Boondi Laddoo

Happy Diwali to all my dear blogger friends and family.

With just 1 day left for Diwali ... I am sure all of you wonderful bloggers are busy preparing your choice of sweets and savories. For Diwali, we are always in India with our families. No worries of preparing the sweets :) ... but this time we are celebrating it here. So trying out various sweets.

Yesterday my experiment was boondi laddoo. Though this is one of the time consuming sweets (at least I felt like that) the end result is really yummy :). My mom told me that it is really simple and gave me the recipe. I was thinking that surely I will mess this up ... but fortunately it came out well.

The main tool for this laddoo is the typical boondi maker laddle ... this is a flat laddle with several small holes and a long handle. But since I did not have this tool, I used a collander which was good though not the best.
Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Besan flour - 1 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Oil - for frying



Sugar syrup:
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup (or little less)

Garnish:
Cashew (broken into pieces) - 1 tbsp
Raisins - 1 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Cloves - 4-5
Pachcha Karooram (Borneo Camphor) - 1/4 tsp
Ghee - 4 tbsp

Method:
Sift the besan flour and mix it with water to form a thick batter (little thicker than dosa consistency).



Before making the boondi, make the sugar syrup by adding 1/2 cup water to 3/4 cup sugar and heating. The syrup should boil till you get 1 string consistency.
Add cloves (crush a little but do not powder) , pachcha karpooram and cardamom powder to this.
Add 1/2 tsp lemon juice to avoid the sugar from forming crystals.
Now fry the raisins and cashew in ghee and keep this aside.
Now for the boondi ...
In a deep bottomed pan, heat oil. When the oil is very hot, hold the laddle/collander above the oil and pour small amount of batter.
Drops of batter fall into the oil. These should not stick to one another and they should bubble up, if not using another laddle ( used for frying) seperate them. Once the oils stops the bubbling noise, the boondis can be removed. The boondis should not be too crisp for laddoo.
Immediately put them to the sugar syrup.
Fry the boondis in batches and put them into the sugar syrup.
Mix the fried cashew and raisins.
Pour ghee into this and mix well.
Let the boondis completely absorb the syrup.
Now take a small quantity of this mixture in your palm and using your hands make firm laddoo.
Yummy laddoos are ready to be devoured :)



These if stored in airtight container will lasts for a week.

Tips: If your boondis turn a very crispy and hard, sprinkle 1-2 tbsp water evenly and mix well and leave it for 2-3 mins to soak in. This will make the boondis softer. Do not add more water as this will make the boondis soggy.

Yields: 25 Laddoos