Who can resist the temptation of sweets? When it comes to Indian sweets, it’s even harder. Indian sweets are not just sweets or desserts but a way of life and ingrained heavily in the culture of India. Amongst the various types of Indian sweets, the round shaped “Ladoo” is extremely popular in India. So much that even Lord Ganesha, the Indian elephant god is seen holding a ladoo in his hand. In fact, his favourite food is none other than the ladoo. There is no other way to please Lord Ganesh than offering him ladoos.
You just can’t escape the ladoo in India. You’ll find them in restaurants, the dhabas, stand-alone eateries and even on the streets stalls. Whether it’s a party, a birthday, a wedding or a religious ceremony, you’ll find ladoos being served. Basically, ladoos can be served any time and on any occasion.
Although they are typically made of flour, sugar, chickpea flour, coconuts cooked in “ghee” (clarified butter); there are numerous varieties of ladoos and various ways of making it. There are besan ke ladoo, motichoor ladoo, boondi ke ladoo, urad ladoo, modak ladoo, sesame ladoo, coconut ladoos and many more.
Out of these, I would like to mention my favourite, the motichoor ladoo. The word “moti” means peals and “choor” means powered. Therefore the motichoor ladoo literally means balls of pearl. And indeed they are the cutest and the most delicious of all Indian sweets. These ladoos are made of gram flour, semolina, ghee and garnished with almond powder.
Motichoor ladoo recipe
The motichoor ladoos are not difficult to make. The idea is to make dough from gram or chickpea flour and fry the droplets of dough called “boondis” using a perforated spoon or drainer in ghee. The boondis are then soaked in sugar syrup. They are then rolled into small balls in the palm of the hands to form ladoos. Finally they are garnished with pistachios or almonds.
Here’s a good video for making these motichoor ladoos.