Baked Mawa Gujiya is my version of the Holi special Mawa Gujiya, which is usally deep fried. Using the same dough for baking would give you a hard outer skin which won’t be that good to eat. So I wanted to make a flaky pastry for the outer dough so that the gujiya turns out melt in the mouth kind even after baking.
I made Sweetheart cake years back, which uses an amazing pastry. I decided to use it for gujiya too. It involves making two types of dough, and laminating them to create layers in between which when baked or fried makes a fantastic flaky pastry.
As this is not the first time I am trying this, I was quite confident with the process and I must say, it turned out the way I imagined. The sweet mawa filling adds so much flavour to the gujiya. Do not forget to dip the baked gujiyas in sugar syrup for the extra crunch and sweetness.
Baking the Gujiyas
With the flaky pastry, baking gujiyas is easier. Preheat your oven to 180C, switch on both filaments if using an OTG. Bake the gujiyas in the middle rack in OTG and the smaller rack in a convection oven.
Baking Gujiyas on stove
Even if you don’t have an oven, don’t worry, you can always use your pressure cooker or pan to bake them on your stove. Set the flame to medium low in your smallest burner, preheat your pan or cooker for 10-15 minutes.
Remove gasket and whistle if using a cooker. Place a small stand inside so that the bottom of your pastries don’t come in direct contact with heat. Cover with a lid and bake for the given time. The only difference is that, the pastries won’t get that amazing brown colour on top, but they will be flaky and crispy and delicious.
Baked Mawa Gujiya – Alternate Flours to be used
You can also use whole wheat flour to make the pastries. Instead of leaving the outer dough for 15 minutes before kneading, leave it for 45 minutes to one hour. This will help with strong gluten formation and you can easily roll the pastry very thin. You can also use brown sugar or jaggery instead of sugar in the recipe.
Check out the video of making the gujiya. The technique is quite interesting.
I also made a short video showing the rolling out of the pastry, which will help you understand the procedure better if you are a visual learner. Check out my Instagram account and don’t forget to follow it.
Mawa to be used
You can either use store bought mawa or make mawa your selves. I have used my Instant mawa, which gets ready in five minutes. It uses milk powder and Amul cream and is cooked in MW. Check out the recipe by clicking on the image below. You can also make the traditional mawa by reducing milk, which takes nearly an hour but worth the effort. It is so flavourful and is the best.
Baked Mawa Gujiya
Ingredients
For the Outer Dough
- 100 gm Maida
- 2 tbs Ghee
- ¼ tsp Salt
- Water as needed
For the Inner Dough
- 65 gm Maida
- Salt a pinch
- 3 tbs Ghee
For the Sugar Syrup
- 150 gm Sugar
- 100 ml Water
For the Filling:
- 100 gm Mawa
- 50 gm Sugar
- 20 gm Desiccated Coconut
- 10 gm Almonds
- 10 gm Pistachios
- ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
Instructions
For the outer Dough:
- Mix together maida, salt and ghee.
- Add enough water to make soft dough.
- Cover and set aside for 15 minutes.
- Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic.
- Divide into eight equal portions and set aside.
For the inner dough:
- Mix together maida, salt and ghee to form soft crumbly dough.
- Divide it into eight equal portions and set aside.
- For the filling:
- Mix all the filling ingredients and set it aside.
Making the pastry
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Take one portion of the outer dough, roll into a thick circle.
- Place one portion of inner dough and place it inside the disc.
- Bring together the edges of the outer dough, pinch and seal the inner dough inside.
- Press it well and roll it into a thin rectangle.
- Roll it into a tight log from the smallest side.
- Rotate 90 degrees and roll it again into a tight log.
- Cut the log into two portions.
- Take one tbs of filling, place it in the centre of the round, aand fold it to form a half circle.
- Seal the edges well using a little water and press well with a fork to make pretty pattern on the edge.
- Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.
- Arrange on a baking tray, brush with milk and bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
Sugar Syrup:
- By the time the pastries are baking, let us make the syrup.
- Combine sugar and water in a sauce pan, heat it until it comes to boil.
- Keep on stirring until the syrup reaches ½ thread consistency.
- Take the pastries out of oven, cool them for a while and dip them in the syrup.
- Arrange the pastries on a wire rack so that the excess syrup drips off.
- Once they are completely cool and non-sticky to touch, store them in an airtight box.
Why do we make two types dough with the same ingredients?
The outer dough has less fat compared to the inner dough. This creates the flaky layer in the final dish.