Just as South Indians are busy celebrating Navarathri during this time, so are the North Indians with their Dussehra. The plethora of sweetmeats during this time is countless and if you have a sweet tooth, then rest assured, you would find yourself in a candy heaven The decorations and processions during this time for Goddess Durga is something which you have to see to believe. It would bring goose pimples and is guaranteed to bring that awed look on the onlookers eyes – irrespective of how many times they might have witnessed it. Here is a video about Goddess Kali (another form of Durga) that has a beautiful devotional song playing in the background. The flute is amazing. It explains more about the Goddess.

One of the sweet dishes which is like a must for the festive occasion on the Northern parts of India, esp. in the Maharashtrian household are these Besan Ladoos. The term “Besan” in Hindi denotes Chickpea flour and “ladoos” are Indian way of representing sweet balls. If the balls are savory, then they become Koftas These ladoos come under the category of the rare ‘get’s-done-in-a-jiffy” sweets with not so many complication involved in making them. Just few guidelines and you should be good to go.

I am usually more comfortable with Baking than Indian sweets and on the grounds that the Baking science is explained well while its not really put in words w.r.t Indian traditional sweets. Habit and constant practice make some women (or mm..men ) dish out some amazing sweets but ask them why and how you do so and so in that recipe the answer from most of them would be “well, that’s how it is”. They work on eye balling the ingredients and can work on the basis of the just eye measure and smell! Imagine that! So for people like me, the result is usually associated with the term ‘disaster’ and in my small amateur kitchen with no expert body verifying if my so called eye balling and gut instincts make any sense, the end result is not always “sweet” (pun intended!) But for this one, I will tell you what you can and why you can do so and so to make the ladoos look and taste like one . I say so cos of having mastered the so called science of it – well the truth is , its too simple that even I can make it without any problems

This recipe was given by my Maharashtrian friend whose mother made some amazing out-of-this-world Besan Ladoos EVER! I have made v subtle changes from the various recipes I saw on the net. So lets go to the recipe shall we?

Method – 1 (For a little more experienced cooks

Chop the almonds coarsely. Set aside.

First warm the ghee in low heat. If it is solidified, then it will melt. Don’t overheat. Warming it is enough.

Note: Ghee is essential to this ladoo for 2 reasons – for adding flavor and as a binding agent.

In a bowl, sift the chickpea flour.

Note: I find that mixing the flour later after sifting is much easier and also avoids lumps.

Add the semolina and the ghee.

Mix well until well combined.

Take a pan (non stick works too). Drop the mixture and keep the heat in low-medium heat. Now comes the essential part. Roasting this mixture takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes depending on the heat.

Note: Purpose for doing this is to get rid of the rawness of the chickpea flour. You know it is ready when your whole house is filled with sweetish aroma of the roasting chickpea flour. There won’t be any change in color hence keep your nostrils vigilant and stirring actions continuous. You don’t want to overheat the mixture (if you increased the heat to avoid constant stirring ) – the mixture will become v dry.

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Method – 2 (For beginners / those trying this for the first time ** UPDATED **

I thought I will update the post with this too after Priya’s comment reminded me of what my mother used to do.

My mother instead of heating the chickpea flour,semolina and ghee mixture, would first dry roast the chickpea flour first until aromatic. Only after it wafts up that incredible sweetish aroma would she add the Ghee to it.

Rest of the process is all same. Only difference is roasting the chickpea flour before hand and then following up with adding rest of the ingredients.

Note: You don’t have to use Semolina in this method (my mother never did) but if you are going to, then toast the semolina separately too!

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Meanwhile in the same pan (where you melted/warmed ghee), toss the raisins. If there is no ghee, add a little to help the raisins plump up. Set aside.

In the same pan, add the almonds and toast them for 1-2 minutes. Set them aside.

Now Remove the Besan mixture from heat and set aside in a bowl to cool.

Note: When I say cool, I actually mean cool down to warm from hot.

Now add the sugar,cardamom and half of almonds to this mixture.

Note: The chickpea flour should be warm and not cool. We require the mixture it to be warm since this warmness will help the sugar to melt a bit thereby binding the flour – enough to bind it into ladoos.

Take a little of the mixture in your hands

Clump your hands with the mixture to tighten it.

Slowly using your inner palm, rotate it to make small balls.

Though the mixture will not look sticky enough – it will get together to form beautiful ladoos.

Depending on the shape of your ladoos – this mixture makes anywhere between 10-20 ladoos.

UPDATE

You can use the remaining almonds for garnish. Either press down the pieces to the ladoos or else to make it more yummy – dip a little end of the ladoos in melted ghee (a wee little bit would do ) and then roll that on the almond mixture so that it sticks. If both of these seem like lot of work, simply add all of the almond mixture to the dough before rolling them out into ladoos.

Points to Note ( Common problems in shaping ladoos)

The following are the common issues that happen while forming laddos causing it to break. Here are some tips to set it right instead of throwing it all away. If you have more tips, pls do share in the comment section – it would always be great to learn one more tip since its never enough

The mixture is dry and chalky

If you are not able to shape the mixture into ladoos because it is too dry, then the 2 obvious reasons I can think of are

1. You over roasted/heated the mixture
2. You let the mixture cool down completely before adding sugar.

If this is the case you can try any one of the following methods to solve this problem

- Add the sugar etc and then take the full mixture and re heat in low setting for 1 minute or so until you see the dough coming together. What happens is that the heat helps the sugar to melt and give more body to the mixture thereby helping to bind.

- Or heat few teaspoons of milk to warm. Add drop by drop to the chickpea flour mixture. That will help in forming ladoos.

Usually the main problem ahead of forming ladoos when it comes to Besan Ladoo is the taste.

Many a time it happens that after you form the perfect ladoo, you find that something seems amiss in the taste which seems more earthy in flavor. That only means that you didn’t cook the Besan mixture enough. 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. It will be enough to bring neighbor home

Hope these tips help you to enjoy some amazing and delicious Ladoos.

This entry is being sent to EC’s WYF: Festive Treats event

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