I came up with these because I got obsessed with gulab and angoori jamun, which are these ghee-fried balls of milk fat that are soaked in a rose and saffron syrup. For those of you unfamiliar with them, they are a treat that originates from India, and while it sounds counterproductive to soak a fried item, because they are made with milk solids, these jamun gain a soft melt-in-your-mouth texture from being soaked post-frying. While gulab jamun are the most well-known variation on this treat, angoori jamun are what I prefer. Angoori is Indian for grape, referencing the smaller size that the angoori jamun are – if you know anything about me, I love my smaller portion sizes so I can indulge in a variety of things as opposed to just one thing. That and you can make more jamun by making them smaller! It’s a win-win!

I wanted to take the angoori jamun and update them a little, so I went with forming them into pon de ring, which are the iconic puffy doughnuts from Japan. Since angoori and gulab jamun are both round shaped fried balls, they are already perfect for combining together into the pon de ring shape as it stands. I also took part of the soaking syrup and combined it with milk powder and powdered sugar to create the doughnut glaze, since the milk powder is already being used in the dough anyways, and you typically could combine milk with powdered sugar for a traditional doughnut glaze. I topped off these little fried balls with pistachios and pearl sugar just to give some color and opulence to these fried rings. If you don’t want to make pon de ring, this recipe could be used to make gulab and angoori jamun as well!

Makes about 5 8-piece pon de rings:
For the jamuns:
1 cup milk powder
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
3/4 cups heavy cream
1 egg white
ghee
canola or vegetable oil

Mix the milk powder, flour, baking powder, and salt together first. Fold into that the heavy cream to form your dough. For each piece for the pon de ring, I measured 6g balls of the dough, and 8 balls per doughnut. Brush the sides of each ball with egg white and press them together, on parchment squares, to form the doughnuts. Refrigerate these for at least 10 minutes so that the egg white can partially set and better hold the balls together. Heat up about 2 inches of canola oil and ghee(I used mostly canola oil with about 1 tablespoon of ghee), in a pot to 275 degrees, then turn the stove onto low heat. Gently lower the assembled pon de rings into the oil, parchment side down, and allow them to fry for about 2 minutes on each side. When flipping to remove the parchment, I recommend carefully lifting the parchment off by each corner, one at a time, to best keep them together, as they are fragile and can fall apart quickly while frying(not the worst thing in the world, since they then just become gulab or angoori jamun and they’re just as delicious!). Drain the fried doughnuts on a paper towel and while they are still warm, brush with the warm syrup.

For the syrup:
1 1/4 cups water
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon saffron
4 cardamom pods, crushed
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon rose water

Put everything besides the rose water into a pot and bring to a simmer. Once the sugar is completely dissolved, allow the liquid to come down by half. Take off heat and allow to sit for 5minutes to cool down – you want the syrup to be just above lukewarm, but not so hot that it will split apart the jamun. Remove the cardamom pods and stir in the rose water. Reserve 1/2 cup for the glaze and use the rest to give the pon de rings a quick dip.

For the glaze:
1/2 cup syrup
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons milk powder
a pinch of salt

Mix together to form your glaze. Glaze the doughnuts on an icing rack.

For garnish:
Pearl sugar or silver leaf
Crushed pistachios

Garnish your freshly glazed doughnuts with the above to finish.