Balushahi

Balushahi is a sweet made by frying a wheat dough mixed with fat and then soaking it in syrup. It is round with a hollow in the center, its surface is covered with a thin coating of sugar, and inside it has fine cracks and layers. It is widely found across North India and neighboring regions, and in South India it is also known as badusha.

Balushahi made at home in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal. Photo: Bedatroyee Routh, 2021. A downscaled version from the source is used; content not changed after retrieval (Source / CC BY-SA 4.0).

Bring it together without overkneading

The dough uses maida (refined wheat flour), ghee, yogurt and other ingredients. Some methods also add a leavening agent. The fat and flour are combined and brought together with just the necessary liquid, but strong kneading until the dough becomes elastic like bread dough is avoided.

Rather than kneading it until it stretches smoothly, the dough is finished so that fine layers and cracks form when it is fried. Because the water content of yogurt also varies from batch to batch, the water added is adjusted while checking the condition of the flour. Besides shaping it into a ball and pressing a hollow in the center, some versions have edges shaped into pleats.

Fried through to the center, then into the syrup

If thick dough is hurriedly browned deeply on the outside, the heat does not reach the center sufficiently. It is fried over gentle heat until the inner layers are cooked, and then moved into warm syrup. Cardamom or saffron is sometimes added to the syrup.

The syrup enters the cracks formed during frying, and a coating of sugar remains on the surface. Although the syrup is absorbed into the dough after frying, the dough-making that comes before also affects how the syrup soaks in. The hard sugar shell and the softness that remains inside come from separate steps.

Shaped like a doughnut, different inside

The hollow in the center and the round shape are reminiscent of a doughnut. However, unlike dough that is made to rise substantially with yeast, balushahi is enjoyed for its dense layers containing fat and its syrup-soaked interior. Though the shapes are similar, the way the dough is leavened and the stage at which sweetness is added are different.

Balushahi by locality

In Bihar, Runni Saidpur is also known as a place that produces it. It is a sweet bought for festivals and celebrations, and also a product of sweet shops associated with the town’s name. Between the north and the south, there is variation not only in the name but also in how the sugar coats it and in its texture, so it cannot be limited to a single degree of firmness.

Bihar Tourism describes the balushahi of Runni Saidpur as a sweet made by combining chhena (milk curdled with acid and drained of its liquid) with wheat flour and semolina, then soaking it in syrup. Its ingredients differ from the typical dough based mainly on flour and ghee, showing that even sweets with the same name can have methods tied to a particular place.

Glossary