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Gujiya

North and western India

A festival crescent that belongs near dumplings, but not lazily inside them.

Gujiya are crescent sweet pastries or dumplings associated with Holi and regional festive cooking. This atlas treats the dish through evidence, technique, and present-day use rather than a single neat origin story.

This entry is written as a working Dumpling-pedia note: what it is, where it shows up, what people claim about it, and how much of that claim can stand up.

What It Is

Gujiya are crescent sweet pastries or dumplings associated with Holi and regional festive cooking.[1]

Why It Matters

A festival sweet tied to hospitality, gifting, and seasonal celebration.[1]

Origin Story

Gujiya are crescent sweet pastries or dumplings associated with Holi and regional festive cooking.[1]

  • Names and fillings vary by region.[1]
  • Its fried pastry nature places it on the border of this project's dumpling map.[1]

Recipe Outline

Fill pastry discs with sweet khoya or coconut mixture, seal in crescents, and fry.

Ingredients

  • flour
  • ghee
  • khoya
  • nuts
  • cardamom
  • sugar

Steps

  1. Make pastry.
  2. Prepare filling.
  3. Seal crescents.
  4. Fry.

Traditional gujiya is vegetarian.

Related Dumplings

Modak

Western and southern India

Compare

Empanada

Iberian and Latin American worlds

Compare

Sources

Food Cultures of the World Encyclopedia

Source

Ken Albala, editor · Greenwood · 2011

Used for: Korean food culture context.

Korean food culture context.

encyclopedia reference - Accessed 2026-06-30