When I first started this Capstone project I wanted to do the history of cakes but I noticed that the topic is too broad and I had to narrow it down. I wanted my capstone to be about culture. My main inquiry question now is How does Indian cuisine incorporate the two desserts Kheer and Gulab Jamun into their cultural celebrations. When I was working on gathering Information about the two desserts I found it difficult to find articles, websites, and books about them. When I found some articles they had a lot of information that was useful. To answer my main inquiry question I had to research. I researched the history, similarities and differences, and the different variations. Here is some information that helped me with my final project.

The history of of Gulab Jamun are very interesting because they were both originated around the same time and the same place. Gulab Jamun is known to be from many different desserts including Al Qadi a Arabic dessert,  Bamieh a Persian dessert, and the Turkish Tulumba. People believe that Gulab Jamun was first prepared by accident by Shah Jahan’s royal chef, Gulab Jamun is also known to have originated around the Medieval period. People in India were used to making sweets with sugar, milk, cheese, honey, and jaggery when travelers arrived they were shocked because of the sweetness in their milk and how creamy it was as well. Kheer was also part of the ancient Indian diet. 

Kheer and Gulab Jamun have many differences and similarities also. Kheer is a. pudding texture with rice, milk, sugar, and honey with many flavors and is usually decorated with edible gold or silver leafs, Gulab Jamun is solid milk mixed with flour fried over a open flame then dipped in a sugar syrup flavored with green cardamom and rose water and Kheer can be eaten as a meal or as a dessert while Gulab Jamun can be eaten as a dessert.They also have similarities, “Kheer and Gulab Jamun can be eaten warm or cold” says my interviewee, Sherri Sharma. She also says that “Both desserts can be eaten during winter and summer and anytime of year.” 

So what is in Kheer and Gulab? Kheer has many variations that are different with each family that contain raisins, sliced almonds, and cinnamon, and cardamon. Kheer also has a rice base that also contains a lot of milk and is mixed in with anything it all depends on what you want to add. Gulab Jamun has condensed milk, khoya or flour that gets mixed into the milk. Rose water is also included because after they are deep fried they get dipped in the syrup. Some variations of Gulab Jamun have a caramelized sugar coat which makes the Gulab Jamun have a crunchy outside and a soft inside.

When it was time to start making my slideshow and script for my TEDtalk the slideshow was easy to make and finding pictures also wasn’t that hard. the hardiest part about my final project was memorizing my script this took me around a week to fully memorize it.