Tag Archives: laddu

Rava Laddu ( semolina laddu)

2015-03-06

Ingredients :

1 cup sooji or semolina
3/4 th cup sugar ( powdered)
3/4 th cup desiccated coconut
1/3 rd cup melted ghee
1/4 th cup thick milk
1/4 th cup water
1/2 tea spoon cardamom ( elach) powder
1/2 tea spoon saffron or a tiny pinch of food color
Almond / pistachio / raisins , fried in ghee

Procedure :

1. Soak saffron in 1/4 th cup of warm milk . If you don’t have saffron , replace with tiny pinch of food color .

2. Dry roast the sooji/ semolina/ rava in a pan until fragrant and lightly brown . Don’t make it brown . Add the coconut and roast a little together.

3. Add the sugar . Add the melted ghee and mix well . The sooji will look moist due to ghee . You can add the dried fruits at this point .

4. Now the important part add the milk first . Let the sooji absorb the milk . It will look just little moist . Now add the water slowly . Don’t add too much water like halwa , you may not be able to get the correct texture . You have to add the liquid slowly to mix it with sooji evenly .

5. Apply some ghee on your palm and shape them into laddus .

Enjoy !!

Carrot-Kalakand Laddu

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Divine!!! Delightful!!Decadent!!! My husband would go on adding some few more adjectives for this luscious laddu for sure !! It was my 9th marriage anniversary and wanted to make a dessert for the hubby dear using carrot, his favorite . Suddenly something popped into my brain and here comes the end result !!

This laddu is a combination of two desserts , carrot halwa and kalakand . But trust me , they are not at all difficult to make .

For the Carrot halwa:

Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 cup of shredded carrot
1/4 th cup sugar
2 tbl spoon ghee
1/3 rd cup of condensed milk
Little orange food color ( optional , if your carrot gets light colored while cooking)

Don’t use any “garam masala” like cardamom, cinnamon . Trust me they ruin the taste of halwa . Keep it simple , you will find the taste better .

Procedure:

1. Peel and finely grate the carrots . Now mix with sugar . Put them in a pan , preferably non-stick one , cover with the lid tightly and cook on low flame until the water from sugar and carrots dries out . As the pan is covered by the lid , the steam created inside will cook the carrot soon . Check after five minutes . Stir so that the carrot must not get burnt . Keep it like this another 2 minutes . This method helps to retain the color of the carrot and sugar enhances the color a lot . Make sure the stove is on low flame . If you find your carrots need some little more time to get done , take your time but stir occasionally .

2. Add ghee and mix well . Now pour the condensed milk and keep stirring until the liquid dries out and halwa pulls away from the sides of the pan. Turn off the stove and let it cool a bit .

In the mean time start making your kalakand;

Ingredients for kalakand:

For Chaana/ chesse

1. Milk 1 ltr / 4 cups

2. Lemon Juice 1 and half table spoon

Other Ingredients:

1. Ghee/clarified butter 2 tbl spoon

2. Powder Milk 4/5 tbl spoon

3. Condensed Milk a little more than half Tin

4. Cardamom Powder/ Elach guro half teaspoon

Cooking Method:

1. Heat the milk and bring it to a boil stirring occasionally so that the milk should not get burnt on the bottom. Then add the lemon juice and stir until the greenish water is seen, i.e, the whey is separated and the milk curdled.

2. Now remove almost all the whey/ water from the cheese , taking a little amount of it . If you strain all the whey no prob at all. 🙂

3. Continue to cook the Chaana on the stove on medium low heat. Add ghee, cardamom powder and sweetened condensed milk. Keep stirring. It will get thicker and will form water less lump. Remember Kalakand should have that crumbly texture.Add the powder milk and cook for last 1 minute . let it cool a bit too .

Making the laddu:

Now mix the kalakand with carrot halwa and shape into the size of laddus .

Enjoy !!

Boondi Laddu

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This is the easiest and fail proof way to make boondi laddu . 🙂

Ingredients :

For Batter:

1 cup besan/ Benglam gram flour , sifted
3/4th cup -1 cup water ( room temperature), depending on the quality of besan . I took 3/4th cup+2 tbl spoon
1/4 th teaspoon baking soda
1/4 th tea spoon baking powder
Little food color
Little salt

For Sugar Syrup :

1 cup Sugar
1 cup of water
1/2 ( half) tbl spoon lemon juice ( prevents crystalization) , don’t skip this part
2 green cardamom and a small stick of cinnamon
1 tea spoon ghee ( add at the end)

Other:

After frying all the boondies take 1/2 cup of boondies from it and coarsly grind it . We need 1/3 rd cup of it , but if needed we can use the whole amount . It would help to bind the laddus .

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a karahi on medium flame . Boondis need to be deep fried . In the mean time , start making the sugar syrup with the ingredients mentioned . The sugar syrup must me medium thick . It must not be thin . It must be like that , when you touch the syrup with finger , your finger sticks. But don’t make it too thick that it crystallizes . The syrup is very important for the boondia . If it’s thin , your boondis will be soggy and if your syrup is too thick the boondies will not absorb the syrup .

2. Sift the gram flour or besan . Make batter with the ingredients mentioned for batter . Add water little by little , so that there is no lump . Don’t add extra 1 or 2 tbl spoon of water unless needed . The batter should be medium thick . It must not be thin or else you won’t have the perfect shape . And if you make it too thick , it won’t pour into the oil through the strainer or spoon . It should be just like the cake batter . Now if you wish you can divide the batter into two or three bowl and add different colors to have colorful boondi laddu .

3. When the oil is ready to fry , hold the strainer just 2 inches above the hot oil . If you hold it above this height you won’t get the perfect round boondis . Hold it as near as possible to the oil . Now pour a little amount of batter onto the strainer or perforated ladle with a spoon and from the back of the spoon press a little . You will see small balls r dropping in to the oil . It should fall with intervals , then the perfect round shape will come . But if it falls like a line , you won’t have the shape . So little amount of batter one at a time . Must not be thin and press the batter with spoon once at a time gently . Don’t press it too hard , then too much will be poured in the oil ruining the shape . always put little batter on the spoon or strainer otherwise you won’t get the shape . After the first gentle press with the spoon , don’t press any more , rather give small strokes with the spoon on the strainer without touching the batter over it . 🙂

4. Fry the boondis until little crispy . Not too much , but yet crispy . remove them from the oil with another spoon . From this fried boondies , keep asise 1/2 cup of it and coarsly crush them into a grinder . Take 1/3 rd cup of powdered boondi and keep that side . you can store the remaining crushed boondies , if remain .

5.Put the remaining boondis in the hot sugar syrup until they get soft . Remember the syrup should be boiling hot . when you put the boondis into the syrup , the stove must be turned off , but after adding the boondi turn on the stove and cook the boondis at very low flame for at least 5/6 minutes until the boondis absorbed almost all the syrup and turned very soft .

6. Now add the caorsley grinded 1/3 rd cup of boondis into the boondies in syrup . mix well . Transfer them into a large serving dish . It should look like this;
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7. Grease your hands with little ghee and start shaping the laddus while they are hot . If you wish , you can add dried nuts ( fried in ghee) or khoya ( maowa) .

Enjoy !!!

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