Besan laddus are my MIL’s speciality. She makes the best laddus I have every eaten. She makes the besan at home by dry roasting chana dal and grinding it to a powder once cooled. The powder should not be as fine as the store brought besan – a little course (close to fine powder). Making these laddus need a lot of patience and strength to fry the besan. You need to keep stiring and breaking the lumps to avoid burning the besan. So if you are making it for the first time then start with a very little amount of besan.
Ingredients-
4 cups besan (chick pea flour) (preferably home made),
1 cup ghee,
1.5 cup sugar,
¼ cup dink (coarsely powered),
1 tsp cardamom powder,
¼ cup cashew,
A few raisins,
Method –
Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan and fry cashews and keep aside.
Now fry raisins and keep aside. In the same ghee fry the dink till it gets puffed up. Remove excess ghee from the dink and crush it to a fine powder. You can do this with your fingers also.
In the remaining ghee, fry besan for approx 20 minutes to half and hour. (Till a lumpy mixture is formed and the color of the besan should change to light brown)
Allow the besan to cool completely.
Once cooled, add sugar, cardamom powder, dink, dry fruits and knead thoroughly. Make small balls and decorate with a piece of cashew.
Cooking With My Spouse 