Laddu is round shaped Indian sweet, it is an icon for us Indians. So much so that, any sweet tasting food that is round, is laddu for an Indian. Even if you hand us rum balls, it will be rum laddu, if you let us to define it! I have seen/heard a lot of people treat laddu making as a challenge, since it involves a long, step by step process. But I think this is actually fun. So here is my take on the recipe.
Put gram flour in a deep pan and dry roast the gram flour on low flame for 15 minutes or till it gets light brown in colour.
Keep on stirring continuously so that besan gets evenly cooked and does not get burn.
After 15 minutes add ghee, mix it well and keep on stirring the besan/ gram flour on low flame and roast it for further 6-7 minutes or till a nice aroma is given out and it starts releasing ghee.
Once it gets roasted add chopped almonds, cashew and mix it well.
Switch off the flame and remove the pan from the gas, keep down and stir for 2-3 minutes more without flame so that it may not get burn by the heat of pan from the bottom.
Allow the besan mixture cool down slightly until it can be touched by hand comfortably.
Lastly add powdered sugar, cardamom powder to the roasted gram flour/ besan and mix it well.
Take small portion of besan mixture in your palm and roll them into round shape laddus.
Make small or medium sized Besan laddu as per your wish.
Decorate the laddus with some broken cashew, saffron and store in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
The mixture will become moist if the sugar is added to the hot mixture so always add sugar when the mixture slightly cools down. Do not add sugar if the mixture is hot otherwise, mixture will become moist You can add nuts as per your taste or if you don’t like eating nuts can skip also. I have roasted the besan first and later on added ghee but you can roast the besan with ghee also.