Besan ladoo (besanache ladoo)

Ojass and Prachi are two of the sweetest people I know. I visited them in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and Prachi wanted a quick faral (Marathi for snacks and sweets for special occasions and festivals) recipe to take to India for Ganpati, they were going to celebrate it with their family in India for the first time as a married couple (how adorable, touch wood!). Here’s a beautiful picture of the lovely batch of ladoos she made 🙂

I immediately thought of microwave besan ladoo. I still remember when Aji got her first microwave years ago. She was so excited about it. She would want to try making everything in it! I loved this quality of hers. She was extremely accepting of new technology and very adept at learning to use appliances and gadgets. I bet she would be watching chhayageet and chitrahar on her iPad, if she were alive today.

So here’s a recipe you can make in the microwave (always doable on the stove top with the same ingredients – if you got the muscles and the time to stir for about 40 minutes). This is a very popular sweet for Diwali. You can also make these with moong dal flour (also delicious) instead of chickpea flour.

Makes 10-15 medium sized ladoos.

You will need:

3 tbsp ghee2 cups besan (chickpea flour, preferably the coarse one specifically meant for ladoos)

1 cup powdered sugar (has to be fine powdered)

1/2 tsp Cardamom powder (for moong dal flour, I wouldn’t add this)

Cashews (or other nuts and/ or raisins

-Heat ghee in a Pyrex dish for 1 min
-Add besan and mix – this will be sticky at this point

-Heat this mixture in the microwave for 5-6 minutes at 1 minute intervals. Stir in between with a spatula

-The final result should be a golden light brown mixture that’s crumbly and aromatic

Cool the mixture completely

-Add 1 cup of powdered sugar and mix with hands (the spatula won’t cut it at this point)

– Add the cardamom powder

-The mixture will be dry but once u start making the ladoos, the heat from your hand will melt the ghee and help shape them

-take small portions and start making spheres by applying pressure with your palms and fingers

-press pieces of nuts and /or raisins on the surface to decorate the ladoos