Motichoor Ladoo

Abhipriya Raghav

Tiny, fried balls of besan are soaked in sugar syrup and then moulded into soft, melt in mouth ladoos.

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 35

Course Dessert, Sweets

Cuisine Indian

Servings 12 ladoos

In a small bowl mix cold milk along with 3- 4 drops of orange food color.
In a mixing bowl, add the besan flour and a pinch of salt and mix well.
To this add, 1 tbsp of melted ghee and mix well.
Add the milk mixture to the besan flour mixture and whisk until well combined.
Now add water gradually to form a thick, lump-free paste and then add the rest of the water to form a thin batter.
Heat oil or ghee or ghee+oil in a kadai.
When the oil is hot, mix the batter and pour it through a perforated ladle into the oil.
Cook the boondis for less than a minute and immediately transfer it to a plate lined with absorbent tissue to cool down. Make boondis from the rest of the batter.
When they are cooled down, pulse it in a mixer grinder for 2-3 seconds to break any large lumps.
Meanwhile heat the sugar and water for the sugar syrup and let it come to a boil.
Add a few drops of orange food color and mix well and cook until the syrup reaches a single thread consistency.
Switch off the stove and add the rose essence, lemon juice and cardamom powder and mix well.
To the sugar syrup, add the fried boondis along with the melon seeds and mix well and let it rest with the lid-on for 20 minutes.
When it is still warm shape them into even sized balls and serve them.

Make sure that the besan batter is lump-free and of flowing consistency.
Adding orange food color is optional. You can replace it with saffron strands for natural color.
Hold the perforated ladle or the jhara 4-5 inches above the kadai and slightly shake the ladle back and forth while pouring the batter to ensure tiny balls of the batter fall down into the oil.
Fry the boondis only for 30-40 seconds as we do not want it to change color.
Wipe the ladle clean, in between each round of frying the boondis.
While pulsing the fried boondis, do not grind them into a powder.
Make sure you boil the sugar syrup to one string consistency. This is a very important step.
Adding melon seeds is completely optional and you can also add some chopped pistachios instead of it.
After mixing the fried boondis with the sugar syrup, rest it for atleast 15 minutes to make sure all the sugar syrup is absorbed by the boondis.
If the sugar syrup is not completely absorbed by the boondis or if it is difficult to make ladoos, then heat the mixture on low flame for a few minutes until all the sugar syrup is absorbed.
Make ladoos while the mixture is still warm.
If possible, get help while making the boondis.

Keyword dessert, ganesh chathurthi, indian, ladoo, motichoor ladoo, north Indian, sweet