Indian mithai made with besan like besan halwa or besan ki barfi are my most favorite. I grew up eating homemade besan ladoos. Not just for festivals or special occasions, my grandmother treated us to besan ladoos throughtout the year. I can’t even begin to describe how the house smelled whenever these ladoos were made at home. The aroma while besan roasts in ghee is very nutty, sweet & comforting and is my one of my loved memory of festival time in India.
About Besan Laddu
Ladoo are sweet round balls made using several kinds of ingredients. Besan ladoos are made using besan (gram flour). Requiring just 3 main ingredients, besan ladoo recipe is gluten-free and is super easy to put together. Optional flavorings include green cardamom powder and chopped nuts. To make besan ladoo, coarse chickpea flour is roasted in ghee till it changes color to deep golden and starts emanating a nutty fragrance. The roasted besan minture is then sweetened with sugar and rolled into small round balls. You could add in a variety of nuts and seeds but I like to add only raisins.
What is besan laddu made of
Ladoo Besan (Coarse Gram Flour) - Easily available in most indin grocery stores. Sugar - Ideally we need to use boora or bura. Boora is used to make lot of indian sweets (mithai). Boora is just plain ground sugar. It is different from powdered sugar or confectioners sugar (these two have cornstarch mixed in). I simply grind granulated sugar using a coffee grinder and use. Ghee - Homemade ghee is the best for purity, taste and aroma. However use any brand of plain ghee that you use in your home. Green Cardamom Powder (Optional)- You just need a pinch or two.Dont go overboard on flavors because you want the ladoo to prominently taste of besan. Raisins (Optional) - I add them because my granmother used to. You may skip or add finely chopepd nuts of your choice (almonds & cashews).
How To Make Boora Add sugar (granulated or crystal) to a dry coffee grinder jar. Grind until sugar turns into a fine powder. Your homemade boora is ready.
Laddu Besan Vs Regular Besan
Ladoo besan or mota besan is coarsely ground gram flour. Besan is not made from garbanzo beans (chickpeas). It is made from shelled kala chana (black chickpeas). I have tried several brands of ladoo flour in the past years and trust me they are not the same. Depending on the brand, the texture is medium coarse or too coarse. Personally I prefer using medium coarse besan. Ladoo besan is specfically used for making besan ladoos to give the right texture. You will find it in indian grocery stores. Regular besan that we use for making besan burfi or besan halwa is fine ground and is supposed to give a melt in the mouth texture to the mithai. On the other hand, besan ladoos are supposed to have a coarse and chewy texture.
7 Tips to make Best Besan Ladoo
My Top Tip
Non stop Stirring - Stir the ladoo mixture continuously.You will quite a lot of patience and elbow grease to make besan ladoos. The moment you stop stirring, the besan will burn. Stirring makes sure that the besan roasts evenly. Also, as you stir, you will be able to get a feel of the mixture- it is dry, clumpy or fluffly & airy. Based on that, keep adjusting the stove level. As a reference, it took me little over 18 minutes to roast 1 cup of besan. That said, do not go by that time, just use it as a guideline. Depending on quality of besan, your stove settings and the kind of pot or pan you are using, the time will be different for you.
How To Make Besan Ladoo (Stepwise Photos)
Tip #1 - Use a heavy and wide pot or pan in which it is easy for your to stir the besan.
Troubleshooting Tips
Note - This post was originally published in May 2014. I modified it in October 2021 and subsequently in September 2023 to include stepwise pictures and description.
