Hello friends ! Welcome to Carenshare ! Today we will be making Boondi laddu. They not only taste delicious , the home-made freshness and purity set them apart too.

As promised, I am back with a video recipe of these laddu. They are the most common sweets in temples and not that difficult to prepare. But its always good to work in a team. So that you get to gorge them in a short while. 😀

In this festive season, don’t just count the calories. Work out and enjoy the festivals with a high spirit . Lets start our work out now .. 😉

INGREDIENTS:
1. Coarse Chickpea flour(Mota besan/dardara besan) – 3 cups
2. Water – 3 and ¹⁄₂ cups
3. Clarified butter (desi ghee) – 2 cups or more (for frying)

For sugar syrup:
1. Sugar (white granulated/ Indian sugar) – 4 and ¹⁄₂ cups
2. Water – 2 and ¹⁄₄ cups
3. Orange food color – 1 pinch
4. Ground cardamom pods or powder (Elaichi) – 1 tbsp
5. Lemon juice (nimboo ras) – 2 tsp (to prevent crystallization)

For assembling :
1. Pistachios Silvered ( piste) – 3 tbsp
2. Melon seeds (Kharbuje ki giri) – 2 tbsp

METHOD:
|Preparation time : 10 mins | Cooking time: 50 mins | Assembling time : 20 mins | Makes 56-60 Laddoo medium-size|

1. We start with making the boondi batter(ghol). For that start with 1 cup of water . Add the besan in parts and keep on mixing to avoid the formation of lumps in the batter. Make a smooth thick pourable batter in this way ,using all the besan and water. If you are trying for the first time, you may divide the recipe by 3 or 2 to begin with.

2. Heat the Desi ghee in a deep wok(kadhai). A deep wok would provide for the extra safety while making boondi. Plus it would lessen the scattering of ghee or batter around the stove. Maintain the temperature of the oil. For my stove it was at 2 or 3 throughout. If the ghee is too hot, the batter gets burnt and if it is too cold, the boondi will be hard. So it should be just medium.
   

cleaned ghee

1. Check the ghee by dropping a drop of batter in the ghee. If it comes out round and puffy, and floats to the top in 2 seconds, it is ready. Take a Jhara(boondi strainer) and add batter with a ladle(karchi) in it by keeping it over the ghee wok. Move the jhara vertically (up-down) to help in falling of batter. The consistency of batter should be such that you get round boondis when you drip the batter. If you get a tail in the boondi the batter is thick and if you get strands ,the batter is too thin. Keep on banging the jhara on the wok’s edge till all the batter is drained in the ghee.

2. Let the boondis fry at medium heat and keep on turning them or stirring with another strainer/slotted spoon (poni). Once you see the change in color take them out in a paper-towel lined plate with the poni. In the meanwhile , clean the jhara for the next batch of batter.

3. Similarly fry all the boondis and keep them on a paper towel to absorb any excess ghee. In between clean the ghee with a strainer ,so that your boondi don’t get covered in burnt particles.
   

4. If you want smaller boondis for Motichoor Laddoo, toss all the boondi in your mixer- grinder and grind them to smaller particles. Don’t overprocess them , or you would be left with some powder.

Sugar syrup:
1. For preparing sugar syrup ,heat water and sugar together in a wok/pan at high. Let the sugar dissolve and come it to a full boil.

1. Check for any sugar-impurity by dropping 2 tsp of milk in it. If you see some blackish bubbles on the top or the sides, take them out with a spoon/ladle(karchi).

2. Check the thread consistency. We are making 1-thread sugar syrup. You can drop the syrup with a ladle (karchi) back in the wok and see whether you are getting a thread in the end while it drops last. Or you may check it by cooling , then placing between your fore-finger and thumb, whether it has that unbreakble strand or not. In the end ,add some lemon juice to prevent crystallization of sugar syrup.
   [I forgot to add it, hence my laddoos have the white coating of syrup later on.]

3. Once you reach that, add all the boondi in it and continue strirring till all the boondi absorbs the syrup.

Assembling:
1. Once the syrup is absorbed in the boondi and it forms a thick sticky mixture, take it off the heat. Allow it to cool for 10-15 mins.

1. Add the melon seeds, pistachios and nuts (of your choice). Mix them well.
   

2. Smear your hands with ghee generously. Pick portions from the mixture and rotate them within your fists by pressing them hard. (Hence allow the boondis to cool first).
   

3. Once they attain the desired firm shape, arrange them in a thali(platter).
   

Offer them to the God first and then enjoy them without any guilt !!
Keep them in the open for few hours before you store them in air-tight container.

Hope this festive season gets as exciting for you as for me !! Till then keep sharing….
🙂