Urad Dal Laddu

Diwali is a time when I try Indian sweets!! As you all know I am a baker at heart and do not like the no-baking sweets so much since most of them are laden with ghee or are fried.

But during Diwali I let go of all my calorie consciousness and gorge on all the yummy sweets!! Once a year I guess its okay to indulge!!

This year I was contemplating on what sweet to make. Last year I started this blog with the oh-so-sweet Rasgulla and it started my journey in blogosphere. This year I wanted to do something different.

I finalized on two interesting recipes that I had never tried before. And I must say they were quite a success with my family.

One of them is the Urad Dal Laddu. My MIL says that this laddu is traditionally made and consumed during the winter season. Since Diwali marks the onset of Winter I thought there can't be a better choice.

Urad Dal is considered a highly nutricious among lentils and is used in combination with rice to prepare a variety of breakfast dishes like dosa, idli etc. But this recipe breaks the barrier of this lentil into the dessert arena :)

It is an easy to make yet yummy mithai to adorn your Puja Thali..So here goes the recipe!

You will need:

1. 2 Cups of White Lentil/ Urad Dal(split and dehusked)
2. Fistful of Rice
3. 1 1/2 cup of sugar (Powdered)
4. 1/2 cup Ghee
5. 1/2 cup of Cashews (broken)
6. 1/2 cup of Raisins

Method:

• Dry Roast the Urad Dal and the Rice till the Dal is medium brown. You can see the raosted Dal in the photo below.

• Now cool this mixture in a plate and grind this into consistency that is not fine but not coarse. Probably like of chiroti sooji or fine semolina consistency.
• Now take little bit of the ghee in a pan and once the ghee is hot add the broken cashews and the raisins and fry till they are brown.
• Switch off the gas and remove the cashew and raisins from the pan into a plate. You may coarsely grind this so it can incorporated into the laddu easily.
• Now in this pan add the urad dal and rice mixture. Add the powdered sugar and the rest of the ghee.
• Finally add the cashews and raisins and mix well with hand.
• Try taking fistful of this mixture and test if you can make a round ball out of it.
• If you can then make laddus of the same size. If you can't you may need to add some more ghee.
• Once all the laddus are done you need to store it in air tight containers for them to last for a long time. Enjoy!!

This is my first time making laddus with help from my MIL of course who has the patience to answer all my crazy questions and thanks to her I guess I have to a certain extent mastered the trick to make laddus!