Happy Diwali! I finally got around to updating an old post and recipe for my forever favourite mithai, besan laddoos. Made in the Maharashtrian way with lots of ghee and lots of roasting the besan (gram flour), these are deeply flavoured with minimal ingredients. The texture is soft and moist, no room for dry, crumbly laddoos here! I hope you enjoy these as much as I do 🙂
I updated the recipe below after confirming proportions with my Mom and paying more attention to the method. Besan laddoos depend entirely on how long you roast the besan, that’s where all the colour and yummy flavour is. It’s a bit of a process, 45 mins or so, and there are no shortcuts!
There’s lots of ghee, not a ton of sugar and a bit of cardamom so they’re absolutely perfectly balanced! Do make sure your sugar is as fine as possible because it’s stirred in after the mixture has cooled, which means it only blends if it’s completely powered. Having said that, if you do taste a bit of crunchiness, it’s really ok.
You can stir in raisins or dry fruits of your choice, but I’ve always loved these as is. They get better the longer they’re stored so it’s a good idea to make these a few days before Diwali. It’s not that besan ladoos are complicated to make, they’re just time consuming. There’s three basic ingredients and a lot of mixing. And then there’s cooling. And then rolling. But the end result is sooo worth it!
Besan Laddoos
Ingredients
- 250 gms ghee
- 500 gms besan (gram flour)
- 250 gms finely powdered sugar plus a few spoons more if needed
- 4 to 6 cardamom pods, peeled and finely crushed
Instructions
- Melt 200 gms (roughly 1 cup) of the ghee in a sturdy, deep pan or flat-bottomed kadhai on low heat. Add the besan in bit by bit, stirring till the ghee has been absorbed and the mixture takes on a drier, slightly lumpy appearance.
- Now add the remaining 50 gms ghee, a spoon at a time, stirring all the time as the besan reaches the various stages of browning. First, the mixture will start to look more moist and go from pale yellow to darker brown in about 10 minutes. From there, it will darken further, becoming more of a semi solid consistency (see photos below), smelling super nutty and fragrant. You might see reddish spots appear as you stir, which is fine, just make sure to stir them back in and make sure nothing is sticking to the base of the kadhai.
- If at the end of about 35 minutes, the mixture still looks a bit dry and isn't coming together, add another tablespoon of ghee. When the surface gets that semi-solid, glossy appearance because of the ghee (about 45 mins), it's done
- Take the kadhai off the heat and set aside for the mixture to cool for about 2 hours, till it's almost at room temperature. Then, stir in the crushed cardamom.
- Add the powdered sugar bit by bit, stirring with a silicone spatula to mix it all in. Then use your hand to bring it all together, making sure you break up any lumps of sugar that might be there. It will form a soft dough-like consistency. You can taste and add a few more spoons of sugar at this stage if needed. While sugar helps thicken and dry up the mixture, I prefer not to add too much even if the laddoos remain on the soft side, but you can make them sweeter if you like!
- If the dough is a bit too soft to work with, chill it for 10 minutes. Mould into ladoos using the palm of one hand. I used a 1.5 tbsp cookie scoop to make sure I had equal portions! In all, you will have 20 to 22 laddoos.
- Store the laddoos in an airtight box at room temperature, at least overnight before serving. These really do get better the longer they sit! If you find the laddoos going soft (particularly in hot or humid weather), you can store them in the fridge and bring back to room temperature before digging in. Happy Diwali 🙂
Notes
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I saw your post in the wordpress reader and thought “people who make ladoos are rockstars” and then read through and saw that apparently it’s a lot more common than I thought! Well either way I am certainly still impressed, these look great 🙂 Happy Diwali to you and yours
Hahaha thank you!! I sure felt like a rock star! Let me know if you ever try these out 🙂
These besan ladoos look amazing! Do you add the sugar last of all? After the 45 minutes of stirring, or do you add it when you’re stirring? I’ll have to give it a try since I do have besan. Does the addition of nuts or dry fruit make it difficult to form the balls? Happy Diwali to you 🙂
Thank you Loretta! Yes, the sugar is to be added after stirring and allowing the mixture to cool for at least two hours. Let me know how you go!
And no, the nuts or dry fruit won’t interfere too much with the rolling as long as the pieces aren’t too big and it’s not more than a handful of them 🙂