Churma na ladoo is one sweet, my family-including the kids-love. I have been making them for years and have now managed to change the recipe to suit the present life style by using less ghee (clarified butter) and also less sugar or jaggery.
Ingredients for about 20 ladoos:
2 cups wheat flour
1/2 cup semolina
1/2 cup of ground almonds and pistacio ( I started adding these to make the ladoos richer in taste)
1 cup ghee
4 cups oil for frying
1 and half cup of finely grated or sliced jiggery ( I did mine in the food processor)
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup mixture of pistachio and almond sliced finely
1 tea spoon powdered cardamoms
½ teaspoon of nutmeg powder
1-2 tablespoons of Khus-Khus (poppy seeds)
Method:
1. Mix wheat flour, semolina , the ground almonds and pistacio mixture with 2 table spoons ghee . Add some milk and knead into a dough. You can use more ghee but I am trying to make this recipe healthy so using less ghee.
2. Make 12-14 small balls called muthias out of dough. Take a small amount of dough and press it in your fist and keep pressing it as you pass the muthia from one hand to next. The muthias should be firm.
3. Heat the oil and fry the muthias at very low heat until they are golden brown.
4. Let the muthias cool down a bit.
5. Transfer them to a food processor and grind them make into a coarse mixture of uniform consistency.
(I've taken a photograph of a spoonful of the mixture to give you an idea of what the mixture should look like). Traditionally, these muthias used to be crushed using a mortar and pestle and then sieved to ensure you get a nice granular mixture. I was making a very small number of ladoos so just used the food processor and they turned out fine.
6. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl and add the nutmeg, cardamom, pistachio and almond slices to the ladoo mixture.
7. In a separate bowl, add 2 tablespoons of ghee to the jaggery and very slightly warm it.
I put mine in the microwave for 1 minute.
8. Add the warm jaggery to the ladoo mixture and mix it together using a spoon.
9. Make ladoos when the mixture is still hot.
10. Traditionally, ladoos are flat at the bottom and round at the top. The ladoos are covered in khus khus to give them their traditional look.
11. To save time and also to make my laddos a bit more attractive, I used a mould to shape my ladoos. I only sprinkled a very small amount of khus khus on them but that's a personal preference.
12. I didn't need to add any more ghee to the mixture to make the ladoos.
13. Churma na ladoo are traditionally served with a Gujarati thali which consists of a variety of dishes – one of which is Gujarati dall.
14. These Ladoos are also made on Ganesh chaturthi. Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular of Hindu festivals. This is the birthday of Lord Ganesha and he is well known for his love and inclination towards sweets like ladoo. Therefore, it is of prime importance to offer the Lord Ganesh a ladoo on this special occasion.
No doubt, these ladoos are very tasty and are loved by almost everyone. The reason we enjoy them without feeling guilty is because they do not as much fat or sugar in them compared to some Indian sweets.
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