Make batter: Take all purpose flour, cardamom powder, fennel seeds powder and yogurt in a bowl. Mix.
Then add water to make a thick, lump-free batter. Cover it and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Make Sugar syrup: While it’s resting, take sugar and water in a saucepan.
Let it come to a boil on medium heat. Then continue simmer for a few minutes. We are looking for sticky syrup (or ½ string consistency).
Fry malpua & dunk into syrup: Now add baking powder to the batter. Mix really well and the batter should be thick yet flowing consistency.
Heat about 3-4 tablespoons of ghee in a wide pan for shallow frying. Once hot pour a ladleful (around 3 tablespoons) of batter into the ghee. Spread the batter lightly using a ladle. The size of it is around 3-4 inches. So make 2-3 at a time depending on the size of your pan.
Let it cook on low-medium heat. You will notice slight browning around the edges and no more raw batter on the top.
Now flip them cook the other side similarly. Once both sides become golden brown and when the edges are crispy while the center is soft, fluffy yet cooked, that time drain the excess ghee and remove them from the pan.
When they are about to ready, warm up the sugar syrup on another stove on low heat.
Immediately dunk it into the warm syrup. Dip both sides so it can soak up some syrup. Remove it to a plate. Repeat the same for rest.
You can enjoy the malpua as such with the garnish of nut on top. Or top it with warm rabri and sliced nuts for a more indulgent dessert.
Notes
The malpua batter should be THICK yet Flowing consistency. If it gets too thin then add little more flour and make it thick.
Instead of ghee, you can use oil. But that sure has a different flavor.
Instead of frying, you can cook them with a teaspoon of ghee or oil similar to the uttapam, cheela or pancake.
The sugar syrup has to be sticky or ½ thread consistency. If it’s too thick then malpua won’t absorb the syrup, it will be just coated. And it may crystalize.
If making the large batch of this malpua and need to keep the syrup warm for a long time. In that case, keep the pan of syrup into a hot water bath. For that, take 3-4 cups of hot water in a big vessel/bowl and keep the syrup pan into that water. So it stays warm for a long period. If it is kept on stove low heat for a long time, then syrup may get crystallized.