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Badusha recipe, Balushahi recipe

Name: Badusha recipe | Balushahi
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients: 1.5 cup All purpose flour (Maida); ¼ cup Butter; 2 tbsp Oil; ½ tsp Sugar; 1.5 tsp Curd; 2 pinches Cooking soda (sodium bicarbonate); ¼ cup Water (approx.); Oil - for deep frying; ¾ cup Sugar; ¼ cup Water; 1 cardamom; 1 pinch Saffron ( Optional); 1 tsp Lemon Juice (To prevent crystallization )

April 8, 2010 by Raks Anand 239 Comments / Jump to Recipe

Badusha is a traditional Indian sweet made with All purpose flour (maida), ghee and coated in sugar syrup. Learn how to make flaky inside, soft badusha with quick video recipe and step by step pictures. It is also popularly called Balushahi.

This is one of the popular Indian sweet made for Diwali and weddings especially. Let's see how to make in sweet stall style/ wedding style.

Check out my other Diwali recipes and easy Diwali sweets in my website.

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Ingredients
Step by step images
Traditional shape
My notes
Video
Feedbacks
Recipe card

Ingredients

All purpose flour/ Maida - Also known as plain flour.
Butter - Gives flavour, taste, softness to badusha. Unsalted works best, I have used salted ones too, it helps more balanced taste according to me. But it all depends on our preference.
Curd - Plain yogurt - Responsible for flaky and soft texture with cooking soda combined.
Sugar - Main ingredient of the recipe for sweet coating.

See recipe card for full list and quantities.

What is Badusha / Balushahi?

Badusha or Balushahi is a traditional sweet from India with Maida (all purpose flour), butter or ghee and sugar as main ingredients.

If you are new hearing this, you can imagine glazed doughnut with difference in texture (denser).

We call it badusha in Tamil nadu, while it is also called as Balushahi in other parts of India.

I love this from my childhood, the time I even hate sweets. The reason is it's not too sweet and mild in sweetness.

Also I love both home made and the sweet stall one, both has a unique taste and texture.

My mom makes very often, if some relatives visit us or if we were visiting them, then she will make this in a jiffy, I used to help her.

Check out my chandrakala suryakala sweet post.

Why I love it?

This recipe and method are different, bit time consuming than my mom’s version.

Still I loved to try it out for its texture. I tried two years back for Diwali and this diwali too I tried.

It came out good without disappointing me and Vj loved it.

I made recently for a special occasion, our anniversary. Wanted to have it in my blog with my measurements.

So I tried again today to click step wise pictures. It came out very well. The original method and recipe where I referred for is Jasu’s Blog.

This recipe gives a good texture to the badusha if we just follow the given method. Check out my other full list of Diwali recipes.

Step by step images

How to make Badusha steps

1. Firstly melt butter and add oil, sugar, curd and sodium-bicarbonate to it.

2. Secondly, use a whisk to mix well, to make it almost frothy.

3. After that, add flour to it.

4. Mix well furthermore to make it crumbly.

5. After that, add water to make it dough without cracks. Please be careful when adding the ¼ cup water. Depending on the flour's nature, humidity in your kitchen, it may vary. So do not add all, reserve a tablespoon and add only if needed.

6. Knead well for 10 mins to make it super smooth & pliable. You can use a stand mixer or any bread maker to knead the dough as well.

7. Divide into small lemon sized balls out of it. You can adjust the size accordingly

8. Now take a ball and pinch the edges and fold it inwards to make rims decoratively as shown in the picture/ video.

Sugar syrup

1. Meanwhile add sugar, water to a pan. Boil till one string consistency.

2. Add saffron, cardamom if desired and squeeze the lemon juice lastly.

Tip: To check one string consistency easily, keep a small bowl of water and pour little syrup in it. It should lay a fine thread without getting dissolved. You can also check between your thumb and forefinger. It should form a string.

Deep fry Badusha

1. Heat oil just enough, check it by adding a pinch of dough, if it rises immediately, then it's just right. Don't let the oil fume at any point. Fry in batches by adding few at a time. Then remove from fire and let it get cooked in the pre heated oil.

2. Approximately it would take 5 mins. At one stage the badushas float, then again keep the kadai on fire and cook in medium-low flame.

3. After that, adjust heat at the end to make it golden brown,for me it took around 5-8 mins.

4. Drain in a paper towel and immediately add to the hot sugar syrup, to cover the badusha.

5. I did this in batches 2-3 at a time. Leave for a minute or until next batch.

6. Finally drain the badusha to a greased surface.

FAQs

Why my badusha dissolve in oil?

If your badusha dissolve in oil as you are frying then any one of these is excess :
Butter/oil / cooking soda. So add more flour to the dough and knead again to troubleshoot the problem.

Should we use oil or ghee for deep frying Balushahi?

Ghee will be perfect for deep frying sweets. But I have not done this, always use oil. In this recipe there is enough butter in dough, so I did not bother to use oil. No it won't smell like oil as we use butter in dough and cardamom in sugar syrup.

Since we use curd, lemon juice in syrup, will it be tangy?

No it will not affect the taste, trust me 🙂 In fact it will be balanced in taste instead of flat tasting sweet.

My Badusha is not cooked inside, why?

Make sure to add badusha in hot oil. Later take off from fire and let it cook slowly in the heat itself. And finally cook again to make it golden in colour as well as cook thoroughly.
Also use fresh stock of cooking soda. It helps in cooking inside.
Finally, Do not make too thick badushas. Either make a dent in middle or do swirls so that it will ease the cooking process.

Reader's FAQs

Why to add lemon juice in sugar syrup? Won't it be tangy?

Lemon juice is used to prevent crystallization of syrup. You will not know the tanginess separately. It will actually create a balance in taste.

Can I cook in higher heat for short time than waiting for badusha to cook off the fire?

The method I have mentioned is to bring layers. Just like how a puff pastry puffs, it should form layer. Then only it will be cooked as well as absorb syrup.

Can I add ghee instead of butter?

I have tried this but I feel adding ghee makes it turn brown faster as well as the softness is missing.

Traditional shape

You can simply make the shapes like a doughnut (mini) , a faster way to do 🙂

My notes

Badusha will be nice after cooling down, but I found, after a day or two it tastes even better.
In case the dough is too sticky or loose, you can sprinkle little flour and knead again.
I used salted butter, if using unsalted, add a generous pinch of salt while making the dough.
The sugar syrup will be just enough for the recipe, you can add ¾ cup if you are skeptical.

Video

One more video on how to shape balushahi

After it cools down,the sugar syrup should have turned non sticky,transfer to an clean container. And enjoy!

Badusha recipe, with layers inside — Badusha layers inside

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