Boondi Ladoo/ Boondi Laddu: Sweet chickpea flour balls: A gluten free dessert

My friends and readers on eastern sea board, in path of Hurricane  Sandy, stay safe. I will be praying that Sandy will be mild while going through your area. 

I am happy to welcome all of my readers and friends to join me in the 3rd year anniversary of my blog Zesty South Indian Kitchen.  I am grateful to all my readers (both visible and silent), friends and visitors who had made this small blog to survive all through these years.   Without your help I could not have achieved this.  Thanks to you all from the bottom of my heart.

I started this blog when my baby girl was six month old; lots happened after that, she is 3 and half year old now, we welcomed our baby boy beginning of this year. I am happy that in spite all these craziness, I am able to blog, that I feel achievement. Few great  friends geared up to help me  with guest post when I was not able to post   at the time of the birth of my son, so thanks  once again for that.

Without any flight tickets, with this blog I was able to take a culinary travel thought out world from my kitchen. I am able to make everyday connection with my mom who left me, before I started the blog, but I connect with her through the memories of her recipes. Even though this little blog is not having breath taking photos, I still try to take good photos and step by step clicks to show how the food looks at each and every steps of preparation. Nowadays I am only able to blog two recipes a weeks, and also hosting my favorite blog hop Hearth and Soul Blog Hop, and the ever growing group of Baking Partners, a group of home bakers who try to learn the nook and corner of Baking. At the same time I enjoy the Favorite recipe Eventsthat rekindled memories of food that we have grown up with.

Blogging makes me happy when somebody says they tried the recipes and came out well. No awards come close to it. Making the dishes, taking pictures and writing the blog has been lots of work most of the time.  It also creates lots of frustration at times, when we are planning to take pictures and arrange food; hubby who wants to take photos immediately so that he can eat. In the meantime my daughter also wants to click pictures and also do tastes test by trying to get to the dishes. An all-round crawler (my son) also is not far behind, crying at high pitch for mommy’s attention.

I also used to get upset when Foodgwaker or Tastespotting rejects my photos, now I tuned myself that if they accept it is well and good if not that is well and good. Not to worry too much. Life and family is worth more than photos.

This year I got one more taste tester, my son to the group of taste testers. He too has sense of taste and doesn’t approve any pre-made baby foods; even his mommy should extra care to make food tasty.

I am happy that I didn’t repost any of my post in last three years; I think every day we need to learn new. Next thing I would like to do is that update photos of all the posts and if time permits to make video of each recipe. I hope you will also continue to help and join me in this journey. Every year pass by I would like to add some more wisdom to parts of brain.

Your helpful criticism, comments and ideas can me better cook and blogger, so continue to do that. If you like my blog please follow in face book page, pinterest, twitter, Google plus

For every celebration, we need sweets, so for blog baby’s birthday I made this boondi laddoo. It is a traditional sweet from India. Without this sweet, it is hard to think of any festivals and marriages.  My mom used to like this sweets a lot.  My dad used to tease her, that when I came first to see you (It was part of arranged marriage, visiting prospective groom to prospective bride) you served tea, mixture and a laddoo. I was so blind tasting that laddoo said yes to marry you.  Then Amma will says, no one else’s in the world was ready to marry you. That is why I married you. Yes she lived with appa for about 36 years and left one day leaving him alone. Yes we daughters are there for him, still he misses her.

This sweet when you look at the videos and read the recipes it seems very easy, but in reality it is not that easy. It is mainly you must be careful with the two step in the process of making it. One sugar syrup consistency and second cooking the chickpeas ball, it should not be crunchy but it should be cooked right. If you can master that, then you are a winner. I was able to get it right this time.   Here comes the recipe of this delicious sweet.

First grab besan/ chickpea flour, rice flour, Sugar (yes this is sweet so close your eyes on calories for a second) cashew nuts, raisins, cloves, rock candy, saffron, ghee (if you want vegan free option use coconut oil) cardamom, baking powder, water and canola oil for frying. 

In medium bowl sift chickpea flour/besan, rice flour, baking powder together and gradually mix with water  and food color to form a freely flowing pancake batter and set aside. 

Next make sugar syrup with sugar and water in a medium sauce pot fitted with candy thermometer. I love my candy thermometer, as age old technique of checking thread consistency may not work well for me.  First boil the sugar and water when it starts boiling add a tablespoon of milk, you will see some form on the top, remove it with spoon (it is impurities in sugar). Boil the sugar syrup until it reaches 225 F/ or single thread consistency add saffron and set aside. 

Heat ghee in small skillet and roast the cashew and raisins for about 1 minute until cashew become golden in color and raisins plums up and set aside.

Heat 4 cup oil in a wide mouth pan, when it starts hot, take out boondi ladle (a special slotted spoon/ or normal slotted spoon) and pour the prepared batter into the boondi ladle with tapping with hand or spoon. You can see small bubbles formed in oil. Cook for about 1 minute and remove from the oil using another slotted spoon into a kitchen towel to remove extra oil. It should be cooked well but not crunchy.  

 While it is hot transfer the cooked boondi to sugar syrup.  Repeat the process until you finish entire batter.

When you are cooking last batch of boondi, instead of putting directly into sugar syrup crush the cooked boondi using a food processor and then transfer to sugar syrup with rest of the boondi. 

Add crushed cardamom, roasted cashew nuts and raisins, cloves and rock candy into the sugar syrup containing boondi mix everything to combine well.

When they are warm start making them balls, make small golf sized balls. Make fast as sugar syrup cooled it will become thick and you make not able to make balls.

Enjoy this delicious sweet as much you want. Practice makes perfect boondi. So next time you will be making better boondi. 

                                                                   Print Recipe from here

Boondi Ladoo:  Sweet chickpea flour balls

Prep Time    30 minutes

Cook Time    30 minutes

Serves    25  no

Ingredients:

1  ½ Cup Besan/ Chickpea Flour/Garbanzo  bean flour

1 ½ teaspoon Rice flour

half of 1/8th teaspoon  baking powder

1 ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon Sugar   

¾ cup +1/8 cup water for batter

1 ¾ cup water for sugar syrup

3 drops of yellow food color

5 nos of Saffron

3 tablespoon  cashew nut pieces

3 tablespoon raisins

1 tablespoon  rock candy

3 cardamom ( crushed into powder)

5 cloves         ( crushed into powder)

1 tablespoon milk

1 tablespoon Ghee( if you want vegan free option use coconut oil)

4 cups Canola oil  ( for frying)

Steps:

In a medium bowl sift  besan/ chickpea flour/Garbanzo bean flour, rice flour, baking powder  and  gradually add water  and food color to form a smooth batter similar to pancake batter.  Make sure it is not runny. Set aside.

Heat ghee in small skillet and roast the cashew and raisins for about 1 minute until cashew become golden in color and raisins plums up and set aside.

Heat ghee in small skillet and roast the cashew and raisins for about 1 minute until cashew become golden in color and raisins plums up and set aside.

In a  saucepan heat water and sugar and bring to boil on medium -high heat. When syrup comes to boil turn the heat down to medium and add 1 tablespoon of milk . You will see lot of form coming on the top of syrup remove it with help of ladle and continue to boil the sugar syrup until it reaches about  single thread consistency of 225 F  in candy thermometer. ( When you pour the sugar syrup into a glass of water at this time you will able to see a single thread). To this add saffron  and set aside.

Heat the oil in a frying pan or any wided mouth pan  on medium high heat. The frying pan should have at least 1 1/2 inches of oil. Tip: To test if the oil is the right temperature, drop a pinch of batter into the oil; if it rises immediately without changing color then the oil is ready to start frying.

Hold the boondi ladle/ slotted spoon  about 1 to 1 1/2 inches above the oil over the center of the frying pan with one hand. With your other hand pour some of the batter onto the skimmer to cover all of the holes without spilling over the edge of the skimmer. Tip: if you hold the Boondhi ladle/ slotted spoon higher than 11/2 inches above the oil boondi will not be round.

The batter will start dropping through the holes into the oil. If the batter doesn’t drop right away through the holes, means batter is thick and you need to dilute little bit. Drop enough boondi into the oil so they just cover the surface of the oil in frying pan in a single layer

Fry them until the sound of sizzling stops and boondis are light gold in color but not crispy! It takes about 1 minute in medium flame. Remove the  boondi out of the oil with a slotted spoon and transfer to kitchen towel while they are warm and put them directly into the warm sugar  syrup.

Before making the next batch of boondi, wipe clean the boondi ladle. This helps to keep the boondi round.

Repeat the process of making boondi and adding to the syrup with rest of the batter. When you are cooking last batch of boondi, instead of putting directly into sugar syrup crush the cooked boondi using a food processor and then transfer to sugar syrup with rest of the boondi.

Add the crushed cardamom seeds, cloves, roasted cashew  nuts and raisins  and rock candy  to the  sugar syrup.

While boondi are warm start making  balls. If the boondis become cold you will not be able to form them into ladoos.

To make the ladoos, scoop up some of the boondi mixture into your palm with a spoon. Gently squeeze the mixture between both palms to shape into a round ball about the size of a golf ball.

As you finish making each ladoo, put it on a plate and continue on to make the next ladoo.

As the Ladoos cool to room temperature they will become firm but they should still be moist.

Ladoos will keep at room temperature in a covered container for up to 10 days and for one month in the refrigerator.

Tips

Make sure the syrup is at  right temperature, you will not be able to form the ladoos.

If the boondis cool down to room temperature before being shaped into balls, the sugar will crystallize.

Don’t worry  if you are not able to make ladoos You can still enjoy them as sweet boondi.

I am linking this delicious treat to Hearth and Soul blog  hop hosted here.