Boondi Ladoo

Its festival season around and the fast approaching celebration is Deepavali/Diwali. Besides, this week is our lil ones bday too & his likes and dislikes are also seasonal: d – so the current trend is towards sweetie :d. So thought why not make few of the luxurious sweets and rejoice the whole week. So here’s a ‘sweet week’ from abhi-ruchi as well this timeJ! Hence I would write few of my real-time tryouts which were winners right away……..

First dish of the week would be Boondi Ladoo i.e. an Indian sweet prepared out of gram flour, flavoured sugar syrup and dry fruits which later are formed into balls.

Making boondi ladoos was a nightmare for me. I had just eaten these ladoos in functions like weddings, naming ceremony or in any sweet meat shops. I never had seen or heard people make these ladoos at home for festivals or any celebrations. I came across this lady describing boondi laddo as such a simple and speedy dish which made me curious to do a trial run @ abhiruchi_kitchen J and here is the result. But yes of course the main part in making Boondi Ladoos is to use the right kind of utensil i.e. the perforated ladle or a grater and the consistency of the sugar syrup. Let me try and explain you the whole episode of making of Boondi Ladoo.

Makes around 16-18 Ladoos of the size you see in the pic below.

Ingredients:

Gram flour/ Besan – 2 Cups

Water – 1cup + I added another 2tbsp of it. You can see the consistency and then a

dd if reqd

Sugar – 3 Cups

Water – 2cups

Ghee – 2tbsp

Cashew – 2tbsp

Raisins – 2tbsp

Cardamom powder/ elachi powder – 1 to 2 tspn

Oil for frying

Perforated ladle/Grater

Candy thermometer (this is the easiest way when 1 cannot make out the exact consistency of the syrup)

Method

• Add the water and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. When the syrup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and stir to dissolve the sugar. Then let it simmer until the syrup is about half thread consistency or 220 degrees on the candy thermometer.
• Next mix the gram flour with water to make a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter consistency should be slightly thicker than dosa (pan-cake) batter.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat.
• Hold the perforated ladle/grater just 1 to 11/2 inches above the oil with 1 hand and with the other hand pour some of the batter onto the grater/ladle such that the batter covers all of the holes.
• The batter will start dropping through the holes into the oil. Drop enough boondi into the oil so that they just cover the surface of the oil in a single layer.
• Fry them until the sizzling sound stops and the boondis are slightly gold in colour but not crispy. (When you try to break a boondi between your fingers, it should not crack; it should just squeeze in and comeout)
• Pick up the boondis with another slotted spoon and put them directly in the warm sugar syrup.
• Repeat the process of making boondi and adding to the syrup with rest of the batter. Make sure you wipe clean the ladle/grater after pouring 1 bath of batter. Let the boondis soak in the sugar syrup for few minutes.
• Next add the cardamom powder and dry fruits to the syrup.
• Boondis soak most of the sugar syrup. Drain off the excess syrup (not much will be there)
• Let them sit until they are warm enough to handle. Remember not to let them cool off completely. If the boondis become cold then it will not be possible to form them into ladoos or balls (sugar will crystallize)

To make Ladoos

Reality struck me when I started making the ladoo’s – the fun part of the whole evening was just about starting…..

• First take some of the boondi mixture into your palm with a spoon. Gently squeeze the mixture between both the palms (you can refer the pic here) and give a round ball shape. Whilesqueezing some of the syrup might drip, that’s normal.
• As you finish making the ladoos go on keeping them on a plate and continue with the next ladoo. As the ladoos cool to room temperature they will become firm but moist.

You can store these Boondi Ladoos in covered container up to 10days and can be refrigerated up to a month.

A long procedure isn’t it? No wonder that we finished the first part of making boondis and the sugar syrup in less than 30 minutes… binding the ladoos together, took more than an hour ufffff. This surely needs a lot of practice and patience. Ultimately we succeeded doing it hurrayyy!!!

Tip: Making Ladoos is not a 1man show – yes it might not be possible for the 1^st try to do everything alone, you might need a helping hand.

Please note that the sugar syrup is at the right temperature, orelse you will not be able to form the ladoos.

Don’t worry if you are not able to make ladoos, you can still enjoy them as “see boondi”or “sweet boondi” or “meethi boondi”

Enjoy life as it comes J! Have a nice day!!