Badusha or Balushahi is Diwali special soft and flaky sweet prepared with Maida or all-purpose flour and deep fried in clarified butter/oil and coated with sugar syrup.
What Is Balushahi or Badusha?
Balushahi / Badushahs / Bhadushah / Badushah / Badusha is a traditional and a popular Indian sweet recipe. It is pretty popular all over India. In fact, it is popularly known as Balushahi in North India whereas in South it is called as Badushah or Badusha.
It is also called as the Indian Doughnut. It’s a soft and flaky sweet prepared with Maida or all-purpose flour and deep fried in clarified butter/oil and coated with sugar syrup.
Hotel V’s Kollu Pethi
I have mentioned in one of my “Non-Recipe” posts that my paternal grand-dad and great granddad owned a hotel/restaurant/mess. The word restaurant was not prevalent in those days and even now we use the term hotel for restaurants. Till date, everyone in my native recognizes and addresses us with our great grandfather’s name prefixed with the term Hotel. I am always addressed as Hotel V’s kollu pethi. (Great granddaughter)
With my granddad’s demise, they had to sell it down and as my dad and uncle wanted to pursue different career the hotel came to a period. This time when my mom visited us, I wrote down a handful of our family recipes that were popular in our hotel. Apparently all of them were sweets. :-) Here is our first popular recipe – Badusha.
Badusha – the 521th Recipe
Why am I posting a sweet recipe all of a sudden? That too our traditional family recipe? Err my blog turned 7 today. Yes, I and my blog are in this blogging space for the past 7 years. So far I have mentioned only about my 100th and 300th recipe and I haven’t mentioned about any other blog statistics or numbers in this space.
I usually don’t keep track of them. But how did I remember that it’s the 7th birthday? As I was doing a regular blog maintenance last month (cleaning up categories, tags etc.) I realized that July 24th marks the completion of 7 years. My very first recipe was Paruppu Thogayal and this is my 521th recipe and it’s going to be the Badusha.
When Amma explained the recipe, I was surprised to see the ingredient yogurt instead of milk. I might have confirmed an n number of times and at one point she gave up and asked me to check with my grandma. ;-) No, I didn’t check with my grandma. I know it’s the family recipe and I wanted to try it the same way. The end result – all of us loved it and Vaandu’s verdict was “It’s better than the cookies Amma” ;-)
Before getting into the recipe, I would like to thank my family, friends and all my readers for this humongous support. Without any further ado, here is the recipe. :-)
Badusha or Balushahi Recipe
Ingredients:
- Maida / All Purpose Flour – 1 cup
- Baking Soda – ½ tsp
- Baking Powder – ¼ tsp
- Yoghurt / Curd / Yogurt – 3 tbsps (I used greek yogurt)
- Melted Ghee – 3 tbsps + 1 tsp
- Water – 1 cup + 1 tbsp
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Oil – for frying
- Saffron Strands – a pinch
- Elaichi Powder – 1 tsp
- Dried fruits nuts or colored grated coconut or colored sugar crystal or saffron threads for decoration.
Steps:
Preparing the dough:
- In a wide bowl, take the 3 tbsps of ghee, 3 tbsps of yogurt, baking soda and baking powder and whisk well. I used my electric hand mixer and whipped it for about 4 to 5 minutes till it becomes frothy.
- Now remove the hand mixer and add the maida and 1 tbsp of water and slowly knead the dough.
- Do not add any more water. The dough should be soft and moist but it should be too moist.
- Knead the dough nice for about 5 minutes and apply 1 tsp of ghee on top and let it sit until the sugar syrup is ready.
Shaping the Dough into Badusha:
- Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
- Now pinch a small lemon sized dough and shape into a round ball.
- Flatten this round ball like below. Do not flatten like thattai, more like semi flattened sphere.
- Now using your thumb or fore-finger press in the middle and twist it. Do not make a hole just a small dent. ;-)
- Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.
Parallel Task: When you shaping the badusha, you can heat the oil for frying and also prepare the sugar syrup.
Preparing the Sugar Syrup:
- In a wide pan add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and heat it slowly.
- Add a pinch of saffron and elaichi powder.
- Mix till the sugar dissolves and let it simmer for couple more minutes and turn the heat off.
Frying the Badusha:
- Heat the oil for frying in a pan and make sure it is in low heat. (I have number setting and kept it between 3 and 4)
- Frying in low heat ensures that badusha gets cooked well both inside and outside.
- Once the oil is hot, frying badushas until they turn golden brown. I fried 3 badushas at a time. It varies depending upon your pan size.
- Let the badushas rest in tissue paper or absorbent paper.
Soaking in the Sugar Syrup:
- Now add the fried badushas into the sugar syrup.
- Make sure the badushas are coated well in the syrup.
- Let it soak for 30 minutes and make sure you flip the badushas for every 5 – 10 minutes so that its gets soaked well in the syrup.
And that’s it. Badusha is ready. Decorate with dried fruits or saffron threads or use colored sugar crystal like me.
Notes:
- This recipe might sound like a lengthy process. But after you knead the dough, you can prepare the sugar syrup and heat the oil for frying while shaping the badusha. By that way you can prepare it quickly without letting the sugar syrup crystallize.
- If the sugar syrup crustallizes, add ½ cup of water and heat it for couple of minutes.
- Make sure you whisk the ghee, yogurt and baking soda and powder nicely. That’s is the key thing and also knead the dough.
- Also ensure the you are frying it in low heat for even cooking.
- When you are trying it for the first time, don’t worry about the shape. You will eventually get it :-)
Enjoying this Badusha or Balushahi? You will love these, too:
Have you made this recipe?
If you’ve made this Balushahi recipe, please share your photos with me on Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or Twitter – I will be delighted to see your results!
📖 Recipe
Badusha | Balushahi | A Sweet to Celebrate the Special Occasion
Ingredients
- 1 cup Maida / All Purpose Flour
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Baking Powder
- 3 tbsps Yoghurt / Curd / Yogurt I used greek yogurt
- 3 tbsps Melted Ghee - 3 tbsps + 1 tsp
- 1 cup Water + 1 tbsp
- 1 cup Sugar
- Oil - for frying
- Saffron Strands - a pinch
- 1 tsp Elaichi Powder
- Dried fruits nuts or colored grated coconut or colored sugar crystal or saffron threads for decoration.
Instructions
Steps
Preparing the dough
- In a wide bowl, take the 3 tbsps of ghee, 3 tbsps of yogurt, baking soda and baking powder and whisk well. I used my electric hand mixer and whipped it for about 4 to 5 minutes till it becomes frothy.
- Now remove the hand mixer and add the maida and 1 tbsp of water and slowly knead the dough.
- Do not add any more water. The dough should be soft and moist but it should be too moist.
- Knead the dough nice for about 5 minutes and apply 1 tsp of ghee on top and let it sit until the sugar syrup is ready.
Shaping the Dough into Badusha
- Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
- Now pinch a small lemon sized dough and shape into a round ball.
- Flatten this round ball like below. Do not flatten like thattai, more like semi flattened sphere.
- Now using your thumb or fore-finger press in the middle and twist it. Do not make a hole just a small dent. ;-)
- Repeat the same for the rest of the dough.
Parallel Task
- When you shaping the badusha, you can heat the oil for frying and also prepare the sugar syrup.
Preparing the Sugar Syrup
- In a wide pan add 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and heat it slowly.
- Add a pinch of saffron and elaichi powder.
- Mix till the sugar dissolves and let it simmer for couple more minutes and turn the heat off.
Frying the Badusha
- Heat the oil for frying in a pan and make sure it is in low heat. (I have number setting and kept it between 3 and 4)
- Frying in low heat ensures that badusha gets cooked well both inside and outside.
- Once the oil is hot, frying badushas until they turn golden brown. I fried 3 badushas at a time. It varies depending upon your pan size.
- Let the badushas rest in tissue paper or absorbent paper.
Soaking in the Sugar Syrup
- Now add the fried badushas into the sugar syrup.
- Make sure the badushas are coated well in the syrup.
- Let it soak for 30 minutes and make sure you flip the badushas for every 5 - 10 minutes so that its gets soaked well in the syrup.
- And that’s it. Badusha is ready. Decorate with dried fruits or saffron threads or use colored sugar crystal like me.
Notes
- This recipe might sound like a lengthy process. But after you knead the dough, you can prepare the sugar syrup and heat the oil for frying while shaping the badusha.
- By that way you can prepare it quickly without letting the sugar syrup crystallize.
- If the sugar syrup crustallizes, add ½ cup of water and heat it for couple of minutes.
- Make sure you whisk the ghee, yogurt and baking soda and powder nicely. That’s is the key thing and also knead the dough.
- Also ensure the you are frying it in low heat for even cooking.
- When you are trying it for the first time, don’t worry about the shape. You will eventually get it :-)
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
Any idea how many badhushas does this quantity yield ?
It yields about 10.
Belated blog anniversary wishes dear….Don’t know how I missed it…took a while to search this post after u had mentioned on my blog…Lovely family recipe…what a nostalgic way to celebrate!!…Very well explained and executed :)
PS: I couldn’t find a search button in your blog…Did I miss it?…May be you should consider adding a search button :)
Thanks a lot Padma for revisiting this post. :-) I do have the search functionality. Its in the right hand side widget. If you are using mobile or ipad, the widget goes to the bottom as per the responsive theme. I will highlight it again. Thanks again.
I might have missed it…Thanks vidhya :)
Np. :-) :-)
Here’s wishing you a very happy Blog anniversary Vidhya. Wish you many many more such milestones.
Badusha looks perfectly made — and why not with the perfect family recipe they will turn out great. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Thanks much for your wishes Pavani and also thanks a lot for all the help. :-) Love the BM group.
This is one of my favourite Indian desserts Vidhya… Will definitely try it:) Thanks for sharing & great captures!
XO
Thanks a lot :-) Please do let me know how it turned out. :-)
Definitely!:)…
looks very very tempting and rich.. bookmarking this recipe
Thanks Priya.. :-)
Priya @asmallbite
Hearty congratulations vidhya,and badusha looks so tempting …
Thanks a ton Priya. :-)
Congrats !!! Badusha looks juicy, my favorite <3 <3.
Thanks a ton Pa..:-)
for badhusha syrup u have not mentioned about the string consistency .pls share.
i have tried preparing bhadhusha many items but end result its hard inside.why?
Hi Uma, Thanks a lot. Actually I didn’t go for any particular string consistency. Once the sugar dissolved I let it simmer for 2 to 3 more minutes and turned off the heat. I would thin one string consistency would do.. Regarding hardness, if the dough is not moist enough it might harden up also if you fry the badusha in high heat it might not cook well inside and will be hardened. Also don’t let the batter sit for long time. Hope this helps. Do you prepare the batter with milk or yogurt?
Amazing Sri :) Big congrats on this milestone and here’s wishing you many such happy moments! Keep rocking as always :)
Badusha is looking super good.. feel like grabbing it off the screen :)
Thanks a ton for your wishes CH :-) Thanks a lot for all your comments and wishes.
Congratulations, Vidhya. I love your blog. May you grow and prosper. :)
While I have been lax in commenting the past couple of months, I have read most of the posts. I hope my work-life balance settles a bit, though I loved being in the start-up mode.
Thanks for the lovely wishes Aruna. And good luck to your start up too. I can totally understand how it will be the start ups. :-) Enjoy and keep rocking. :-)
Hearty Congrats Vidhya!!! Badusha looks tempting!!! Very well explained ..
Thanks a lot Preethi. :-)
I love a good balushahi and yours look fantastic Srividhya! Love the sugar crystal decorating idea! Happy 7th bloggiversary to you! :)
Thanks a ton Anu. :-)
Congrats Vidhya, so happy for you…badhusha is one of my favourite… never tried in home…pics are so good. One small tip….to avoid sugar syrup crystallize add few drops of lemon juice
Thanks a lot pa and for your support. That’s a great tip and thankoo.
Yummy badusha with a clean presentation
Thanks a lot Shibani. :-)
First of all CONGRATS a lot Vidya.. I have eaten this before somewhere, not sure from where!! Badusha looks so perfect Vidya..
Thanks a lot Seena. Glad to see all your wishes and comments.
mouth melting sweet!! really good
Thanks a lot Anu. :-)
Congrats Vidhya ! Super seven years and nice badusha
:-) Thanks Jayashree.
Congrats Vidya…Your Badushah looks so flaky and perfect ….
Congrats Vidya….Badusha looks so flaky and perfect….
Thanks dear.
Wow, Vidya, looks so lovely and tasty!! You have explained in very easy steps , have to try this!!
Thanks a lot Vanitha.