Besan ladoo is one of the popular sweets made widely in India for festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali. With few simple ingredients, it makes a perfect treat for celebrations.
Ladoos are easy to prepare even for beginners. Only trick is roasting and ghee quantity. For this reason, it is so versatile that we can make it so many varieties.
Check out my ladoo recipes and how to make ghee at home post.
Trial & Errors
I have made 3 times before this, first time for my in laws. It became a funny incident when I made that and passed it to my BIL when he visited here to Singapore.
My in laws have not tasted this besan laddu before. And I made and arranged in a box with a garnish too like I have did in my Atta ladoo recipe.
It looked so beautiful - that’s when I arranged. When I made these, I roasted besan along with ghee fully. When I shaped those ladoos, it looked shiny, yet holding it's shape.
But by the time my Bro-in-law reached Chennai, they found all the ladoos in the shape of a peda.
And being un familiar to the mithai, they thought it as some local Singaporean sweet we get here and I had bought and passed it to them.
My other BIL even commented it was like maavilakku 😆
So here are some besan ladoo mistakes while making them:
- Adding more ghee, it won't hold it's shape and becomes shiny.
- While roasting, if under roasted the taste will not be good.
- At the same time, besan gets brown fast towards the end. If you do not stir properly or roast in high flame, it will burns easily.
My notes
When I made earlier, I thought ghee is more and the next time also when I tried it happed the same way.
So this time, I followed our method of adding ghee to the flour while mixing and not while roasting.
It worked too. This way, we can control the amount of ghee we adding.
But keep this in mind that all North Indian mithais are about ghee mainly and the ghee taste should be there.
So you cannot make it so dry like rava ladoo. I love the shiny version too, but always loved the way Haldiram’s laddu looks. So I wanted to make it look like that.
Coarse besan ensures to give this look while the fine ground besan easily becomes shiny as it takes lesser ghee.
Ingredient
Which besan type to use for making ladoo?
Besan means gram flour (bengal gram flour). Actually speaking Chickpea flour available world wide is different from besan.
How? Chickpea flour is ground whole chickpeas with skin. Besan/ gram flour is made from the 'dal'. So texture wise there will be difference as well as the nutritional value.
You can technically use both. Other than this there is fine ground besan and coarse ground laddu besan itself.
The coarse ground besan (Ladoo besan) is perfect for besan ladoo as well as the boondi ladoo and motichoor ladoo.
But still it is not wrong to use fine ground besan. So come let's see hot to make perfect besan ladoo that holds it's shape!
Recipe card
Besan Ladoo Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ cup Besan Chickpea flour
- ½ cup Powdered sugar
- ¼ cup minus 1 tablespoon Ghee
- 2 Cardamom
- Nuts optional - For Garnish
Instructions
Roasting besan
- Roast besan well in medium flame with constant stirring until it turns deep golden brown in colour.
- Take care not to burn the flour, as well as make sure roasted well.
- Cool down and sieve it well.
Prepare ladoo
- Powder sugar with cardamom and add to the roast flour in a mixing bowl.
- Melt ghee and add the hot ghee to it.
- Mix well with a spatula and when it is warm enough to handle, make ladoos.
- Shape tightly when it is still warm.
Notes
- At one stage the flour starts browning at the bottom of the pan, so keep stirring carefully without letting it burn.
- If not roasted properly, then the raw smell of besan and taste of besan will not be pleasant.
- You can add upto ¼ cup ghee for this recipe to get SHINY ladoos. I didn't wanted it to look shiny, so I had hold 1 tablespoon ghee.
- You can also add the ghee to the flour while frying and just add the powdered sugar to it and make ladoos.
- Ghee is the only flavor that brings taste to the ladoos, so never reduce it than mentioned.
Stepwise images
Roasting besan
- Roast besan well in medium flame with constant stirring until it turns deep golden brown in color. Take care not to burn the flour, as well as make sure roasted well. Cool down and sieve it well.
2. Powder sugar with cardamom and add to the roast flour in a mixing bowl. Melt ghee and add the hot ghee to it.
Shaping ladoo
3. Mix well with a spatula and when it is warm enough to handle, make ladoos.
It is perfect mithai to make in bulk and to gift for this Diwali. Keep checking for more traditional and exciting recipes here!
Nivedhanams Sowmya
That is beautiful.. Simple and delicious laddu looks so picture perfect and drool worthy!!!
Shama Nagarajan
quick simple yummy ladoo
Sowmya Madhavan
Looks yumm.. I have learnt it in a different way by making besan pooris from a maharashtrian friend...have it in my blog..
Rumana Ambrin
so tasty...
Shweet Spicess
I remember I burnt the mixture when I was trying to make besan laddos as experiment, The recipe called for adding powdered sugar into the pan, and I added sugar grains which burnt up the whole mixture, More than 10yrs now lolz, My house filled with aroma then started giving all burnt smell around 😛
Feng Shui
THIS SURE IS AWESOME
Deepa Narayanan
i have tried this besan ladoo befr 3 months but i couldn get the shape of ladoo..after reading your recipe ingredients i understood that i ve added too much of ghee.. 🙂
Priti S
One of fav I make this for other ppl too...and do same way add ghee later ...nice pics
prathibha Garre
Ladoo looks delicious....love the flavour of it
AparnaRajeshkumar
thats a lovely ladoo ! looking great !
Veena Theagarajan
beautiful ladoo.. Nice clicks
Sayantani
love besan laddus and you made them so perfectly.
Priya Suresh
Omg, am laughing after the reading the funny incident about those laddoo pedas..lolz..
Cute looks beauties..
CHITRA
I tried this very long back in a different method..Must try again to update 🙂 pretty pics as usual !
Shabitha Karthikeyan
Gorgeous Ladoo's !! Nicely done !!
Janani
very nice raks the ball looks perfect will def try it out.
Sona S
Laddu has come out perfect and delicious.
Dessy
way too sweet for me,reduced the sugar and it was perfect...
Deepa
Came out very well! Thx raks!!
Varada Menon
Superb recipe. I followed your steps and my ladoos were of perfect taste and texture. Thanks raks. Received lots of praises. Thanks again
SHARMILEE J
Gorgeous ladoos...!
Jayashree Iyer
Hi,
I tried my culinary skills for the first time with sweets and they came out very well..Lots of compliments received as well..quite simple and easy to make...kudos
Mrs Huma Sajid
Looks scrumptious and easy to make too...thanks to share with us!!!
Mrs Huma Sajid
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kitchen Rhythms
Can I try this with butter instead of ghee?
Raks anand
Ghee works the best.
Parveen Kumar
You can't use butter instead of ghee in cooking gram flour dish ladoo because it make less smoothy and tastey
Parveen Kumar
When i try to make gram flour dish ladoo i ever fail to change in ladoo shape.
SARATHA RAVI
Can I use readymade powdered sugar? Instead of grinding?
Jyothsna
Tried this and it turned out perfect. But I was wondering what would happen if I use a little milk and reduce the ghee. I know the shelf life will come down drastically. But any other difference?
Raks anand
I have tried this with rava ladoo, but not sure how milk will make the texture of besan. Wont it become sticky at places where milk is mixed?
Athiya Mahboob
Yummieee laddus.. Thank you for the simple recipe... But a little on the sweeter side door me, should reduce the sugar next time.
Leni
I am done with the laddoos, they look yummy. Now waiting for tomorrow to taste them.
HP
Came out perfect! Thanks
Sunandha Ramasamy
Hello Raks,
I think the ghee quantity mentioned is very high... my ladoos became very slimy with the given ghee measurement....
Raks anand
I always measure and give the recipe as accurate as possible, and you can see my ladoos on dry side. May be check my cup measurements page for the measures I used.
Savitha Hemanth
Is it okay if we dry roast besan to the required aroma and color to make besan ladoo and prepare ladoos the next day.
Archana
I went for the shiny laddu look. Tbh I love ghee flavor. But my laddus also became peda. Very delicious pedas nonetheless. Thanks.
Raks Anand