Besan ladoo is a simple Indian sweet made with besan (gram flour), ghee, powdered sugar and cardamom. I prefer to dry-roast the besan first and add ghee later as this makes it easier to control the amount of ghee. The result is a aromatic, melt-in-mouth best besan ladoo that holds its shape without being excessively greasy.
Make these easy besan ke laddu for Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Raksha Bandhan and other pujas, celebrations, festive occasions.
Check out my easy Coconut ladoo recipe and Rava ladoo recipe post.
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About Besan Ladoo
Besan ladoo is a traditional sweet made in India with besan (gram flour), ghee, powdered sugar and cardamom. The besan is roasted slowly until it develops a deep roasted aroma, then combined with sugar and ghee. Then shaped into small ladoos. The roasting is what gives besan ladoo its characteristic nutty flavour, while ghee adds richness and helps create that soft, melt-in-mouth texture. It is a popular sweet for Diwali and other special occasions, but this small-batch recipe is easy to make whenever you are craving a homemade ladoo.
The two things that makes the biggest difference in a besan ladoo recipe are, roasting the besan properly and adding the right amount of ghee. The besan needs to lose its raw smell and develop a deep, roasted aroma but it can also burn quickly towards the end.
For ladoo, you can use either fine besan or coarse ladoo besan. Coarse besan gives the ladoos a slightly different, more traditional-looking texture, while fine besan gives a smoother and shinier finish.
Besan Ladoo Ingredients
Here are the few ingredients needed to make besan ladoo
- Besan - Gram flour - Chana dal flour (milled without skin) - These are different from chickpea flour (milled with skin). But can easily be replaced with it.
- White sugar - For sweetening.
- Ghee - Use good quality ghee, preferably homemade for best taste and flavour.
- Cardamom - Main flavour apart from ghee.
- Nuts - You can use almonds or cashew nuts.
Check my recipe card below for full details.
How to make Besan ladoo
Roast the besan
- Firstly, roast ½ cup besan well in medium heat, with constant stirring, patience until it turns deep golden brown in color. Take care not to burn the flour, as well as make sure roasted well. Towards the end, the besan starts browning quickly at the bottom of the pan. So this is the time to keep stirring and switch off the stove. Cool down and sieve it well.
Roast until the besan turns a deep golden brown and smells nicely roasted (nutty aroma). Under-roasted besan will leave a raw smell and taste, will stick in your tongue/ mouth.
Prepare the sugar
2. After that, powder ½ cup sugar finely with cardamom in a blender.
Add ½ cup powdered sugar, powdered cardamom to the cooled, roasted besan and mix well.
Add the ghee
3. Melt the ¼ cup ghee in medium flame and add 3 tablespoon to the besan mixture. Mix well with a spatula furthermore. Add remaining 1 tablespoon only when needed (Note: ¼ cup = 4 tbsp).
Shape the ladoos
4. When the mixture is warm enough to handle, mix well without lumps. Take a small portion in your palm and press it together firmly.
Roll into round shape laddu while the mixture is still warm. Repeat with the remaining mixture. If using nuts like almonds, cashews or pistachios, press a small piece of ghee roasted nut on top of each ladoo.
It is perfect mithai to make in bulk and to gift for this Diwali. Keep checking for more traditional and exciting recipes here!
My notes
When I made earlier, I thought ghee is more and the next time also when I tried it happened the same way.
So this time, I followed the 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 besan laddu looks. So I wanted to make it look like that.
Coarse besan ensures to give this look while the fine variety besan easily becomes shiny as it takes lesser ghee.
I prefer to use homemade ghee, as the sweet gets its aroma from it majorly.
Substitutions & Variations
You can use confectioners' sugar (icing sugar) instead of powdering the sugar and use it in the recipe. So, just replace confectioner sugar in the recipe.
For variations, you can use a part of almond flour in the besan laddu to make it richer.
Instead of refined sugar, you can use sweetener of your choice - unrefined, jaggery, brown sugar etc. But the sweetness will be different. Also the flavors can change a bit.
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, the most important part is, besan gets brown fast towards the end. If you do not stir properly or roast in high flame, it will burns easily.
Tips for making perfect Besan ladoo
Roast the besan properly
Add ghee gradually
Don't reduce ghee
FAQs
The most common reason is too much ghee. If the mixture consistency looks very loose or greasy, it will be difficult to shape into firm ladoos.
Allow the mixture to cool slightly and check before adding any more ghee. Also remember to shape the ladoo while the mixture is still warm.
Why did my ladoos become too shiny or greasy?
This usually happens when there is more ghee than the besan can hold. For less shiny ladoo, use the quantity given in the recipe. If you prefer a softer and shinier finish, you can use upto ¼ cup for this small batch. The type of besan, sugar quantity also makes a difference.
Fine besan gives a smoother, shinier finish, while coarse besan gives more textured appearance.
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!
How to store Besan ladoo
Once completely cooled, store the ladoos in an airtight container. They keep good and perfect for making ahead, for festive sweet boxes and gifting.
Shelf life:
Room temperature: 10-15 days. Refrigerator: about 3-4 weeks. Keeping in the fridge can make the laddu firmer and slightly alter the texture.
Recipe card
Besan Ladoo Recipe | Easy Besan Ke Laddu
Ingredients
- ½ cup Besan Gram flour
- ½ cup Powdered sugar
- ¼ cup minus 1 tablespoon Ghee
- 2 Cardamom
- Nuts optional - For Garnish
Instructions
- Firstly, 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.
- Then powder sugar with cardamom and add to the roast flour in a mixing bowl.
- After that, melt ghee and add the hot ghee to it.
- Mix well with a spatula furthermore and when it is warm enough to handle, make ladoos.
- Lastly, shape tightly when it is still warm.
Video
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.
Nivedhanams Sowmya says
That is beautiful.. Simple and delicious laddu looks so picture perfect and drool worthy!!!
Shama Nagarajan says
quick simple yummy ladoo
Sowmya Madhavan says
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 says
so tasty...
Shweet Spicess says
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 says
THIS SURE IS AWESOME
Deepa Narayanan says
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 says
One of fav I make this for other ppl too...and do same way add ghee later ...nice pics
prathibha Garre says
Ladoo looks delicious....love the flavour of it
AparnaRajeshkumar says
thats a lovely ladoo ! looking great !
Veena Theagarajan says
beautiful ladoo.. Nice clicks
Sayantani says
love besan laddus and you made them so perfectly.
Priya Suresh says
Omg, am laughing after the reading the funny incident about those laddoo pedas..lolz..
Cute looks beauties..
CHITRA says
I tried this very long back in a different method..Must try again to update 🙂 pretty pics as usual !
Shabitha Karthikeyan says
Gorgeous Ladoo's !! Nicely done !!
Janani says
very nice raks the ball looks perfect will def try it out.
Sona S says
Laddu has come out perfect and delicious.
Dessy says
way too sweet for me,reduced the sugar and it was perfect...
Deepa says
Came out very well! Thx raks!!
Varada Menon says
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 says
Gorgeous ladoos...!
Jayashree Iyer says
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 says
Looks scrumptious and easy to make too...thanks to share with us!!!
Mrs Huma Sajid says
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kitchen Rhythms says
Can I try this with butter instead of ghee?
Raks anand says
Ghee works the best.
Parveen Kumar says
You can't use butter instead of ghee in cooking gram flour dish ladoo because it make less smoothy and tastey
Parveen Kumar says
When i try to make gram flour dish ladoo i ever fail to change in ladoo shape.
SARATHA RAVI says
Can I use readymade powdered sugar? Instead of grinding?
Jyothsna says
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 says
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 says
Yummieee laddus.. Thank you for the simple recipe... But a little on the sweeter side door me, should reduce the sugar next time.
Leni says
I am done with the laddoos, they look yummy. Now waiting for tomorrow to taste them.
HP says
Came out perfect! Thanks
Sunandha Ramasamy says
Hello Raks,
I think the ghee quantity mentioned is very high... my ladoos became very slimy with the given ghee measurement....
Raks anand says
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 says
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 says
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 says