Food always marks the beginning of any festival and with the festivities around the corner, treat yourself with this irresistible dessert. For this Ganesh Chathurthi, prepare these mouth-watering motichoor ladoo for our favorite god – Lord Ganesha!
I am not a sweet lover myself but when it comes to motichoor ladoo, I simple cannot resist them for any reason. It has been my most favorite sweet since I was a kid.
Do you know that it is a favorite of Lord Ganesha too? Yeah, if you have noticed carefully, every framed photo of Lord Ganesha would have ladoos in them. So, what makes these ladoos the favorite of everyone, including the Lord himself?
Well, now this is a very obvious answer isn’t it?! Of course, the taste man and what not? Tiny, fried balls of besan batter are soaked in sugar syrup and then moulded into these beautiful looking ladoos. Have one and you can never hold back or resist them. They are so freaking amazing!
It is believed that ladoo was first invented by an ancient Indian physician as an antiseptic to treat patients. No, he definitely did not invent motichoor ladoo but the general concept of sweet spherical balls was invented by him.
So, from there these spherical balls have evolved into what we love today. These ladoos over the time have been consumed to mark any festivities or celebration rather than being used for medicinal purposes.
Generally, we make ladoos using besan or gram flour. But, nowadays there have been many new varities of ladoo relished by everyone across India. Motichoor Ladoo originates from North India. The main difference between the boondi ladoo and motichoor ladoo is the size of the fried boondi. Motichoor ladoo has very tiny boondis compared to the normal boondi ladoo. Also, motichoor ladoo has a very soft and delicate texture when compared to the boondi ladoos.
And according to me, the taste is very much different and of course motichoor ladoo tops in taste. I tried these ladoos for Ganesh Chathurthi, two years back and I wanted to post this recipe so badly for this Ganesh Chathurthi that I made it again for the second time now.
The first time I made these motichoor ladoos, it was a big hit. My husband loved it a lot. But, I wanted to make sure that I make different sweet recipes for each year Ganesh Chathurthi by not repeating the previous years’ list. Ganesh Chathurthi is a really big and an important festival for us especially. Each year we decide a theme and see to that that we make all the decorations according to that theme from scratch.
So, for the first year after my marriage, it was kind of a king or prince theme. We made a throne exclusively for Lord Ganesha. For the second year, it was a chariot or procession theme. So, every year has been a different experience for the both of us.
Even in our place, in Bangalore, Ganesh Chathurthi is a very grand 10 day festival with all processions lasting upto even a month. So, this time of the year will always be a celebration in Bangalore.We used to love all these every year and tgis year unfortunately because of the pandemic we are not able to enjoy this festival as usual.
So anyways, Ganesh Chathurthi will always remain an important festival in our lives and we are looking forward for the future years to celebrate Lord Ganesha’s birth!
And these motichoor ladoos are the perfect offering to make for this Ganesh Chathurthi! Have a peaceful and a happy day with your family. And to everyone celebrating Gauri Habba today, a very Happy Gauri Ganesha to you all! Stay safe; stay healthy! Happy cooking and eating!
While you are here, do checkout my other Indian sweet recipes to indulge yourself in for this festive season.
Has meal planning been a little bit difficult during this lockdown? Look through my No Veggies, 21-Day Lockdown Series for ideas on what to cook during this lockdown.
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Motichoor Ladoo
Ingredients
To prepare the besan batter
- 1 cup besan flour
- 3 tbsp cold milk
- 1 tbsp melted ghee
- 1/2 cup + 3 tbsp water
- a pinch of salt
- few drops of orange food color, optional
- oil or ghee, to fry the boondis
For the sugar syrup
- 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp rose essence or kewra essence
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- a few drops of orange food color, optional
- 2 tsp melon seeds, optional
Instructions
- 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.
Notes
- 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.
