Bundi/Boondi and bundi na Ladu/Ladoo plus chocolate chip bundi ladu/ladoo

As I mentioned in an earlier posting, I am now a featured writer for the an online  City Connect magazine under the Taste of India Series.  My  recipe for Ladoo has also been published on the City Connect website at http://www.city-connect.org/boondi-ladoo-recipe/

Ladoos/ladus  are a name for a lot of ball shaped Indian sweets.  Most ladoos are made from either a mixture of flours such as chick pea flour, wheat flour or semolina , sugar and nuts.  Boondi/Bundi na ladoo (ladu) or besan ke ladoo(ladu) are one of the most popular sweets in UK. These ladoos are popular at most celebrations and can be eaten warm or cold.   Boond/bund means a droplet.  Bundi na ladoo or Besan ke ladu is made by dropping little droplets of chick pea flour batter onto hot oil.  These step by step recipe will enable you to make them easily.

Ingredients for 20 small ladoos:

Preparation time 20 minutes before and after cooking

Cooking time 40 minutes

2 cups chick pea flour

3 cups sugar

Handful or more of Almonds and pistachio

1 teaspoon of cardomon seed

2-3 pinches of saffron

½ teaspoon of nutmeg powder

2-3 drops of yellow and red food colour to colour your almonds and bundis

Oil to fry

Method:

 Please note that you will need a skimmer or perforated spoon (Often called Jaro) for making the boondi.

1. Crush the cardamom seeds coarsely using a pestle and mortar

2.  Cut the almonds and pistachio into slices.  If you like, you can use food colour to colour some almond slices to decorate your ladoos. 

3.  Keep the sliced nuts, cardamom seeds, saffron and nutmeg ready on a small plate.

4. For the sugar syrup – Put the sugar in a saucepan and add 2 cups of water to 3 cups of sugar.  Mix the sugar and water and put it to boil.  At this stage, you can add a couple of drops of red colour to the syrup if you want your boondis to look slightly red/orange colour. For this recipe-I didn't add food colour to the syrup. The sugar syrup needs to be half thread consistency.  Once the syrup is ready, switch off the heat.

5. Whilst the sugar syrup is warming up, sieve the chick pea flour and add 1 and half cups of water to it.  I needed 2 cups but would advise you to make a judgement after adding one and a half cups of water. 

6.   Stir well and to test if the batter is right, take a spoon or ladle and try dropping the batter on the ladle on top of  a dry plate.  The batter needs to flow through at just the right rate to achieve the round droplets.  If the batter is thick – add one tablespoon of water to thin it.  If it’s too runny – you may have to add a tablespoon of chick pea flour to the batter.

7.  Heat the oil.  To test if it’s hot enough, just drop a tiny amount of batter in the oil.  If it rises quickly, the oil is ready.

8.  Lower the oil and hold your skimmer above the oil.  Best position is about an inch to inch and a half over the oil. 

9.  Pour the batter on the skimmer.  Just allow it to pour drop by drop into the oil.  You will see tiny droplets of bundi forming. 

10.  Remove the skimmer and fry the bundis. Once fried, remove them using a different skimmer and transfer them straight into the sugar syrup.  

11. Wash the skimmer you used for the batter and pour some more batter on to it and finish making the bundis. (Using a clean skimmer before pouring the batter stops the skimmer holes being clogged up). 

12.  Let the bundis soak up the sugar syrup for 10 to 15 minutes and remove them (using a skimmer or slotted spoon) on to a mixing bowl.

14.  Now add the nuts (save a small amount of sliced almonds to decorate your ladoo), nutmeg, saffron and cardamom to the mixture.  Mix this well with the bundis.

15. Some people like to eat the loose sweet bundi and it’s perfectly fine to serve it this way.

16.  To make it in ladoo - try and make them as soon as you are able to handle the bundi.  Take a small amount of bundi between your hands and compact them to form a tight ball.

17.  Sprinkle some sliced almonds on it and lay in on a tray and start with the next ladoo.

18.  To make these ladoos attractive to children try adding some chocolate chips to the Bundis before forming the ladoos.

18.  I like to keep mine in little cake cases as it stops them sticking together and it’s easy to serve.

19.  Your ladoos are ready to eat.  You can have them hot or cold.  They can be stored in an air tight container for a week.  You can warm these for 20 seconds in the microwave if you like to eat warm ladoo. 

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