Boondi laddu / boondi ladoo – Diwali sweets

Happy Diwali to all my readers and blogger friends.

Boondi laddu or ladoo is a popular Indian sweet usually prepared during festival time like Diwali. It is like a dream come true for me making this yummy laddu. I got this recipe from my cousin long back but i was bit hesitant to try because it is difficult to hold laddus when it is not properly prepared. But it was a big surprise for me and my family, it came out really well and tasted so good. Now i got confident that i can prepare this yummy laddu very perfect any time.

Ingredients:

Yields: around 15 laddus (depends on the size of laddus)

For making boondi:

• 1 cup – Gram flour / besan / kadalai maavu
• 1 pinch – Baking soda
• 1 pinch – Yellow food color
• 1 pinch – Salt
• 1 tbsp - Ghee
• 10 nos – Raisins
• 10 nos – Cashew nuts (broken into pieces)
• Oil for deep frying

For making sugar syrup:

• 1 1/4 cup – Sugar
• 1 cup – Water
• 1/4 tsp – Cardamom powder
• 2 nos – Clove
• 1 pinch – Yellow food color (optional)

Preparation method:

Making of boondi:

1. For making boondi laddu, you will need boondi making ladle or karandi, ladle to pour batter and another for draining them from hot oil. So you have to keep it ready before you start making boondi laddu.
2. Take a mixing bowl, add sieved gram flour, baking soda, yellow food color and a pinch salt . First add little water and mix it well without any lumps.Then add more water little by little and make a slightly thin batter like dosa batter and mix it well.The batter should not be too thick or too thin.
3. The consistency should be like dosa batter (as shown in the picture). If the batter consistency is not perfect then balls will not be round and it will have tails.
   To check if the batter is in correct consistency, first take a spoon and dip the backside of the spoon into batter and hold it on top of the preheated oil. If it drops as perfect rounds then the batter is perfect.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan, then take the boondi ladle and pour a little batter on the ladle. The batter will fall through the holes into the hot oil (as shown in the picture).
   Fry the balls till they are well cooked, no need to wait until it gets very crispy like kara boondi and drain it on a paper towel. Continue the same process with remaining batter.

Making of sugar syrup and laddus:

1. Meanwhile take a vessel, add sugar, cardamom powder, cloves, yellow food color and water, bring it to boil and cook until you reach one string or thread consistency. Switch off flame and add fried boondi to the hot sugar syrup, mix everything well.
2. Now heat little ghee in a pan, fry raisins and cashews to a slightly brown in color and add it to the boondi, let it cool for few minutes.
3. By that time boondis would have absorbed entire sugar syrup. Make laddus immediately when it is still warm enough to handle, otherwise it will be hard to make laddus. I did not grease my hands, just take enough boondi, squeeze and press tight to shape the laddus.
4. The syrup will ooze out while pressing which helps the laddus stay moist and soft, but it will become dry once the sugar get crystalized. Yummy laddus are ready to eat, store it in air tight container either outside for few days or refrigerate to keep it for long.

Notes:

• Make laddus as soon as its warm enough to handle. Otherwise the sugar will get crystalized and it will be difficult to make laddu.
• Adding yellow food color is optional. You can make it plain.
• Keep everything ready before you start to make boondi. Batter consistency is very important to get perfect round boondi.So be very cautious while adding water.
• When you drop the batter with the back of the spoon, If it drops and form balls with a tail, then add little more water to make it runny.  Following same spoon test, if the balls formed are very light and thin then the batter is very runny, so you can add little gram flour / besan to make it thick.
• Once the batter is ready take a ladle full of batter and add it to the boondi making ladle. Let it fall down by itself or else tap it or spread it using pouring ladle so that it drops down.
• The sugar syrup should be warm while adding boondis in it.
• You can keep boondi laddu outside for few days if it is handle properly like do not use wet hand to take laddus out from the container. I used to refrigerate it in airtight container to keep them for little long.

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