Jalebi: what it is and how to make it at home

Jalebi is an Indian sweet shaped like orange spirals: a batter of flour and yoghurt is fried in hot oil and then dipped in warm sugar syrup. It is crisp outside and full of sweet syrup inside. In India people buy it from street stalls every day and serve it at festivals such as Diwali. If there is no sweet shop near you that fries it fresh, you can make jalebi at home with a few basic ingredients.

What jalebi tastes like

Fresh jalebi is warm, crunchy and very sweet. The slightly sour taste of the fermented batter balances the sugar. The syrup is often flavoured with cardamom, saffron or rose water. After a few hours jalebi softens and gets chewier, but it is still good. The colour depends on the recipe, from pale yellow to deep orange.

Relatives of jalebi exist in Middle Eastern and West Asian cooking, where similar spirals are called zalabiya or zulbia. India also has imarti (jangiri): a similar sweet made from urad dal batter, shaped like a flower.

How jalebi is made

The traditional batter is wheat flour (maida), yoghurt and water, left overnight to ferment. A quicker version uses a pinch of baking soda instead. The batter goes into a bag or squeeze bottle with a small hole and is piped in spirals straight into the hot fat. The fried spirals go directly into warm syrup.

Quick jalebi recipe

Batter:

• 1 cup plain wheat flour (in Poland, mąka pszenna typ 450),
• 1 tablespoon cornflour (skrobia kukurydziana),
• 3 tablespoons natural yoghurt (jogurt naturalny),
• a pinch of baking soda (soda oczyszczona),
• a pinch of turmeric or a few saffron threads for colour,
• about half a cup of water,
• oil or ghee for frying.

Syrup:

• 1 cup sugar,
• half a cup water,
• 3 crushed cardamom pods,
• a few drops of lemon juice.

Method:

1. Make the syrup: boil the sugar with the water and cardamom. Simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, until the syrup feels slightly sticky between your fingers. Add the lemon juice so the sugar does not crystallise. Keep the syrup warm.
2. Mix the flour, cornflour, yoghurt, soda and colour. Add water until the batter is thick and smooth and falls from a spoon in a continuous ribbon.
3. Put the batter in a squeeze bottle or a bag with a corner cut off (a hole of about 3 mm).
4. Heat 3 cm of oil or ghee in a wide frying pan over a medium heat. The fat must not smoke.
5. Pipe the batter in spirals from the centre outwards, 3 or 4 at a time.
6. Fry for about a minute on each side, until crisp and pale golden.
7. Drain briefly and put into the warm syrup for 30 to 60 seconds. Lift out onto a plate.

Serve straight away. In North India jalebi is also served with rabri (thick sweetened milk) or with warm milk.

Ready-made jalebi and other boxed sweets

Boxed jalebi is softer than fresh jalebi from the pan. You can warm it briefly in the oven or a dry pan to bring back some of the crunch. Little India's range of boxed Indian sweets changes, so check the brand and category pages below for what is listed now.

Where to find Indian sweets in Poland

Many people search for "jalebi near me". Little India has shops in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk and ships orders online. Boxed sweets from Bhai Bhai Sweet include the Bhai Bhai sweet mix 400 g; the brand's other products are on the Bhai Bhai Sweet page, and the full range is in the festival sweets category. More Indian desserts are in Indian sweets: kaju katli and halwa.