LADDU / BOONDHI LADDU / DEEPAVALI SWEETS

Sugar absorbed boondhi laddu / ladoos for deepavali.

INGREDIENTS:

Gram flour - 2 cup
Sugar - 4 cups
Ghee - 1 1/2 cups OR Oil  - 1 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 ladle
Cashew nuts - 10
Cardamom  - 4 (crushed)
Edible camphor - a pinch
Kesari powder - 1/8tsp.
Clove - 4 (optional)
Nut meg - 1/4 (crushed coarsely)
Small sugar candies(Diamond kalkandu) - 1 teaspoon
Raisin – 20 nos.
Boondhi ladle - 1 

METHOD:

Heat a kadai, add sugar and a little water, mix with a ladle. When the sugar melts completely, add a ladle of milk to remove scum. Remove the impurities off the syrup. Make a sugar syrup of one string consistency. (See here for the consistencies of sugar syrup). Now the syrup is ready. Remove from heat. Add nutmeg, clove, cardamom, diamond kalkandu and edible camphor. Add the kesari powder, mix well. Add yellow food colour if you want the laddu to be in yellow colour.

Fry cashews and raisins in ghee till golden brown. Keep aside.

Sieve gram flour, add water and make a semi-thick batter. Mix well without any lumps.

Heat ghee/ oil. Hold the boondhi ladle above the oil. Pour a ladle of the batter on the boondhi ladle ( a flat ladle with holes) and tap gently. When doing like this, the mixture drops into the oil as small balls which we call as boondhi. Fry them in medium flame till soft and cooked. It should not be crisp. Remove it from oil,drain in  a kitchen towel and immediately drop these boondhis into the sugar syrup. Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.

Mix the previous batch of boondhis well before dropping the next batch of boondhis. Add the fried cashews and raisins. When still warm, take a little of the mixture and make balls of desired size.

Sugar absorbed boondhi ladoos are ready for deepavali.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. Any sweet tastes awesome in ghee. However,  health conscious people can use oil. Ensure medium heat of ghee / oil. When a drop of batter is dropped, the batter should rise up with bubbles. This is the correct smoking point of the oil. The batter should not be  very dilute or very thick. It should be semi-thick.

2. The boondhis should be soft but cooked. It should not be crispy.

3. The sugar syrup should be warm.

4. The boondhis absorb the sugar only when hot, so drop them hot into the syrup.

5. Sugar candy (kalkandu), cloves, and edible camphor are optional.

6. For perfect balls, the sugar syrup and the boondhis should be mixed well and equal. Adjust the mixture accordingly, so that the sugar syrup is not in surplus.