Diwali is finally here! And even this time, my typical festival menu is elaborate with lots of curries, fried stuff, sweets and snacks. This is after all the most popular Indian festival that brings together family and friends to enjoy the religious rituals, festive dinner, fireworks and gorging on lots of desserts and traditional sweet dishes. Those on a sugar-free, diabetic and keto diet(people like me) shouldn't be disheartened. Because I have a baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun recipe just for people like you and me.

Yes, I finally succeeded in making the perfect baked kala jamun. However, I couldn't veganize it. Although I made a small batch of vegan jamuns too, I was not very happy with the results. And they weren't low-carb either.

Kala Jamun or the dark sweet Indian donuts are fried, calorie-rich and sugary sweets quite popular in the northern parts of India. The traditional recipe uses flour,milk solids, sugar, lots and lots of ghee and oil for deep frying.

I made these cute little kala jamuns in oven. Yes, these are the baked ones. You can fry these too. But, I feel the baked version is super satisfying and lip-smacking, because of which I didn't fry a single batch.

To make it low-carb, I used ricotta cheese and almond flour: the blanched one. The sugar syrup is substituted in my recipe by the sugar-free agave syrup and stevia. It's a super easy and super delicious recipe. Next time when you feel like enjoying something sweet and healthy, don't forget to make this Baked low-carb Sugar-free Kala Jamun.

Recipe of baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun:

Step-1: Prepare the dough:

For the doughnuts, you will definitely need a smooth dough.
Take 1 cup of fresh ricotta cheese or homemade paneer. I used drained ricotta cheese for this recipe. Just place ricotta on paper towel until moisture and liquid is fully absorbed.
Add ½ cup of almond flour and ¼ teaspoon baking powder. Note: add few tbsps of extra almond flour if the dough appears sticky.
Because ricotta cheese has some moisture and water in it, making a soft dough with almond flour is easy.

If you find the mixture too dry, add a few drops of warm milk and knead for a few minutes.
The dough should be soft and smooth.

NOTE: Use chenna or homemade paneer for this recipe if you don't find ricotta.

Step-2: Make and Bake the Jamuns:

Now add a few drops of black food color to the dough. (Adding color is optional, but it gives a beautiful dark hue to the jamuns. Because we are not frying the doughnut balls, it will turn light brown after baking)

Mix well. The dough will now look light gray in color.

Preheat the oven to 350 F.
Prepare small balls out of the dough and roll between your greased palms to make each ball's surface smooth.

Place on a greased baking sheet.
Now brush each ball generously with melted ghee or butter. It will prevent the jamuns from drying while baking.

Bake the jamuns for 5 minutes and flip them.
As the jamuns start to cook, it will swell in size.
Then bake for another 5 minutes.
Turn the oven off and let them stand in the oven for another five minutes. Insert a sharp needle to see if it is cooked in the center. the needle should come out clean.

Step-3: Prepare the Syrup:

In a pan, add 1 cup of water and ¼ cup of sugar-free granular sweetener.

Or heat 2 cups of store brought sugar-free zero-calorie agave syrup.
Now add ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder and a pinch of saffron.
Allow the mixture to boil.
Turn the heat off.

Nutrition Facts of baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun:

The recipe yields 12 medium-sized baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun. Enjoy these guilt-free jamuns as each one offers just 2.6g carb and 3.4g protein.

📖 Recipe

Baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun

Enjoy these yum, baked low-carb sugar-free kala jamun this Diwali or whenever you wish to enjoy something low-carb and sweet.

4.88 from 8 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Baked jamun, Baked sugar-free jamun, Diwali jamun, Keto jamun

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 15

Total Time: 25

Servings:

Calories: 63kcal

Author: Sophie

Cost: $12

Ingredients

For Kala Jamuns

1 cup Ricotta cheese, (drained for about 2 hours)
½ cup Blanched almond flour, (add more if your ricotta has a lot of moisture)
¼ teaspoon Baking powder
Few drops of black food color

Sugar-free syrup

1 cup water
½ cup granular sugar-free sweetener, (Swerve or Monk fruit)
or
1 cup sugar-free agave syrup
½ teaspoon cardamom powder
A pinch of saffron

Instructions

Prepare the dough

For the jamuns, you will need a smooth and soft dough.
Take 1 cup of drained fresh ricotta cheese or homemade paneer. I used ricotta cheese for this recipe. If using paneer, you will need a few drops of milk to make the dough.
Add ½ cup of almond flour and ¼ teaspoon baking powder.
Because ricotta cheese has some moisture and water in it, making a soft dough with almond flour is easy.
If you find the mixture too dry, add a few drops of warm milk and knead for a few minutes.
The dough should be soft and smooth, not stretchy. In case, your dough is sticky, start by adding 1-2 tablespoon of more almond flour. Remember, this recipe uses blanched almond flour not the brown almond meal. The meal results in a very different taste and texture, and probably hard.

Make and Bake the Jamuns:

Now add a few drops of black food color to the dough. (Adding color is optional, but it gives a beautiful dark hue to the jamuns. Because we are not frying the doughnut balls, it will turn light brown after baking)
Mix well. The dough will now look light gray in color.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. If using the air-fryer, preheat the air-fryer at 370 F for 5 minutes. My air-fryer has racks instead of a basket. If you have the basket-style air-fryer, line it with parchment paper.
Prepare small balls out of the dough and roll between your greased palms to make each ball's surface smooth.
Place on a greased baking sheet.
Now brush each ball generously with melted ghee or butter. It will prevent the jamuns from drying while baking.
Bake the jamuns for 8 minutes and flip them. The smaller the jamuns, the quicker they will cook. In air-fryer, cook for around 6 minutes and flip.
NOTE: Usually, the center of the jamuns stay moist even though it cracks from the outside. That's how this jamun cooks even after baking and this doesn't mean the center is raw. The ricotta cheese does leave a moist center even after cooking. When we soak them in the syrup, it soaks the syrup well.
As the jamuns start to cook, it will swell in size if not double.
After flipping, bake for another 5 minutes.
Turn the oven off and let them stand in the oven for another five minutes.

Prepare the Syrup:

In a pan, add 1 cup of water and ½ cup of sugar-free granular sweetener.
Or heat 2 cups of store brought sugar-free zero-calorie agave syrup.
Now add ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder and a pinch of saffron.
Allow the mixture to boil.
Turn the heat off.

Add the Jamuns into the Syrup:

Now drop the warm jamuns into the warm syrup. Remember not to add in the hot syrup or the jamuns will break. Altetrnatively, pour the syrups over the jamuns with a ladle and let them soak a little before adding more syrup.
The jamuns will swell up and increase in size as they soak in the syrup.
Allow the jamuns to stand in the syrup for ½ hour.
Serve with some syrup and chopped pistachios.

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Notes

Using food color is optional.
You can fry these jamuns too.
The sugar-free syrup made with stevia has a slight bitter taste. To avoid that, I add a teaspoon of honey or 1 teaspoon of maple syrup to the prepared syrup. A few drops of lime juice also helps reducing the bittery-sweet taste.
These jamuns stay fresh in refrigerator for up to five days. Reheat the jamuns before serving.

Nutrition