How Gujiya, the favourite Holi sweet, colonised most of India

Baked gujiya (left), and gujiya from Bansiwala, Mathura, where the filling of milk and dry fruits is caramalised till it turns brown, sweet and grainy.

Stories about the origins of Gujiya, a flaky pastry with a khoya, dry fruit or coconut centre, are as varied as the ways to describe this Indian sweet. But no one can clearly trace the region or date of its invention.

According to popular belief, gujiya evolved from a Turkish pastry, the baklava. Similarities are also drawn with Qottab, an almond-filled deep-fried Iranian pastry.

Akshraj Jodh, executive chef - ITC Grand Bharat, culinary historian, and descendent of Rao Akheraj (the founder of the region of Akheraj Deolia or present-day Ajmer), is sceptical, though. “We are often told that everything sophisticated in the culinary world has come to us from Turkey, Persia, or Central Asia. We forget we had our own royal families who lived a refined life and whose cooks or khansamahs experimented with the great produce India grew and interesting cooking techniques. Gujiya finds mention in stories about the food eaten by Bundelkhand kings (a region in Uttar Pradesh) and is considered a Bundelkhandi classic.”

Also read: 7 homegrown brands for all your Holi essentials

There are some vital differences between gujiya and baklava:

*Baklava uses spiced honey instead of jaggery or sugar syrup as a sweetener.

*While Baklava is doused in butter, gujiya is deep-fried in ghee (clarified butter).

*Baklava is squarish in shape while gujiya is usually a crescent-shaped dessert with delicately pinched ridge-patterned edges.

*Baklava is largely baked, while gujiya is deep-fried.

This is what must have happened, then.

Both Uttar Pradesh and ancient Turkey (known as Anatolia) were trade destinations on the fabled Silk Route. Most likely, during their travels to Turkey or Iran, merchants from Uttar Pradesh tasted the traditional Persian pastry.

“They may have come back home, armed with stories about the flakiness of the sweet pastry and its cooking techniques. Somewhere down the line, someone in UP created an Indian-style pastry with a twist — use wheat or millets to make the outer covering, stuff it with a very Indian khoya, and adapt the stuffing of dry fruits (we had cashews then; pistachios and raisins were added to the mix later), and deep fry it,” says historian and writer Sanjesh Tripathi. “In Allahabad, where I live, the gujiya recipe has been in my family for almost three generations.”

Tripathi believes that actual gujiya may be the tweaked version of Anse or Erse, a deep-fried sweet flatbread once cooked by the Indian Jain community using wheat flour and jaggery. “There are references to Anse in stories dating back to the late 15th century.”

Gujiya flourished in 16th-century Braj (a region with Mathura and Vrindavan at its core), where it is dusted with cardamom and offered as prasad to Lord Krishna. At Vrindavan’s Radha Raman temple, serving gujiya and Chandrakala as part of the temple thali is a 500-year-old tradition.

Many shades of gujiya

There is a rather sweet story about gujiya (there are several, actually): A Chennai resident migrated to Thanjavur, home to the great Chola temples (UNESCO World Heritage Monuments), and introduced the sweet, khoya-filled north Indian gujiya to the southern city. This temple city of 31 lakh people now consumes over 200 kilos of gujiyas every day, but on Holi, consumption goes up to 400 kilos.

BG Subramani Sharma, whose father Guru Dayal travelled from Chennai to Thanjavur years ago and established his sweet business, says, “In the south, you have gujiyas stuffed with coconut that are eaten on auspicious days. But those are nothing like gujiyas which have come from the north. The combination of jaggery, dry fruits, and khoya (thickened milk) makes it such an unbeatable combination.”

Sharma is managing director of Bombay Sweets, which opened in 1949, and among its many offerings has Chandrakala and Suryakala (from Rajasthan), a crispy pastry with caramelised stuffing. It's remarkable that a mithaiwala from the south sells a north Indian dessert, from a shop named after Bombay city.

Gujiya is eaten year-round but during the two-day Holi festival, consumption jumps through the roof. Ram Asrey Sweets in the heart of Lucknow sells at least 500 kilos of gujiyas on the days when India is drenched in colours.

Gujiya may have ‘originated’ in UP, but the classic sweet has been adopted in many parts of India which have made it their own. “It must have travelled from UP to Rajasthan at some point,” says Chef Jodha. “In some parts of Rajasthan, people make Chandrakala and Suryakala, two different versions of gujiya, on Holi.”

Chandrakala

In the Mughal courts and palaces, which were introduced to the gujiya after strategic weddings between Mughal emperors and Rajput princesses, saffron came to be added to the mix.

Ajmer loves its Puhe, a deep-fried pastry with hints of fennel and roses (the region is famous for its red rose farming), which resembles the gujiya without the stuffing. “Over years, similar kinds of pastry have been adapted and tweaked across the length and breadth of India,” says Chef Jodha. In the Awadh region (now part of UP), people once feasted on Dahi ki Gujiya, loaded with curd, nuts, and cardamom. It is now a rare dish, with just a few mastering the recipe."

Gujiya stuffed with rose petals.

Bundelkhand continues to make its traditional version of khoya and jaggery gujiya. In Punjab, particularly around Amritsar, the soft-centred gujiya is known as Palakari and is dipped in jaggery syrup. In Bihar, it is known as pedakiya. In Gujarat, it is called ghughra. And in Maharashtra, it is karanji. The filling varies, depending on the region.

Pedakiya has sprinklings of coconut, but so does somas from Tamil Nadu and karanji from Maharashtra.

In Orccha’s sweet shops lining the chaotic road to Ram Raja temple, you can buy four varieties of gujiyas: Two are dipped in sugar syrup or jaggery syrup, and two that are gluten-free. These pure khoya dumplings do not have an outer wheat covering.

Most of India took to gujiya not just due to its rich taste and the “milk fudge kind of stuffing” (that’s how I remember a chef of a luxury hotel describing it to a foreign tourist), but also because of the simplicity of the cooking technique:

- Take a ball of wheat or millet dough,

- Roll it out, make a depression in its centre,

- Stuff a mix of dry fruits, mawa/khoya, and coconut/saffron blend inside,

- Pinch the edges together to close the dumpling,

- Deep fry it and dip it in a sugar or jaggery syrup.

“The ingredients and cooking techniques are easy to adapt,” says Tripathi.

And yet, it tastes like a dessert the divine sent down from heaven to indulge us.

Where to buy the best gujiya

In Delhi: Ghantewala Halwai, Chandni Chowk

Running non-stop since 1790 at the same spot in Delhi 6, they say the ancestors of the current owners made gujiyas for the Mughal emperors. The gujiyas have saffron and rose filling.

Ram Asrey, Lucknow

The sweet shop in Hazratganj dates to 1805 and serves makes at least 20 varieties of gujiya, including a sugar free version. Its Kesariya Navratna Gujiya has stuffing of pistachios and a silver varq.

Bankey Lal Pede Wale, Vrindavan

They are even on Swiggy and Zomato! Bankey Lal Pede Wala’s famous gujiyas are dipped in rose and cardamom flavoured sugar syrup.

Bansiwala, Mathura

The dry fruits and mawa mix that goes into the gujiyas is caramalised to a deep brown colour at Bansiwala, achieved after hours of cooking milk into khoya. The texture of the centre filling is grainy and sweet.

Bombay Sweet Shop, Thanjavur

Their most famous gujiya has a filling of mawa, pistachio, raisins, rose petals, and sugar. They make three other varieties.

Lakshmi Misthan Bhandar, Jaipur

If you are in Jaipur, stop by Lakshmi Misthan Bhandar for Chandrakala, which is rounder in shape, has a maida covering instead of wheat or millet, and slivers of saffron.

In Mumbai: Tewari Brothers, Charni Road, Punjabi Chandu Halwai, Walkeshwar for Gujiya, and Panshikar, Dadar, for Karanji

Both the sweet shops are over 70 years old. While one was established by a migrant from UP, and the other was set up by a refugee family who fled Pakistan. They serve a traditional khoya version of gujiya. The Maharashtrian coconut version is best bought from Panshikar in Dadar. The outer covering of the karanji is slightly salty, and the inner stuffing comprises caramelised cardamom and saffron-flavoured coconut blended with crushed dry fruits.