To make gulab jamun with ghee, knead grated khoya with a little maida only until smooth, roll it into crack-free balls, fry them slowly in ghee on a low flame until deep brown, and drop them hot into warm half-string sugar syrup to soak. Our batch of 20 uses 250 g of khoya, 40 g of maida and 300 g of sugar.
At a glance
- FSSAI's standard defines khoa, or mawa, as milk with water partly removed by heating, with at least 55 per cent total solids.
- A 2026 study in the Indian Journal of Dairy Science fried gulab jamun at 120 to 140 °C and chose 130 °C for 20 minutes.
- A 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine puts ghee's smoke point at about 250 °C, so 130 °C is well below it.
- On USDA FoodData Central figures, our dough and syrup come to about 101 kcal a jamun, before the absorbed frying ghee.
- ICMR-NIN's 2024 guidelines define sugar above 25 g a day as high on a 2,000 kcal diet; one of our jamuns carries up to 15 g.
What is khoya, and what does FSSAI say it must be?
Khoya is milk cooked down until much of its water is gone. FSSAI's standard calls it khoa, "by whatever name it is sold such as Khoa or Mawa", made "by partial removal of water from any variant of milk with or without added milk solids by heating under controlled conditions".
The same standard, in the dairy chapter of the food product regulations, sets a minimum of 55 per cent total solids and 30 per cent milk fat on a dry-matter basis. It says khoa "shall be free from added starch and added sugar", and that the fat extracted from it must meet the Reichert Meissl, Polenske and butyro-refractometer figures prescribed for ghee.
So use plain khoya: khoya with sugar added is not khoa in FSSAI's sense. It already carries milk's own fat, and our dough has no ghee kneaded in.
Why is the khoya-maida dough kneaded only until smooth?
Because the aim is a soft dough that just holds together, not an elastic one. Grate the khoya, add the maida, and press and smear the two with the heel of your hand until no grains of khoya show and the dough feels smooth. Then stop, and roll the balls.
Wikipedia's entry on gulab jamun describes the milk solids "kneaded with flour (known in Indian cooking as maida) into small balls of dough". How long to knead is kitchen practice: in our kitchen, a dough worked past smooth gives firmer jamuns that take up less syrup. Roll each ball until the surface has no folds or cracks; a crack opens in the hot ghee.
Why must gulab jamun fry on a low flame?
So that the middle cooks before the outside is done. Wikipedia's entry says the balls are "deep-fried in ghee (clarified butter, the more traditional method) or oil at a low temperature". A 2026 study tested 120 to 140 °C and chose 130 °C for 20 minutes as its optimum.
That study, by Rangi and colleagues in the Indian Journal of Dairy Science, simulated the temperature inside a frying ball and checked it against frying trials. Its abstract reports hardness rising from 120 °C to 140 °C. It does not name the frying medium or the ball size, so treat its 20 minutes as a guide, not a timer.
Why a high flame gives a raw centre is kitchen practice, not something a source we opened explains. In our kitchen, very hot ghee browns the outside fast while the middle stays pasty, and the jamun then soaks unevenly.
How hot is that against ghee's smoke point?
Far below it. A 2024 review in the Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine gives ghee a smoke point of about 250 °C. Frying near 130 °C leaves roughly 120 °C between the pan and that figure, so if the ghee smokes, it is far too hot for jamuns.
Kataria and Singh's review cites earlier papers for that figure rather than measuring it. Our article on ghee's smoke point and when it matters covers what that figure does and does not tell you. Without a thermometer, we use a kitchen test, not a measured one: a small piece of dough dropped in should sink and rise slowly, not fizz up at once.
How do you make gulab jamun step by step?
Make the syrup first so it is warm when the jamuns are ready, knead and roll the dough, fry the balls slowly in ghee, then soak them hot in warm syrup. Quantities are our starting point for 20 jamuns.
- Syrup. Dissolve 300 g of sugar in 300 ml of water with a few crushed green cardamom pods. Boil until a drop pressed between finger and thumb pulls into a short, soft thread that breaks: the half-string stage. Turn off the heat and add rose water if you like.
- Dough. Grate 250 g of plain khoya. Add 40 g of maida and knead only until smooth, adding drops of milk if it crumbles.
- Roll. Divide into 20 pieces, about 14.5 g each (290 ÷ 20). Roll each until the surface is smooth and free of cracks. Keep them covered.
- Heat the ghee. Melt enough ghee in a kadhai to float the balls, over a low flame. Test with a pinch of dough: it should sink and rise slowly.
- Fry. Add a few balls at a time. Do not stir at first; swirl the ghee with a spoon so they turn. Fry slowly until evenly deep brown.
- Soak. Lift them out, drain for a moment, and drop them straight into the warm syrup. Leave them until they have swelled and the syrup has soaked through to the centre.
The half-string test and the warm soak are kitchen practice. Wikipedia's entry calls it "a light sugar syrup" flavoured with "green cardamom and rose water, kewra or saffron", but gives no measured strength. In our kitchen, syrup boiled too thick is slow to soak in.
How many calories are in one gulab jamun?
About 101 kcal a jamun from the dough and syrup, using USDA FoodData Central figures for a batch of 20. That does not include the ghee each jamun absorbs in frying: no source we opened gives a figure, so we do not guess one.
USDA has no khoya record, so we built one from its record for whole milk, 3.25 per cent fat lists 61 kcal and 88.1 g of water per 100 g, leaving 11.9 g of solids: 61 ÷ 11.9 = 5.13 kcal a gram, counted at FSSAI's minimum of 55 per cent solids. Its 3.27 g of fat is 27.5 per cent of those solids, below the standard's 30 per cent, so real khoya is richer and our figure a floor. USDA lists all-purpose white flour at 364 kcal, granulated sugar at 387 kcal and clarified butter (ghee) at 900 kcal per 100 g.
| Batch of 20 jamuns | Amount | Working | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Khoya, at 55 per cent milk solids | 250 g | 250 × 0.55 = 137.5 g solids; 137.5 × 5.13 | 705.4 kcal |
| Maida (364 kcal per 100 g) | 40 g | 40 × 3.64 | 145.6 kcal |
| Sugar, in the syrup (387 kcal per 100 g) | 300 g | 300 × 3.87 | 1,161 kcal |
| Dough and syrup, batch | — | 705.4 + 145.6 + 1,161 | 2,012 kcal |
| Per jamun, dough and syrup | — | 2,012 ÷ 20 = 100.6 | about 101 kcal |
| Sugar per jamun | — | 300 ÷ 20 | 15 g |
| Ghee absorbed in frying (900 kcal per 100 g) | Not known | 9 kcal for every gram absorbed | Not counted |
The 101 kcal is a ceiling for the syrup, since some is left in the bowl, and a floor for the khoya. To count the ghee, weigh it before frying and weigh what you strain back; the difference in grams, times 9, divided by 20, is the ghee's kcal per jamun.
How does a gulab jamun fit the ICMR-NIN guidelines?
As an occasional sweet. The ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines for Indians (2024) say: "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible." They define sugar above 25 g a day, or 5 per cent of energy on a 2,000 kcal diet, as high. One of our jamuns carries up to 15 g.
That 15 g is 15 ÷ 25 = 60 per cent of the daily figure the guidelines call high, before the ghee. The guidelines also call saturated fat high above 10 g a day of visible saturated fat "in the form of ghee, butter". USDA lists 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g of ghee, so every 10 g absorbed is 6 g. If a doctor or dietitian has set your sugar or fat intake, follow their advice rather than our table.
What do you do with the frying ghee afterwards?
Strain it once it has cooled, and judge it before using it again. Our article on whether ghee can be reused after frying sets out FSSAI's signs that a frying fat should be thrown away.
Never pour it back into the main jar. In ghee Mysore pak, by contrast, hot ghee is an ingredient, not a frying medium. Ours are fried in Himdhara's A2 bilona ghee, churned from curd on a wooden bilona; any fresh ghee held on a low flame will do.
The short version
Gulab jamun is khoya, milk cooked down to at least 55 per cent solids under FSSAI's standard, kneaded with a little maida only until smooth. The balls fry slowly in ghee on a low flame; a 2026 study chose 130 °C for 20 minutes, far below ghee's smoke point of about 250 °C. They soak hot in warm half-string syrup. On USDA figures, our batch of 20 comes to about 101 kcal and 15 g of sugar a jamun, before the absorbed ghee.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (2023). Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, Chapter 2.1: Dairy products and analogues (2.1.6, standard for khoa). FSSAI.
- Rangi P., Kairam N., Ghodki B.M., Kalnar Y., Bedi V. (2026). CFD Simulation and Experimental Validation of Thermal and Quality Dynamics in Fried Gulabjamun. Indian Journal of Dairy Science.
- Kataria D., Singh G. (2024). Health benefits of ghee: Review of Ayurveda and modern science perspectives. Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- Wikipedia contributors (2026). Gulab jamun. Wikipedia.