Chashni Wali Gujiya (Holi Recipe) (2024)

Published: Mar 15, 2014 · Modified: Mar 6, 2022 by Tanvi Srivastava · This post may contain affiliate links

Gujiya is a deep fried indian sweetmade by stuffing flour pastry withmawa(reduced milk), dessicatedcoconut& nuts filling.

In this post, I am teaching how to make softchashni mawa gujiya recipe(gujiya coated in sugar syrup) with lots of helpful tips and step by step pictures. This is a 2 in 1 recipe since you can use the same recipe for making regular mawa gujiya, just don't coat them in sugar syrup.

In north india, gujiya is served with thandai or falooda on Holi.

Spring has hit full force here in the Vegas. With spring knocking, it means thatHoli, the indian festival of colorsis fast approaching.

Growing, Holiused to be one of the most busy time at home. I remember how lunch & sometimes dinner was cooked early so that a good part of the day could be spent in making gujiyas.We are talking hundreds of such homemade pastries. She started the preparations a fortnight ahead.

We would gift gujiyas boxes to neighbors and all the house help were also given these as a token. Gujiyas are a must for us on festival of Holi.

What is Gujiya

Gujiya is a traditional, deep fried indian sweet popular on festivals like Holi and Diwali. It is a flaky, deep-fried pastry stuffed with a mixture of khoya (reduced milk), grated coconut, dried fruits, and nuts.

In shape and form, gujiya look similar to sweet empanadas or sweet fried dumplings. The outer shell is made from all-purpose flour or semolina giving it a khasta (flaky and crispy) texture.

In our family, we also call themmewa gujiya. Mewa = dry fruits & nuts. They have different names such asghughra,karanji,chandrakalain different parts of India.

Like most traditional indian sweets, gujiyas need time and patience. There are few steps involved in this gujiya recipe but the good news is that you can make them 3-5 days ahead.

Ingredients Needed

For The Pastry Dough

• Maida or All Purpose Flour/plain flour
• Ghee - For the rich and nutty aroma and a flaky crust.
• Water
• Ghee or Oil for deep frying - I deep fry in oil with a few tablespoons of ghee mixed in.

Mawa & Coconut Filling

• Mawa - Mawa/Mava or Khoya is reduced milk solids that remain after milk is cooked and reduced for hours until all its liquid evaporates. It is an extremely tedious process to make mawa using this method, however you can make instant khoya at home using milk powder and heavy cream. If you don't want to make at home, not to worry, these days good quality mawa is available at indian stores and you can use it.
• Dessicated Coconut
• Mixed Nuts - Almonds, raisins(my favorite), cashews, charoli/chironji etc.
• Sugar Powder (Boora) - Add ½ cup sugar to a grinder and grind to a fine powder. You can use store bought boora if available. Dont using powered or confectioners sugar from baking aisle.
• Green Cardamom Powder

For Sugar Syrup

• Granulated Sugar
• Water
• Few Saffron Strands

How To Make Gujiya

There are 5 key steps involved in making chashni wali gujiya. Let's see them one by one.

Make The Gujiya Dough

1. Sift the all purpose flour with pinch of salt in a wide dish or large mixing bowl.
2. Start mixing the flour with melted ghee (a tablespoon at a time) and then rub the flour with your fingers. Keep rubbing flour and ghee together until the mixture resembles bread crumbs. Keep hecking if the dough can be held together in a ball. This process is also called checking the moyan (I have also explained it in my atta mathri post). Once a portion of flour can be held together in a ball form, you have added optimim ghee.
3. Slowly mix in the warm water. Gently knead make a firm dough. We have to make a stiff dough but it should not be dry. The amount of water needed will depend on the absorption quality of your flour.
4. Knead with gentle hands 2-4 minutes, cover it with a damp cloth and set aside to rest for 30 minutes.

Make The Sweet Filling

5. In a heavy bottomed pan(preferably non stick), heat up 1 teaspoon of gheeon low flame. Add desiccated coconut/coconut powder and lightly toast the coconut till you smell a nice aroma. Transfer the coconut to a large bowl.
6. Melt 2 teaspoons more ghee and add the nuts and toast them till lightly browned. Transfer to the same bowl as coconut.
7. Next, add the grated khoya/mavato the same pan and on very low heat, cook till the mawasoftens. Using a spatula, keep strring mawa so that it does not stick to the pan. Once the mawa is soft, immediately transfer to the same bowl in which we added coconut nad nuts.Dont brown the mawa.
8. Let all the ingredients completely cool. Once cold, add the cardamom powder & sugar powder (boora) and combine well. Set aside the khoya mixture or refrigerate( if you are making a day ahead).

Later in the post, I am also sharing how to make gujiya filling without mawa.

Stuff & Shape The Gujiyas

9. Once the dough has rested, divide into equal portions and keep covered with a damp cloth. Apply some ghee on your hands and press and roll each portion between palms to make a smooth ball.
10. In a small bowl make a thick paste with a tablespoon of flour & little water. This is flour glue that we will need while closing the gujiya.

11. On a flat rolling surface, using a rolling pin, roll out each portion into a 3 or 3.5 inch circle. Try to keep the edges slightly thinner than center.Dont dust the rolling surface with flour. If need be, use little oil or melted ghee while rolling.

Tip:- Use a cookie cutter if you face problem in rolling rounds.

12. Dip a finger into the flour glue we made earlier and spread it all around the edge of the rolled dough.

13. Pick up the rolled dough into your palms and pinchthe center edge on one side in such a way that one of the ends is closed to form a pocket.

14. Spoon a tablespoon of the filling and bring all the edges of the dough together to form a crescent.
15. Make sure the edges are completely sealed, else the filling will come out while frying.

Tip :-Do not overstuff the filling else when you fry the gujiyas will puff up too much and filling will come out.

16. You could leave it as it is or use back or a fork or ravioli cutter to make a pretty edge. I used my hands to pinch the dough and fold it over itself to make a pleated pattern. There is a specific type of mold called gujiya mold available on Amazon, you can use those too.

17. Shape and stuff all the gujiya in similar manner. Keep the shaped gujiyas on a baking tray covered with a damp cloth till ready to fry.

Deep Fry the Gujiya

18. Heat up ghee or oil in a heavy pot (cast iron kadai or dutch oven) to fry the gujiyas. If you are using oil, add 2-3 tablespoon ghee to it.

How to check the oil temperature without thermometer?

Add a small dough portion into the hot oil and if the dough rises slowly to the surface without sizzling, the oil is at right temperature. If it comes sizzling up, oil is very hot. If the dough sits at the bottom, it is not hot enough.

19. Deep fry the gujiyas in small batches (4-5 at a time) on low heat, turning all around till golden brown in color. Drain fried gujiyas on a paper towel. Your gujiyas are ready. If you dont want to coat them in sugar, cool them fully and store in an air tight container for 2 weeks.

Note :- Do not fry on high heat else your gujiyas will have puffs and they will be brown on outside but raw in the center.

Prepare Chashni (Sugar Syrup)

20. Bring the sugar & water to a boil in a pot. Once sugar is dissolved and water is boiling,simmer for 5-6 minutes. We are not looking for any taar(string consistency). The sugar syrup should not thicken. It should be sticky though (similar to honey). Add a few saffron strands to warm syrup and mix well.
21. Dunk slightly cooled gujiyas in sugar syrup for at least 2 minutes. You can dunk longer (3-4 minutes) if you like softer gujiyas. Dont let sit in syrup for too long else gujiya start breaking.
22. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the gujiyas on a wax paper or parchment paper lined plate. Let dry for 10 minutes.
23. Store the chashni coated gujiya in a single layer in the refrigerator for up to a week. These have a short shelf life.

Variations

Gujiya Filling Without Mawa /Vegan Gujiya

You can easily make gujiya filling without mawa. My grandmother made suji ki gujiya for variety and they are quite delicious. Substitute mawa with fine semolina in the filling recipe. Roast fine semolina in ghee to light brown and mix with nuts, sugar and green cardamom.

To make vegan gujiya

Use oil instead of ghee for dough, filling & frying. Roast the semolina in vegan butter or coconut oil.

Recipe Tips

• Mawa :- When you are making the mawa filling , do not let the mawa brown. Just when crumbled mawa softens, take it off the heat. When we fry the gujiyas, mawa will heat up too becoming brownish in color. If your mawa filling is brown to begin with, it will turn bitter/get spoiled when you deep fry gujiya.
• Keep the dough and shaped gujiya covered with a damp cloth at all times.
• Use a wide and heavy pan or kadai for frying. Make sure that there is enough oil so that the gujiyas are completely covered while frying.
• Oil Temperature :- Oil temperature while deep frying is one of the most important factor. Fry the gujiya on low medium heat(always). It takes patience but its worth to get the best looking and tasting gujiyas. If you will add them to hot oil, the outer layer will get puffy all over.
• Troubleshooting :-If a gujiya opens while frying, immediately take it out with a slotted spoon and you will have to discard it. Switch off the stove, strain the oil or ghee that you were using for frying and then start frying again.
• You can easily double or triple this recipe.

Serving & Storing Gujiya

My recipe makes about 12 chashni gujiya. If you plan to eat them over a week, you can store them refrigerated. However, if you want to store the gujiya longer, you can store the fried gujiya (without dunking in sugar syrup) in an airtight container for up to a month.

Serve gujiya with a chilled glass of thandai.