DEEPAWALI SWEETS - BADUSHAH & CHOCOLATE BADUSHAH

DEEPAWALI SWEETS

BADUSHAH & CHOCOLATE BADUSHAH

Badusha with its strange name has become a traditional sweet, and is one of the much sought after sweets during festive occasions such as weddings and Deepavali.

The ingredients and the method of preparation has many similarities with the preparation of doughnuts which we witnessed at a shop in Portland called Krispy Kreme! In the Krispy Kreme factory, measured amounts of batter were poured on conveyor belts which ran through warmed up chambers, where the batter puffed up because of the yeast. Then they were automatically flipped into a trough of warm oil. The conveyor belt flipped them into another trough of warmer oil for even frying. The fried dough nuts were drained on the perforated belts while moving .The conveyor belt carried the golden coloured doughnuts through a snow white water fall of hot sugar syrup. Finally the warm, sweet and fluffy snow white doughnuts came out in dozens from the see through assembly just to disappear into the eager mouths of the connoisseurs in no time!

The chocolate coated doughnuts inspired me to prepare these Chocolate Badusha. Below is how we prepared Badushah at home.

INGREDIENTS:

Maida (plain white flour)– 250 gms ( 1 glass)

Salt – 1 pinch

Baking powder – ¼ tsp

Ghee or Oil – 1 tbsp

Curds – 1 cup

Sugar – the same volume as maida (1 glass)

Chopped cashew nuts – 1 tbsp

Cocoa powder – 1 tbsp OR Chocolate slab – 1 piece.

Oil – for frying badushahs

METHOD:

1. Sieve the maida, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Make a well in the center of the flour, and add the oil. Mix the oil and flour gently with your finger tips, to get a texture like bread crumbs. Now add in the required amount of curd to bind the crumbs together into a stiff dough. Be careful not to over knead the dough. The dough should be porous so that it can later absorb syrup. A very well kneaded smooth dough on the other hand, will not absorb any syrup!

2. Cover the dough and leave it to rise for an hour.

3. Next we need to make the sugar syrup. Dissolve sugar in one glass of water and a spoon of milk, and set it on a medium flame.

4. The milks will help in separating the scum to a layer on top. Remove this scum, and continue boiling until a one thread consistency (also called soft ball stage. Check this link for useful info on sugar syrup consistency) is reached.

5. Keep the sugar syrup on a very low fire, and heat oil in a pan on the second burner. If the sugar syrup starts crystallizing on the sides of the pan – make sure to switch off the flame.

6. Pinch a ball of dough the size of a ping pong ball, and flatten it on your palm. Remember that the fried badushah will increase a bit in size. It is fine if the surface is not smooth, and seems uneven. Don’t be tempted to knead it!

7. Make a depression in the center and keep it on a plate. You will get 12 flattened balls of dough with the above mentioned quantity of maida.

8. When the oil is medium hot, and ready for frying drop the flattened dough into the oil and fry them to a golden yellow colour and drain. If the oil is too hot, the badushah will not cook inside..

9. Drop the drained Badushas into the hot sugar syrup and soak for three minutes.

10. Remove from syrup and place them on a dry plate and stick on the chopped nuts immediately.

Badushah should be of a light texture, crispy on the outside, and syrup soaked on the inside.

CHOCOLATE BADUSHAIf you add chocolate to the sugar syrup, in the above process, you get a very interesting variation of badushah!
Dissolve cocoa in little water and add it to the sugar syrup when it reaches the one thread consistency. If you are using cooking chocolate dissolve it in the sugar syrup a little before one thread consistency.
 Enjoy the fluffy warm Badushas or store them in a dry container with a tight lid when cold.