredients of the stuffing to the mawa/khoya once it cools down completely or else the sugar will melt and it will make the stuffing gooey.

Maintain medium heat to fry the gujiya to attain the perfect color.

Let it cool before you bite into it... I know it's tough to wait but trust me! I love it when its warm... but it tastes even better when it's cooled to room temperature.

Hope you enjoy the gujiya’s as much as we did. I know, it takes some sweat and hard work to make them but they are worth a try for its delicious taste.  It is crunchy on the outside, crumbly on the inside and it creates a delectable contrasting mouthful taste and I am sure you just can’t stop having more….