LADDUS
Laddu or laddoo is a round/spherical shaped sweet. The name is said to have originated from the Sanskrit word Lattika. Laddus are made of flour, ghee/butter/oil, and sugar/jaggery, with other ingredients that vary by recipe, like chopped nuts or dried raisins. They are often served at festive or religious occasions. Laddoos are the most popular sweet dish from the vast cuisine of India and a favorite offering as prasad/naivedyam in temples across the sub-continent as well
as in all major Hindu celebrations such as births, naming ceremony, weddings, etc.
Ingredients:
Laddu can be prepared from a variety of grains, legumes or seeds, sugar/jaggery and ghee. Some popular ones include laddu made with roasted wheat, amaranth, garden cress seeds, fenugreek seeds, and peanuts respectively.
Preparation:
The required flour is combined with sugar and other flavorings, cooked in ghee and molded into a ball shape. Some laddu recipes are prepared using Ayurvedic medicinal ingredients, such as methi (fenugreek seed) laddu, multigrain and resin laddu. Dry fruits such as raisins, cashew nuts, pistachios and almonds are commonly added into laddus.
Of all laddus, the most famous is the boondi laddu which is a staple offering at Hindu temples, weddings, and Hindu festivals. Of these, the Tirupati Laddu of the Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam is the most famous and greatly sought after. The second most popular laddu is the besan laddu made of chickpea (besan) flour, sugar and ghee.
Other well known laddus include rava laddu (made from semolina), til laddu (made from sesame seeds), pinni laddu (made with wheat flour) and coconut laddu.
A less known but nutritious laddu given to lactating mothers is the gond laddu/dink laddu. These laddus are called dinkache ladoo in Marathi and gond ka laddu in Hindi. The main ingredient is gum arabic which is collected from the babhul tree. Other ingredients in the gond laddu include coconut, almonds, cashews, dates, spices such as nutmeg and cardamom, poppy seeds, ghee, and sugar. An alternative multigrain recipe will have a portion of gum replaced by grains and legume flours such as besan, urid, ragi (nachani in Marathi) and wheat.
Bengal Gram/ Chana Dal Laddu/Besan Laddu
Ingredients:
Ghee – 12 palam
Besan/Bengal gram flour/chana dal flour – ½ padi
Milk – 1/8 padi
Sugar – 24 palam
De-skinned almonds – 2 and ½ palam
Rock sugar -2 and ½ palam
Cardamom powder – ¼ palam
Method:
● Heat ghee in a pan. Stir Chana dal flour into the ghee. When it is fried well and you get the aroma of the flour, sprinkle milk little by little into the flour and fry for some more time. Since the milk is sprinkled and fried, the flour becomes very soft and fluffy and vessel full. During that time remove from the stove and add brown sugar, fried skinned almonds, cardamom powder and powdered rock sugar into the Chana dal flour mixture. Make balls (laddus) out of this mixture.
● Black gram/Urad dhal, Yellow gram/Moong dhal can also be used to make laddus.
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