Boondi Laddu

Any Indian celebration is incomplete without sweets, and that’s a known fact 🙂 . Laddu is an essential part of any celebration in India, especially Boondi Laddu. Even most of the revered temples in India serve Boondi Laddu to the Gods!.

For the benefit of everyone, Boondi (boond) is a hindi word meaning tiny drops/beads, and Laddu means round shape sweet; so this sweet essentially is holding lots of beads together in a round form hence called Boondi Laddu.

When I was young, I used to be very curious about how confectioners make these small round balls. I now know that 😉 – Boondi Laddu is mainly made up of chickpea flour and sugar syrup. The most important thing in making these laddus is consistency of the batter and sugar syrup. If either of them is not good then you won’t be able to make these laddus.

The ingredients for the Boondi Laddu are :
1. Chickpea Flour (Gramflour/Besan) : 1 cup
2. Sugar : 1 1/2 cup
3. Cardamom : 6
4. Oil : 1 Tbsp
5. Pistachios : 1Tbsp
6. Cashew nuts : 1Tbsp (optional)
7. Clarified butter (ghee) : for frying

Method :

Take Chickpea flour in a bowl – add little bit water at a time and stir until all lumps are dissolved.

Add some more water and oil ( all together I have used 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp of water), and whisk properly (for 5 minutes). This mixture should be of pouring consistency; keep it aside for 15 minutes.

Making Sugar Syrup :

Take sugar in a pan and add 1 cup water into it. Let the sugar melt completely. After the sugar gets dissolved, cook for 3-4 more minutes and then check the thread consistency – take 1 tiny drop on your forefinger and check by putting forefinger and thumb together and pull apart. You will see a thread will form. It should have one thread consistency. If thread is not formed cook syrup for 1-2 more minutes. The sugar syrup is ready.

Making Boondi :

Heat ghee in a pan. Whisk the chickpea flour mixture for one more time nicely.

Place the ladle 6-7 inch above the pan (I used tea strainer) and pour chickpea flour batter on top of it with the help of a spoon. Mixture will fall in the pan in the form of small drops and boondi will get ready. Fry until boondi turns golden brown in colour. Don’t overcook it otherwise it will be crispy but not soft.

Add cardamom, pistachios and cashew nuts in the sugar syrup. Also add boondi in the sugar syrup and mix all ingredients nicely. Soak the boondi in syrup for 15-20 minutes, so that the boondi absorbs the syrup.

Wet your hands with some water and take 2-3 tbsp mixture on hand. Press the mixture with some pressure of both hands to make round laddus. Keep the laddus open in the air for 5-6 hours to get dry.

Your delicious Boondi Laddus are ready!

Insider Tips / Finer Points :

• Batter’s consistency is very important and tricky so make sure your batter is of right consistency.

• If batter is thick then boondi will become long; if batter is thin then boondi will become flat.

• Sugar syrup should be thin and not thick.

• While mixing the boondi in the sugar syrup, the sugar syrup should be warm and boondi must be warm too otherwise you won’t be able to bind them together.

• You may add Melon seeds also. Dry roast the melon seeds (1Tbsp) and add in the sugar syrup.

• You may also use oil instead of ghee for frying.

• If you don’t have laddle with small holes then you can use tea strainer.