Besan Ladoos ..an anytime and all time favourite

My love for Besan Ladoos started for as long as I can remember ..I would love these small sweet gramflour ladoos and could eat any amount which was surprising for a child who did not have much of a sweet tooth. But there was a catch ...these ladoos should be nut free. In India , most sweets especially besan ladoos are made with lots of nuts and I would always be looking out for the nut free ones at sweet shops...

Little did I know that my daughters favourite Indian sweet would be a nut free Besan Ladoo too..

It was on one of our holidays in Agra, where the Chef of The Oberoi Trident Agra , generously fed my daughter umpteen number of ladoos ..all nut free , that I came to know of my genes at play ...

To kick off her birthday celebrations, I tried preparing these ladoos for the first time, at home. The look on her face .....priceless.... to see these "mum-made" mini nut free goodies on our kitchen table as she walked in, from school. I know she can keep eating these as I would when I was her age ...l,Looking at her savour them ...I cannot begin to wonder how my anytime all time favourite became one of hers!

Besan Ladoo

Ingredients:

2 cups Besan , gramflour

1/2 or cup of ghee, clarified butter

3/4 cup organic powdered sugar

1/2 tsp cardamom powder

saffron and Varq (silver foil) for garnish

To prepare:

1. In a heavy bottomed pan , heat ghee .

2. On a low flame add the gramflour or besan and roast for 6-7 minutes . You will start getting a faint nutty aroma of the gramflour .

3. Roast for another 15 minutes and the ghee will start releasing from the pan. If you need to add more ghee, if the mixture is dry,do at this stage .Keep stirring .

4.You will notice he colour darkening. Add the sugar .Keep roasting for another 5-6 minutes.

5. Add the cardamom powder. Mix .

6. Take off the pan and keep to cool. Do not cover with the lid while cooling .

7. When you can handle these in your hand, make small balls and garnish with silver foil or varq and saffron.

8. Keep in an airtight container and enjoy.

Tip : You may add nuts like cashew or almond slivers to the mixture and allow to cool.