BESAN LADDU
Ingredients
- 1 cup Besan/ Gram flour /Chickpea Flour
- 2-3 tbsp Fine Sooji / Fine Semolina, (Chiroti Rava)
- 1/2 cup Ghee, or little less
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 4 - 5 Cardamom
- Cashews, raisins ,Almonds, as required
Instructions
- Mix both sugar and cardamom in a mixer and make a powder of it. Keep it aside.
- In a heavy bottomed pan / kadai, add a spoon of ghee.Chop the cashew nuts,almonds into small pieces.Fry them in the ghee till golden brown and keep it aside.
- In the same kadai,mix besan, rava and ghee..NOTE : Initially the mixture looks crumble.You may be tempted to add more ghee. Adding more ghee may seem to give a manageable mixture. But, after shaping and cooling the balls, it may flatten and make one big lump.So hold on your temptation.If you keep on mixing it, you can see that the crumbled mixture will bind together and not stick to the pan.Stir the mixture on a low flame.Purpose for doing this is to get rid of the rawness of the chickpea flour
- Keep stirring the mixture till besan turns golden color and a nice aroma comes once it starts turning golden color. You need some patience and constant stirring here. It will take approx 20 mins on low flame.
- Switch of the flame and allow the besan to cool completely . Later add sugar, cardamom mixture (as said in step 1) and dry fruits.Mix well
- Take a handful off besan mixture in hand make and make round balls, to form a ladoo. Repeat the same with rest of the mixture.
- Allow the Ladoo's to cool & then store in airtight container. It will remain fresh even after 2 weeks.Enjoy the ladoos!
Video
Notes
These tips should help rescue if you go wrong with the preparation.
NOTE :
- Always roast the besan nicely else it will give a raw taste to the ladoos. Keep in mind that you need to keep roasting the mixture until aroma starts wafting through the kitchen - And no it wont be mild enough for you to miss .Don't keep the flame on high .
- Ghee is essential to this ladoo for 2 reasons - for adding flavor and as a binding agent . However,by adding too much ghee ,you will get very soft ladoos instead of a firm one .Do not lessen the quantity of ghee too as the mixture will be dry and you cannot make balls.
- Has the mixture turned dry and chalky ? Are you not able to shape the mixture into ladoos ? Then may be a ) Ghee quantity is less or b) you over roasted/heated the mixture or c) you allowed the mixture to cool a lot before making ladoo's. If this is the case you can try any one of the following methods to solve this problem -
- Sprinkle few drops of milk to bind the mixture, but this will lessen the shelf life of the ladoos.
- Add little more ghee .
- Re heat in low setting for 1 minute or so until you see the dough coming together.
- Also do not worry if your mixture feels too soft and your balls are flattening. If this happens, make all the balls and keep them on a plate and after 10 minutes roll each ball again between the palm of your hands. The mixture would have hardened a little and the balls will maintain their shape, this time