Traditional Butter Badusha recipe (South Indian / Tamil nadu style Balushahi) with crispy, flaky layers and a soft juicy center! Learn how to make foolproof festive badusha at home with step-by-step photos, simple tips and video tutorial.
Badusha/Balushahi recipe is one of the must try sweets recipes during Diwali or any occasions. Most of the people in India make badusha for Diwali. So I thought of starting my diwali recipes with this most popular sweet recipe.
Many people wonder about the difference between Badusha and Balushahi. While Balushahi is the traditional North Indian name known for its rustic, flaky layered texture, Badusha is a popular South Indian / Tamil nadu sweet, often shaped with a neat swirl or center dent and soaked in warm cardamom-flavored sugar syrup. Both sweets share the same basic ingredients of maida, butter or ghee and sugar syrup!
Basically I am not a big fan of sweets. But there are very few sweets for which I don’t say NO. Badusha is one among them. I love it for its flaky, layered texture with mild sweetness. Every year during Diwali, my MIL makes Maida burfi and Badusha without fail. She is my inspiration to try sweets on my own. She usually adds Dalda/Vanaspati or butter to make badusha.
Based on my MIL’s recipe and after few trial & errors, I am making badusha successfully for the past two years. I have shared some tips, do’s & don’ts below for beginners. I took a complete video for badusha preparation and shared the same below. I love the traditional doughnut shaped badusha more than the swirled ones. But still swirled badusha looks more attractive like suryakala.
In this post, I have just shared a small video of how to make badusha swirls for beginners to learn. Hope it is easily understandable. Lets see how to make the most popular Indian sweet balushahi aka badhusha in detail with a video on how to shape the badusha.
Quick Notes for US & Abroad Kitchens
- Flour Selection: Standard unbleached all-purpose flour (such as King Arthur or Bob’s Red Mill) or Indian store Maida works great. Measure by gently spooning flour into the cup and leveling with a knife rather than packing tightly.
- Butter vs Ghee: Use unsalted butter (such as Land O’Lakes or Kerrygold) softened to room temperature. Do not melt it until bubbling hot. If substituting ghee, ensure it is at room temperature and semi-solid.
- Baking Soda Precision: Measure cooking soda (baking soda) strictly with a 1/8 teaspoon measuring spoon. Adding excess soda causes badushas to crack excessively or dissolve in oil.
- Stove Heat Management: Electric and glass-top stoves retain heat strongly. Drop the shaped badushas into warm oil on low flame and let them slowly float to the surface before flipping; gentle, patient frying is the secret to distinct flaky layers without raw centers.
- Sugar Syrup Consistency: Use pure cane sugar and simmer strictly to single-string consistency (one thread). Add a few drops of lemon juice to prevent the sugar from crystallizing prematurely in the pot.
Butter badusha recipe
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- 1 cup All purpose flour/Maida
- ¼ cup Melted butter ( at room temp, butter should not be hot)
- 1 tbsp Curd
- ⅛ tsp Cooking soda / Baking soda
- Water as needed( I used 2-3 tbsp)
- pinch Salt
For sugar syrup
- ¾ cup Sugar
- ⅓ cup Water
- ½ tsp Cardamom powder
- ½ tsp Lemon juice
- Saffron threads & dessicated dry coconut,nuts for decoration
Instructions
- Take a wide bowl and add the melted butter, cooking soda and curd. Mix well with a whisk till it becomes a creamy paste. It will take 1-2 minutes.
- Take sugar in a bowl and add water. Mix well and set aside. Let it dissolve for making syrup.
- To this paste, add maida and a pinch of salt. Mix well and make a crumbly mixture. Butter and curd mixture should spread well with the flour. The mixture should resemble bread crumbs.
- Sprinkle some water and make a soft, non-sticky dough (I used around 2-3 tbsp of water. It may vary based on the water content in curd).
- Rest the dough for 30 minutes. After the resting time, the dough would be very soft. Smoothen it using your hands to remove cracks by just pressing it gently. Do not knead it. Take small ball sized dough and make a crack free smooth ball. Flatten it using your palm and make a dent in the center using your pointer finger. Make a deep impression.
- For making swirl shaped badusha, take a ball from the dough and pinch in a corner. Fold it and again pinch the swirled end. Repeat this to make a circle. Refer video for more reference.
- Heat oil in a kadai and when it gets heated, drop a pinch of batter. As soon as the batter rises to the top, drop 3-4 badusha and switch off the flame. Let the badusha cook in off fire till it floats on top of oil. After it starts to float, flip the badusha and switch on the flame. Keep the flame medium and cook the badusha till it turns golden in color. One batch takes nearly 8-10 minutes.
- The swirled badusha takes more time to cook and looks dark in color compared to the donut shaped ones. Don’t panic. It also tastes little more crispy compared to the round ones. Deep frying patiently is more important to get layers in badusha. So please follow this carefully.
- While frying badusha, you can make sugar syrup. Boil the syrup till one string consistency (i.e. when you take a drop of syrup between your fingers and release, it forms a single string). Add cardamom powder and lemon juice and switch off the flame. Lemon juice prevents crystallization of sugar syrup. Refer to my guide on sugar syrup consistencies for more details.
- Remove the badusha in a tissue. Drop them into the warm syrup. Let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Flip them in the syrup for even coating. In the mean time, deep fry the next batch of badusha. Remove the badusha from the syrup and arrange in a plate. Once it cools down, sugar syrup will crystallize and make a nice coating. Store it once badusha is cooled down completely. Enjoy! It stays good for 3-4 days if properly done.
Video
Notes
- Generally beginners complaint about badusha disperses/dissolves in oil. It is due to the addition of more cooking soda or fat content (ghee or butter). If the oil temperature is too low, badusha may dissolve in oil.
- Sometimes you may get more cracks in badusha after frying. It may become shapeless too. It is also due to the quantity of cooking soda. So please be very careful while adding soda.
- The secret of getting flaky, layered badusha lies in slow deep frying in low flame. Adding curd doesn’t make the difference. My MIL never add curd. Still it comes out flaky. But curd helps to give softness to Badusha. So do not skip it.
- You can replace butter with melted ghee. But use melted ghee or butter only at room temperature. It should not be hot.
- No need to knead the dough very hard or beat as you do for chapathi dough. It is enough to make a soft, crack free dough to get good badusha.
- The recipe I have shared here gives badusha which may be slightly hard as soon as you prepare. But it will become soft the next day and tastes much better.
- If the sugar syrup is crystallized while you soak the badusha, add few drops of water and heat it. Bring the one string consistency and then drop the badusha.
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Try this yummy sweet for Diwali and have a great celebration!
Wow,my fav badusha,very tempting pictures…sure i ll try to make small batch for me,this diwali..Thnx for sharing,ur string consistency post also very useful one for beginners like me,waiting for other diwali recipes
Thank u so much Sindhuja :)
my favorite…looks yum!
Thanks mahi :)
Explained well which tempts to try ..adding curd is new to hear .sure will give It a try .thumps up for ur cute layery little badushas:)) .drooling over :( too bad u tempting me to eat .
Thanks priya.try it once :)
Tempting, the way u explained its clear our doubt.
Thank u Sankar Saranya :)
Beautiful Badushas… super tempting clicks with well explained steps.
Thanks Mullai :)
hi chitra, u have given as tightly packed maida so how to measure it.just tapping two three times and filling is enough,isnt it?And butter to be taken as 1/4 cup and melted or 1/4 cup melted butter is required?please clear my doubts i want to try this for diwali.thanks in advance.
Hi Harini, you are right. Just tap and fill the maida. After melting butter, measure 1/4 cup from it and add.Hope badusha will turn out well. Do share ur feedback :) Tomorrow I will post milk powder burfi. Thanks :)
thanks for ur reply.let me try and see.
hi chitra i tried badhusha it came out very well.as u said it tasted soft and nice the next day.as iam trying for the first time,i was very doubtful whether it ll absorb sugar or ll it be soft.but it is perfect.my dough was having cracks and when i fried one or two puffed up like ulundu vadai and then while putting in sugar syrup,i kept it for more time so sugar coat was little bit high.but all my doubts gone when i tasted them next day.thanks for the recipe.
Thank you so much for trying most of my recipes for diwali 😊
Hi mam, Today I made badhusha the outer layer has come out little bit hard. I added butter no curd. What's the reason.
Curd should be used else you can add a bit more of cooking soda to get it soft. I guess it may be the reason.