Besan Ladoo

                            

Besan ladoo is a popular Indian sweet made from just 3 basic ingredients, gram flour, powdered sugar and ghee. With a delicious taste and melt-in mouth texture, Besan ladoo is a gluten-free festive treat and a kid-friendly dessert. The ladoos are flavored with green cardamom and have a good shelf life making them an ideal travel food as well. The recipe is very simple and does not call for any sugar syrup formation.

What goes into these melt-in-mouth Besan Ladoos? - The Ingredients:

Besan Ladoo is a traditional Indian sweet. Besan is the Hindi name for Gram flour and Ladoo is a ball shaped sweet treat, so basically Besan ladoo is a ball shaped sweet made using gram flour.

Gram Flour: Some recipes, call for use of coarse Besan which all cannot source. Here i have used the regular fine Besan what we get in any grocery store. Use good quality and fresh pack of gram flour for best results. 

Ghee: If you are looking for the authentic taste, do not cut down on the quantity of ghee used in this recipe. These ladoos get the typical melt-in-mouth texture from the ghee roasted flour. You will thank me for the wonderful aroma your house gets filled with the ghee roasting of the gram flour. Gram flour is roasted in ghee on low flame until it turns aromatic. Use good quality ghee or clarified butter. Homemade ghee is the best.

Powdered Sugar: I have powdered the regular sugar using a grinder jar and used the same in the recipe. Some recipes call for using bura or tagar variety of ground suagar that is coarse in texture. The ghee roasted gram flour is allowed to cooled down before adding powdered sugar to it.

Green Cardamom:  Besan ladoos are flavored using green cardamom powder which compliments very well with Indian desserts. You can grind 4-5 green cardamom pods along with sugar or use around 1/4 teaspoon powdered cardamom powder.

Nuts: You may roast few nut chunks while roasting the gram flour towards the end and bind then along with the ladoo mixture or simply garnish the ladoos with nuts or raisins. I have simple pressed one halved cashew onto each ladoo while rolling to make it all the more festive and appealing. You may skip adding the nuts altogether if you wish.  

The resultant mixture is then rolled tightly to make ladoos. If you have used the correct amount of ghee and roasted the flour well, binding the ladoos is not a difficult task at all. In my case, the temperature here was pretty cool and the ghee in the roasted flour solidified wihin a few minutes making the ladoo mixture very dry. In such cases, just run the ladoo mixture (the ghee roasted flour with the powdered sugar) in a grinder jar. This step will generate heat in the mixture melting the ghee and make the mixture moist enough to bind it.

Ghee roasting the gram flour on low flame while stirring continuously stirring it until the flour turns nutty and aromatic is a key in making these melt-in-mouth Besan ladoos and it really tastes your patience. The flour has to be roasted for a good 20-25 minutes on low flame or until you get a strong nutty aroma of the roasted flour. If the flour is not roasted properly, the ladoos will stick to the palate and they will have the raw after taste of gram flour which will ruin the ladoos. Besan ladoos are heavy on calories as a good amount of ghee is used to roast the flour and the ladoos are sweetened with powdered sugar. But one can indulge in such delicacies once in a while. Can't we ? 

Related Event: 

My family favourite was the theme for the 273rd week on our Facebook gourmet group, Foodie Monday Blog Hop, where a bunch of passionate food bloggers share their culinary skills each Monday depending upon a pre-determined theme. Priya VJ who blogs at Sweetspicytasty.com was the hostess for the week and among the two themes she proposed, My family favorite won with maximum votes. As the name suggests, Priya suggested that we share a dish that is loved and always in demand in our respective families. I chose this delectable Besan Ladoo as my contribution towards the theme as this sweet treat is not only my childhood favourite but even Kiran and Chinmay love these ladoos to the core. We do not need any festival or special occasion to relish on this traditional delicacy. I make these ladoos often just to satisfy our sweet cravings. I can recall how these ladoos came to my rescue during my hostel stay. Whether it was our long train journeys or the winter trips, these ladoos always were the preferred snack. Besan ladoos are delicious, nutritious, filling and have good shelf life. Meanwhile do check out Priya's space for healthy and delicious recipes. I have bookmarked many of her authentic South Indian recipes. Puli Inji , a tamarind ginger preserve and Erissery (cooked pumpkin simmered in coconut chili paste and topped with flavorful and aromatic coconut oil tempering) from the Kerala Sadhya Menu. 

Dietary Notes:

• Gluten- Free
• Vegetarian
• Kid- Friendly
• Festive Sweet
• Great Travel Food

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Makes: 12 large or 15 medium sized Besan ladoos

Ingredients: Measurements used 1 cup = 240 ml

• 2 cups chickpea flour / Besan
• 1 cup powdered sugar ( i have ground 3/4 cup raw sugar)
• 1/2 cup ghee / clarified butter
• 1/4 teaspoon green cardamom powder
• Cashew nuts for garnishing (optional)

Method:

1. Sift the gram flour before roasting it. Heat ghee in a non-stick or heavy bottom wok. Add the sifted flour to it and start stirring the flour to blend it very well with the ghee. Roast the flour on low flame while continuously stirring it to ensure the flour does not burn or catch the bottom of the pan.  

                              

                             

2.  At first the mixture will be lumpy and difficult to stir but as you keep stirring and roasting the flour becomes loose and ghee starts oozing out from the sides. You will get a strong nutty aroma when the flour is roasted perfectly. The flour will also turn golden brown. You require a good arm strength to keep continuously stirring the mixture to ensure it does not stick to bottom. It took me a total of 25 minutes of stirring and roasting. I would not suggest to go by the same time as it will vary with the quantity of ingredients used and the kind of wok used. 

                              

                              

3. You can observe in this pic below that the roasted flour has changed its color and left the sides of the pan. You can also see ghee oozing out from the mixture. Put off the flame and allow the mixture to cool down completely. Add powdered sugar and cardamom powder to the roasted and cooled down flour.

                              

                              

4. Mix the powdered sugar very well with the roasted flour and take a handful of flour and bind it tightly to make the ladoos. In my case, the weather here was very cold and the ghee solidified instantly making the mixture dry and difficult to bind. I simply transferred the mixture to grinder jar and pulsed it few times. This step generated heat making the mixture moist as the ghee melted and i could bind the ladoos well. If you make the ladoos in Summer season on the other hand, the mixture might be very moist and the ladoos would not hold their shape and flatten. In such case, bind all the ladoos and allow it to stay for an hour or so and then shape it again. The ladoos will remain firm after the ghee solidifies. Press one cashew on each ladoo while shaping it so that it sticks to the ladoo.

                              

                              

                                  

5. Serve the delicious besan ladoos and enjoy with your loved ones! keep the remaining in an air-tight container. The ladoos remain good at room temperature for 2-3 weeks. 

Recipe Notes:

• Use freshly milled gram flour for best results as old flour may turn bitter.
• Do not cut down on the ghee quantity if looking for authentic taste and texture of the ladoos.
• I have used regular fine variety of gram flour/ Besan which gives melt-in-mouth texture. If you prefer a coarse texture of the ladoo, use the coarse variety of gram flour.
• Some recipes call for use of tagar or bura sugar, i have powdered the regular refined sugar and used it in the recipe.
• Slow ghee roasting the gram flour until it turns nutty and aromatic is the key to good Besan ladoo. Do not become impatient while roasting the flour. I agree it requires patience and lots of arm power to keep continuously stirring the flour while roasting it on low flame, but trust me the end results are worth all the efforts.
• Do not add powdered sugar to the roasted flour while it is hot, as that will melt the sugar and ruin the ladoos.
• You may add cardamom powder to the ladoo mixture at the end or grind 4-5 green cardamom along with sugar and use it instead.
• You may roast few nut chunks while roasting the gram flour towards the end and bind then along with the ladoo mixture or simply garnish the ladoos with nuts or raisins. I have simple pressed one halved cashew onto each ladoo while rolling to make it all the more festive and appealing. You may skip adding the nuts altogether if you wish.
• If while binding your ladoo mixture becomes dry, do not panic, just run the mixture in a food processor or grinder jar. The mixture will become soft and easy to bind.

Would Love To Hear From You !

I hope you would love trying these delectable besan ladoos for yourself. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with us in the form of likes and comments in the section below this post.

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See you soon with yet another healthy creation from my Kitchen. Till then take care and eat right !

Happy Cooking ! 

Happy Eating !

Regards 

Poonam Bachhav

For more festive ladoo recipes do check out the following links from this blog

• Easy Motichoor Ladoos - No-Fry Recipe

• Churma Ladoo

• Kaliche Ladoo

• Besan Suji Ladoo

• Methi Gond Ke Ladoo

• Whole Wheat Flour Ladoo with Edible Gum