Besan Ladoo is the most popular Indian sweet to make during the festive season. You need just a few ingredients such as gram flour, ghee, and sugar to make these amazing melt-in-the-mouth dessert balls. Make this decadent sweet with this easy fail-proof recipe!
Prep Time10 minutesmins
Cook Time25 minutesmins
Total Time35 minutesmins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: besan ladoo, homemade ladoo, how to make besan ladoo
1-2tablespoonRoasted Nuts(optional) chopped, such as cashews almonds, pistachios
Instructions
Heat a heavy bottom pan on low heat. Add ghee and let it melt.
Add the sifted besan to the pan and mix.
The besan and ghee mixture will initially form a clump. Keep stirring and break up to loosen the mixture.
After about 10 minutes of continuous stirring, the mixture will start to loosen up.
Keep stirring, and at around 15 minutes, the besan will have a smooth paste-like consistency. Keep roasting for up to 25-30 minutes, when the color will have changed to golden, and there will be a sweet aroma filling your house. If you don't get this paste-like texture, then add a little more ghee.
Once the color of the besan is changed to golden, remove the pan from heat. You can transfer the besan to another container to avoid overcooking, or you can keep stirring the besan in the pan for 2-3 minutes after taking it off the flame. This will help it cool down.
Once the besan mixture has cooled completely in about 15 minutes (touch to make sure), add in the sugar, cardamom powder, and nuts/raisins (if using). Mix together with your hands so everything is well combined.
Take a small lemon-sized portion from the dough. Roll between your palms to form a round ladoo. You can apply a little ghee to your hands while rolling. Repeat with the remaining dough. You would get about 8-10 ladoos.
If the ladoos are not perfectly round, you can reshape them by rolling between your hands again in 5 minutes.
Store besan ladoo in an airtight container in a single layer. Enjoy!
Notes
Besan: Use fresh besan to make ladoo. I understand you don't have too much control or cannot find the date the besan was made, but use the one you got recently for the best results.Roasting:
Roast the besan well on low flame in a heavy bottom pan. This is the most important thing to make good besan ladoo. If you don't roast the besan well, the ladoos will have a raw taste. See the recipe step-by-step images when making this so you can see how the texture of the besan changes as it cooks.
Make sure not to over-roast the besan, or else it can burn. You have to keep stirring and watching the besan while making these ladoo. It only takes a minute for the besan to go from being perfectly cooked to burning, so be careful in the final stages.
Be patient and stir on: Making Besan Ladoo is a lot of arm work, and you need to keep stirring continuously. This is crucial for the besan to cook uniformly and not burn.
Cooling down: Cool the roasted besan completely before adding sugar. It will take about 15-20 minutes to cool. This is required so the sugar does not melt and makes it difficult to bind the ladoos.Increase quantity: If you double or triple this recipe, the roasting time will also increase.Kid-friendly: If making it for toddlers, you can skip adding nuts inside the ladoo or ground them before adding.