Gulab churma: Rajasthani churma with gulkand
Gulab churma recipe: classic Rajasthani wheat churma made with ghee and finished with rose gulkand and rose water. Amounts, steps, laddoo option and tips.
The short answer
Gulab churma is ordinary Rajasthani churma — coarse wheat dough fried or baked in ghee, crumbled and sweetened — finished with rose gulkand and a few drops of rose water. Make the churma first, let it cool until just warm, then rub the gulkand through it with your fingertips so the petals spread evenly. It is served with dal-baati or on its own, loose or pressed into laddoos.
What is gulab churma?
Churma is the sweet third of Rajasthan’s dal-baati-churma, and every household has its own version: some sweeten with sugar, some with jaggery, some add dry fruit. In the rose version, gulkand replaces part of the sugar and brings the scent and the soft, chewy petals. It is a natural fit in Mewar, where the Chaitri rose grows around Haldighati and gulkand is an everyday sweet.
Ingredients
• 2 cups (about 250 g) coarse wheat flour (mota atta or churma atta)
• 2 tablespoons fine semolina (optional, for extra crunch)
• 4 tablespoons ghee, melted, for the dough
• About ½ cup warm milk or water, to bind
• Ghee for frying (or 1 tablespoon for brushing, if baking)
• 4–5 tablespoons powdered sugar or bura, to taste
• 4 tablespoons rose gulkand
• 3 tablespoons melted ghee, to finish
• ½ teaspoon cardamom powder (leave out if using Kesar Elaichi Gulkand)
• 1 teaspoon rose water (optional)
• 3 tablespoons chopped almonds and pistachios
How to make gulab churma
1. Mix the flour, semolina and 4 tablespoons of melted ghee with your fingers until the flour holds together when pressed in a fist.
2. Add warm milk a little at a time to make a stiff, tight dough. It should not be soft like roti dough.
3. Divide into 8–10 pieces and press each into a fist-shaped muthiya, leaving finger marks so it cooks through.
4. Fry the muthiyas in ghee on low heat, turning, for 12–15 minutes until deep golden and cooked inside. (Or bake at 180 °C for 25–30 minutes, brushing with ghee and turning once.)
5. Let them cool until just warm, break them up, and grind to a coarse crumb in a mixer in short pulses.
6. Sift if you want it fine; regrind any large pieces.
7. Stir in the powdered sugar, cardamom, nuts and 3 tablespoons of melted ghee.
8. When the churma is no more than warm, add the gulkand in small spoonfuls and rub it through with your fingertips so it spreads evenly instead of clumping. Sprinkle the rose water over and mix once more.
9. Serve loose, or press handfuls into laddoos while the ghee is still soft.
Why add the gulkand last?
Two reasons. Heat drives off the rose scent, so gulkand stirred into hot churma loses most of what you added it for. And gulkand is sticky: added in one lump it forms sweet clots. Small spoonfuls, rubbed in by hand once the churma is warm rather than hot, give an even crumb with a rose note in every mouthful.
Tips for good churma
• Use coarse flour. Fine atta makes a pasty churma. If you only have fine atta, the semolina helps.
• Fry slowly. High heat browns the outside and leaves the inside raw. The muthiyas should take a good 12 minutes.
• Taste before adding all the sugar. Gulkand is already sweet; start with 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar and add more only if needed.
• For a festive version, use Kesar Elaichi Gulkand and skip the cardamom powder; the saffron and cardamom are already in it.
• Rose water is a seasoning. A teaspoon is plenty for this quantity; more tastes of soap. How much rose to use
How do you make gulab churma laddoos?
Add one or two extra tablespoons of warm melted ghee to the finished churma, take a handful and press it firmly into a ball. If it will not hold, add a little more ghee. Press a pistachio sliver or a tiny dab of gulkand on top of each. Laddoos are easier to serve to guests and to carry.
Serving and keeping
Serve gulab churma with dal-baati, after a thali, or with a glass of rose lassi. It keeps in an airtight container in a cool place for 4–5 days. It is rich in ghee and sugar, so anyone with diabetes or on a restricted diet should treat it as an occasional sweet.
Made with our Rose Gulkand: rose petals and mishri only, layered and left in the sun rather than cooked, with no added colour, essence or preservative. Add a few drops of our steam-distilled Rose Water to finish. Delivery is a flat ₹39 anywhere in India.
Buy from the Haldighati valley
- Rose Gulkand — Sun-cured Damask rose petal preserve. 470 g, ₹449.
- Kesar Elaichi Gulkand — Rose gulkand with saffron and green cardamom. 470 g, ₹549.
- Rose Water — Steam-distilled Damask hydrosol. 200 ml, ₹249.