Traditional Diwali sweet made from chickpea flour droplets and soaked in sugar syrup. Perfect thing ever for an After Dinner Bite-Sized sweet!
Before you guys ask, I am going to tell you I did not use much colour, I used a pinch of orange color( actually not even a pinch), thatsy it is bright orange. I believe color is not important 😉 Its the taste. Right? 🙂 I wanted to gift these to few friends so did not want to feed them with unhelathy orange color 🙂 so that is the reason for this color. :)Ladoos refers to anything round and sweet and we make a lot of ladoos. I already have some on my blog like carrot coconut ladoo, rava ladoo, coconut ladoo  and there are so many more. These ladoos are quick and delicious. Whenever someone goes to India, I ask them to buy motichur ladoo 🙂 I love them! So this time I wanted to make it myself for Diwali. This time I made few snacks like kamarkat/coconut jaggery balls, motichoor ladoo, ring murukku, ragi oats murukku and mini mint murukku. Nice, right?. This ladoo is made with besan flour (Tiny drops of chickpea flour are deep fried) and dipped in sugar syrup to make round balls. They are made as boondi (round shaped droplets) first and then dropped in sugar syrup, blended and then made into round balls. The normal boondi ladoo are made using water instead this moitichoor ladoo is made using milk. And Boondi ladoo , the size of the boondi is large and in moti choor it is very tiny. I did not have the perfect ladle with the tiny perforated one, so I used normal ones but pulsed a bit. I have made some tips to make these ladoos perfect.
Tips to make perfect ladoo
- Sugar syrup should have single thread consistency, if you touch it, it should
- Sieve the besan flour before use and also get the course variety of besan flour.
- Do sieve the besan flour before use.
- Make the batter not very thick or not very watery. It should be in the consistency of bajji or little watery than pancake.
- Do not fry the ladoo crispy, you don’t want crispy ladoo.
- Try avoiding adding more color to the ladoo, food colors are not good for health.
- If you use tiny whole ladle, you don’t have to pulse it, but I used normal, so pulsed it.
- Do not blend the ladoo much; you should still feel the texture of ladoos.
 My other favorite Diwali sweets: Basundi, carrot ladoo, Gulab jamun, kala jamun, rice kheer, thaen mittai, rasgulla, coconut ladoo, coconut burfi, beetroot halwa aval payasam, rava ladoo, semiya kesari
My other favorite Diwali snacks : Spicy curry leaves seedai, cashew pakoda, karasev/ chickpea snacks, ribbon pakoda, Spicy curry leaves murukku, Ribbon pakoda, Uppu seedai
 Vegan note: Avoid ghee/butter if vegan 🙂 otherwise its a vegan snack.
You can store them for 3-5 days in an air tight container and enjoy 🙂
- Besan flour/ Kadalai maavu – 1.5 cups
- Rava – 1 tbsp, fine powder
- Baking soda – a pinch
- Sugar – 1 ¼ cup
- Orange food color – 1 tsp
- Saffron – few strands
- Almonds
- Pistachios
- Rose water - 1tsp
- Milk – 2 tbsp
- Cardamom powder – a pinch
- Ghee – 2 tbsp
- Oil – for deep frying
- In a bowl, combine the besan, rava, baking soda, orange food color, and milk. Mix well, and then add the water to get the desired consistency. The batter should be not too tight or too runny. Set aside.
- For the sugar syrup, add 1 ¼ cup sugar, saffron and 2 cups of water to a pan and allow boiling. Keep stirring every few minutes until it reaches one string consistency. (one string consistency, if the syrup between your index finger and thumb stretches to form a string).
- Add rose water and cardamom powder at this stage. Keep aside.
- Now heat oil on other side in medium flame, start making boondis by pouring a ladle full of boondi batter on a perforated ladle and press it into hot oil.
- Please make sure that fried boondies are not very crispy. And have them on paper towels.
- Add them to sugar syrup and mix it well to coat the boondis. Add a tbsp. of ghee to it before mixing. It takes around 20 mins to absorb the syrup.
- Then pulse them quickly. Do not blend them because you still want the texture. Just give 3-5 quick pulses.
- Add the chopped almonds and pistachios and combine well. Apply some ghee/oil on your palm ( I did not, the oil was more than enough) and shape into round ladoos.
- Make round balls when they are little hot, not when they are totally cold & dry.