The Making of Gujia, Handcrafted to Imperfection

I essentially followed Soma’s Gujia recipe and some of her measurements for this one. I also added khoya which Soma had chosen not to add in her recipe. Meanwhile, I grabbed hold of one of my childhood friends from New Jersey on an instant messenger window and sought more handholding on “moulding” these sweet empanada-like Indian fried pastries. I knew from her Facebook update she had made Gujias for Teej a few weeks ago.

I had made the khoya last night, which made life easy. It was a Sunday, which meant P was around to break a coconut for me. A quick call to my Mum in India on how to handle khoya, and I had more confidence bubbling inside of me. I believed I was set to make Gujias for the first time. After all, I had three very experienced people backing me up. And the fourth, a curious but a rather inexperienced one when it came to Indian sweets was peeping down my shoulders. I could never let all these people down. Now could I?

Ingredients for Gujias are:

For the pastry dough:
One and half cup all purpose flour
3-4 heaped tablespoons of ghee
1-2 teaspoons of powdered sugar
Pinch of baking soda

For the filling:
1 cup khoya
1 cup grated fresh coconut
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
Handful of chopped cashew
Handful of skinless, slivered almonds
Few raisins
Half teaspoon cardamom powder
Pinch of dry ginger powder (Soma particularly insists on this)
1 tablespoon ghee

For deep frying:
Ghee

In a bowl, mix flour, baking soda and ghee with your hands. When they become crumbly, add water and knead a smooth dough. Keep covered with a damp piece of cloth.

Heat one tablespoon ghee in a pan, add the nuts and almonds, sauté for a few seconds and add the khoya.
Mix everything well before adding the grated coconut. Cook for a couple of minutes, add the cardamom and dry ginger. At last add the powdered sugar, give it a quick stir and turn off heat. Let the mixture cool down before you use it to fill in the pastries.

Heat ghee in a wok for deep frying the Gujias.

Roll little puris / little discs with the portions of the dough. Place a tablespoon of the filling at the center of the disc, fold making it a half-moon. Use water on your fingertips to seal the pastry. Pinch an ear of the pastry right at the top and crimp your way to the bottom, or use the tines of a fork make little patterns on the edges.

Gently release the Gujias into the hot ghee and fry on both sides till they look scrumptiously golden brown. Place them on baking racks to cool completely.

My Gujias looked they were hand-crated by a first timer. But I am sure you will do a much better job.

These quantities made about 14 Gujias. Oh wait, there were 16 actually, adding up the two P and I ate, piping hot, straight out of the fryer.

Keep the Gujias in an airtight box, till you have just one left, and four people to share it with.