Mann mein (Besan) Laddu phoota

Happy New Year 2012!

The first day of the new year is always very ambitious. I like to ensure that I do all the things that I love to do since I have a superstition that what I d

o on the first day of the year is what I will do most for the rest.

(So, as you can guess, I dont clean much.)

I woke up today with a craving for sweet and like a typical housewife in the US I have not much choice but to make what I feel like eating.

Besan Laddu is not something that I would normally pick in a sweet store and thats the reason I decided to make it.

What you need to make Besan Laddu (To make 12)

• Channa dal powder / Besan / Kadle hittu - 3 cups (cup you would serve curry in a thali)
• Fine Semolina / Sooji / Sanna Rave - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 1 cup
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
• Cardamom/Elaichi/Yellakki - 2 pods, powdered (1/2 tsp)
• Cashews - 1 for each Laddu

Preparation to make Besan Laddu (Time : 2 min)

• Mix the besan and rava together
• Powder sugar and elaichi in a mixie and keep aside

Method to make Besan Laddu (Time : 45 mins)

• Place a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai on a stove on simmer(low heat)
• Heat the ghee in a kadai
• Once ghee is warm, fold in the besan rava mixture
• The besan rava ghee mixture will cook in low heat for around 30-40 mins till raw smell of besan is gone
• Keep the heat low else it may prematurely burn the mixture
• Keep stirring it once in a while so that it gets evenly cooked
• Let the dough cool for 5 mins once cooked
• Grind together the mixture, sugar, milk for a couple of seconds till well mixed
• You could also mix manually with a spatula if you do not want extra mixie cleaning chore
• Let the dough cool
• Grease hand lightly with ghee and form balls from the dough
• Stick a cashew into each laddu and voila besan laddu is ready!

My fundas

• Replace cashews with pistachio or almond pieces
• You could break cashews into small pieces and fold it into the dough. Makes the laddu crunchy.