MAA LADDU

Ilove Besan Laddu's and it's all because of my best friend Vasu. Her mom would send large boxes of homemade Besan Laddu's all the way from Allahabad and by the time the courier reached Bangalore, it would have all melted into one big slab! Her sister's MIL would patiently reshape them and send them to Vasu's hostel. Then we would just devour them endlessly and it never showed on our waistline! How I wish my metabolism was still like those days! I remember pestering Vasu for her mom's recipe and like a lot of Mother's, Aunty didn't have a proportion as such. Then I chanced upon this recipe and have been making them for 13 years now! They are super good!

Having said all of that, this is not a Besan Laddu recipe post. What you see here are Maa Laddu's. A lot of people are confused about their difference. Besan Laddu is made using raw besan /chickpea flour, which gets roasted for a good while till the raw taste vanishes. Then all the good stuff like sugar and ghee goes in and there's quite a bit of stirring involved. Whereas, these Maa Laddu's are made with roasted bengal gram. The kind you snack on. It was a staple at Govind Ettan's shop right across our school in Kannur. It even leaves an after taste,which I kind of love!

Jobin's sister made these for me once when we were visiting her in Gwalior and she also sends it across whenever she can. The whole process is very quick and the end result is very tasty, almost like my favourite Besan Laddu's. Last evening, as I was grocery shopping at our Indian store nearby, I saw a few packets of roasted bengal gram and quickly grabbed a couple. I knew I would be in trouble if I left them as is because we love snacking on it and it would never make it into being the delicious laddu that I have been craving for! This is a very quick and easy sweet that you can make in no time at all! 

MAA LADDU    

Makes 30 

Ingredients:

4 1/4 cups (400 grams) powdered roasted bengal gram

1/2 cup ground almonds  (optional)

3 cups powdered sugar (or as needed)

Approximately 1 cup melted ghee

Method:

Powder 400 grams of roasted bengal gram using a mixie and then sieve it into a large bowl. It should measure between 4 cups to 41/4 cups. Add ground almonds and powdered sugar to it and stir to mix.

Pour in the melted ghee a little at a time and mix well with your hands. Stop adding ghee when you can form balls with the mixture. It will feel somewhat like damp sand, not a wet mixture at all.

Form laddu's and store them in airtight container.

Enjoy!

 

This is a very forgiving recipe. There's absolutely nothing to go wrong here. The amount of sugar I've mentioned here is what I thought was right for us. Taste the mixture and add more if you want. Otherwise,start with a lesser amount of sugar and adjust as needed. Jobin's sister mentioned that she adds almond flour when she makes them for us. So I added some today. This can be omitted or substituted with cashewnuts or even walnuts as well. It adds more nutrition. You can add cardamom too, if you want to. I omitted it because I wanted it to taste of pure ghee! As always, I used homemade ghee. It's far superior in taste and aroma when compared to storebought.

I know it's been extremely quiet here for the last one year. Life has been so busy on the personal front and we travelled a LOT in 2021. In November, I launched Malabar Bakehouse, my own company and it has literally taken over my life now! I've been doing a lot of bake sales lately so that kind of keeps me on my toes along with all the other local orders that I have been getting. It's good to be busy for sure but sometimes, it does a bit too busy! :)