Gluten Free Cardamom and Chocolate Napoleon Pastry Recipe

Our friend Carol came to visit the other day to see how much our daughter Aria has changed. I always make sure that I serve her special dishes because of her celiac diet. Since sweets are Carol's guilty pleasure. I made gluten free chocolate wafers and layered them with cardamom-flavored cream. Chocolate and cardamom are two of my favorite flavors, and I love using them together. 

If you're thinking that gluten free means sacrificing flavor or texture, you have to try this recipe. It tastes just as good as it looks.

Gulab Jamun (Indian Sweets)

Gulab jamun is my husband Lulu's favorite Indian dessert. The sweets are deep-fried balls of dough, bathed in rose (gulab) and cardamom syrup. The texture resembles the liquor syrup-saturated French cake Baba au Rhum.

I've just experienced making my own for the first time and it tasted pretty similar to the ones I've had in the past. I added a few saffron threads to impart a brighter yellow color to the syrup and I didn't add finely crushed pistachios as Lulu's great-aunt does, because of my little sister-in-law's nut allergy.

You can eat them cold, but our favorite way to enjoy gulab jamun is to warm them a bit before serving. It adds another dimension to the dish. Gulab jamun is a bit too rich to eat on a regular basis, but it's perfect for special occasions when you want something more exotic than cake.