Besan Ladoo / Kadala maavu laddu / Chickpeas ladoo / Easy Diwali Sweet

Besan laddu ,a Diwali special sweet made with chickpeas/gram flour, powdered sugar,cardamom powder and of course some ghee. Little did I know that I could tailor the recipe to my liking.

A sweet we ate mostly during Diwali, a golden era when diet plans did not exist. (Diwali is an Indian festival that signifies victory over darkness and evil).  We never made it at home. I mean when there is an endless supply of Diwali sweets from neighbor aunties and friends no fool would want to think of making it from scratch but alas! like all good things would come to an end someday so did the supply.

Since the supply guarantee period is over I have made arrangements of my own to meet my demand and craving that comes with the added bonus of free aroma therapy.

 Diwali  is a festival of lights (even small oil lamps are replaced with ghee) so it may not be a good time to economize on ghee nor make a fool of yourself by counting on the calories. But u could go for a ghee portion control definitely. Hence here is a slight deviation from the regular method of cooking the gram flour through out in ghee but calls for adding it in the end. 

Did you know besan laddu is naturally gluten free too.

Ingredients: (yields around 15 small ladoos)

Besan /Kadala maavu / Chick peas flour - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup or 1 tbsp more

Ghee /Clarified butter -around 1/3 cup (See notes)

Cardamom powder - 4 pods(seeds powdered)

Golden raisins - few for decoration (fry in ghee if u like I have used  raw ones here)

Method:

In a heavy bottom pan dry roast besan / Kadala maavu  on a very slow flame (no oil needed ,simply heat the flour by stirring constantly) This may take 20-25 minutes.

When the flour is ready it will turn 2 shades darker and  toasted nutty aroma starts to come from the flour.(Try a small pinch and it should not taste raw)

Remove flour from flame and let it cool down, add powdered sugar and cardamom powder mix well Heat ghee to a almost boiling hot point.and immediately pour the  hot ghee few few tsps at a time into the flour sugar mixture, mix until  there are no lumps.(Intention here is to form balls so add ghee just enough to hold the shape)

When the heat is bearable roll the dough into small balls and place few raisins on top for decoration.

Once it cools down completely the besan ladoos are ready to be served.

Store in air tight container stays good for 2-3 days in room temperature. 

Note :

Dry flour can burn at the bottom very fast so constant stirring is required and remember to do dry roasting in a very low heat.

The dough may seem bit soft when u begin rolling thats because the sugar is slightly melted by the hot ghee. The ladoos will firm up once cooled.

If the mixture is too dry it wont form balls and will crack.

Grease ur palms with little ghee if u want the laddu to shine  :)

If u would like to reduce ghee go for part ghee part whole milk combination.The milk should be boiling hot.Add the ghee as much as u want first and finish up with few tsps of milk.Add one tsp at a time ,just enough to shape it into balls, not till soggy.U will have to refrigerate the ladoo until consumed. Please note that adding milk affects taste slightly.

I have used fine besan.

Hope you like it.
Meena

Sending this recipe for  MLLA#76 hosted by The Veggie Indian .The event is the brain child event of Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook and now it is run by Lisa of Lisa’s Kitchen