Besan Badam Ladoo / Chickpea Flour Almond Sweetballs.

We Indians prepare an array of sweets and circular ladoos make it to the top list. There are soooooooo many varieties of ladoos one can prepare. The basic method of preparation is pretty simple -- heat ghee-roast flour(any)-take off heat-add sugar/cardamom powder/chopped nuts-mix-cool slightly and then rolls into 1-2 inch diameter balls..........voila, ladoos all ready to be devoured.
Besan Ladoo is a favorite in my house, my hubby n kids love it but I cannot say the same for myself though. I am more of a rava coconut, motichoor, wheatflour ladoos kind of a person, I prefer these ladoos over besan ones any day :-)
But I do make besan ladoos very often to satisfy my family's love for these yellow golden sweet morsels.
My kids are very fussy when it comes to eating nuts in ladoos, so to get them to eat the healthy nuts I thought why not disguise the nut in a powder form and add to the ladoo.
The verdict is..........my kids ate the ladoos without a fuss or complain about nuts and the almond powder did not overpower the besan flavor of the final product.

Ingredients
2 cups besan/chickpea flour,
1/2 cup ghee,
1 and 3/4 cup fine sugar(adjust sugar according to taste),
1/2 cup ground almond/badam powder,
1 tsp cardamom powder/elaichi powder,
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg/jaiphal powder,
pinch cinnamon powder/tikhi powder.


Method.

• Heat ghee in a pan and roast besan on low flame till the raw smell disappears and nice aroma starts developing to the besan, about 25-30 minutes.
• Add the ground almonds during the last 10 minutes and let the whole mixture roast well for 10 minutes.
• Keep stirring during the whole process or else the mixture will burn. (The color of the besan should be a dark yellow and now brown)
• Switch the heat off and add fine sugar, cardamom powder, grated nutmeg and cinnamon powder.
• Mix well and keep aside for about 8-10 minutes.
• When cool enough to handle with bare hands take 2 tbsp of the mixture at a time and press and squeeze and roll into 2 inch diameter balls.
• The above quantity yielded 30 ladoos(medium sized).

Note.

Add some chopped nuts and raisins if desired. I did not add any nuts as I added ground almonds to the mixture.

Can grind the sugar to fine powder and then add to the ladoo mixture, I prefer a crunch to the ladoo so I added fine sugar that we get here, (the texture of the sugar is like chiroti rava).

Adjust the sugar according to your taste. I added slightly less sugar as I do not like ladoos too overly sweet. But the usual formula says equal parts flour and sugar.