Microwave Besan Ladoo

Besan ladoo is a ladoo (a type of dessert) made with chickpea flour or gram flour and is made during festivals especially Diwali. Gram flour contains a high proportion of carbohydrates, no gluten and a higher proportion of protein than other flours. Diwali is the festival of lights and is celebrated through out India by cleaning and decorating houses with lights, lanterns and rangoli (designs made with coloured sand - posting a picture of rangoli made by my daughter this diwali) and by bursting fire crackers. Diwali signifies the victory of good over evil. During diwali a lot of home made goodies known as "faral" in Marathi are made,devoured and shared with family and friends. 

I love besan ladoos and wanted to make them at home this year for diwali. I have been buying ladoos and all the other diwali goodies till now but was never happy with the store bought besan ladoos. Making these ladoos the traditional way would involve roasting the gram flour on a low to medium stove setting for a long time till the flour changes colour and is cooked completely then adding sugar and shaping them into ladoos. As usual, I wanted a short cut to make these ladoos and I decided to try out this recipe of microwave besan ladoo which I had book marked for the longest time. This recipe appealed to me as it sounded very easy and quick. I really love recipes which do not take a lot of time and effort to make. I am so glad I tried out this quick and easy microwave recipe, this one is surely for keeps. The ladoos are done in no time and are absolutely delicious. Here is the recipe.

Besan Ladoo

Ingredients

• 1 cup chickpea flour (besan)
• 5 - 6 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
• 3/4 - 1 cup sugar 

Method

• Add ghee in a microwave safe bowl and melt it by microwaving it for a minute.
• Add the chickpea flour to the melted ghee and mix well with a spoon.
• Now, microwave this mixture for a minute, take out and mix it well. Continue this process of microwaving the mixture for a minute and mixing it well 5 times. Make sure to take out the bowl after every minute and mix it well. This will prevent the besan from burning.
• After 5 minutes, you will see that the besan has changed colour and has become reddish bown and you can smell the lovely aroma of roasted besan.
• Let this mixture cool down completely. 
• After the mixture has cooled down, mix the besan well with your hands. Add sugar,cardamom powder and mix well.
• Take about 2 tbsp of the besan mixture and make small round ladoos.

Notes

• The besan mixture should not be dry else the ladoos will not hold their shape. The amount of ghee mentioned above was sufficient but in case the mixture becomes dry just heat up some more ghee and add it to the mixture.

• You can add raisins to the ladoos too. If using, add a raisin on top after shaping the ladoo.

• Here is a picture of rangoli

Rangoli