Rava Besan Laddu

Today, I'm back with another sweet for the regional special theme for the Blogging Marathon and my choice is Maharashtra cuisine. If yesterday's Gulpoli was a makarasankaranthi special, this rava-besan laddo is a Diwali treat. I have made rava ladoo and besan ladoo. The combo sounded interesting. I followed the recipe from Chakali. I liked the recipe for it used less amount of ghee since the sugar syrup is added.  

One reader who had tried the recipe from Chakali had commented that the dough was very sticky and runny that it could not be shaped into balls. So while adding the syrup, I reserved around 3 tablespoons of syrup, thinking I will add later if required. After the resting time for the dough, I felt the reserved syrup can be used up too. It was perfect. Please note that you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients. I used the measuring cup.  

You need

• Rava/Semolina - 1 cup (Use the fine variety)
• Besan/Chickpea flour - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 3 tblspn
• Sugar -1 cup
• Water -1/2 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
• Cashew nuts - 1 tblspn

Method

Dry roast rava till it is pink. Keep stirring as you roast else it will get burnt and also will not get roasted evenly.  Transfer the roasted rava to a plate. Add besan and roast it. When the raw smell disappears, slowly add 2 tablespoon of melted ghee and mix well. At this stage, the mix will be runny. Keep sauteing till the mix starts to brown and you can smell the heavenly aroma of roasted besan. Add the besan-ghee mix to the roasted rava. 

Add a tablespoon of ghee to the kadai. When hot, add cashew nuts. Remove when it is brown and add to the rava-besan mixture. Add cardamom powder and mix well.

Heat a kadai with sugar and water. Keep stirring so that the sugar dissolves fully. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, it will start frothing. After this stage, cook for a minute or two. The syrup would have turned sticky to one string consistency. Check by dropping some syrup using the ladle. You can see the drops falling stretching to form a string. Remove it from the fire. The syrup consistency is very important. If it is paste this stage, it will be difficult to make ladoos since it will turn crumbly.

Add the syrup to the rava-besan mixture. Mix with a spatula as you add. Cover and leave it for 20 minutes.

By this time, the rava would have absorbed most of the moisture and the mixture will be almost dry. It will be moist enough to shape into laddus. 

You will get around 18 laddus depending on the size.

I'm sending these plate of laddus to Indian Mithai Mela hosted by Mom Chef.

Check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day.