Choorma Laddoo. (Amar D. Gupta/Siliconeer)

The festive season is getting started and that calls for splurging a little, on calories. Chef Sanjay Patel shows how you can make delicious laddoos at home to celebrate and entertain in a traditional fashion.

Ingredients:

  • 1½ cup wheat flour coarsely grounded
  • ¼ cup besan (Garbanzo flour)
  • ¼ cup semolina or sooji
  • 1½ tbsp. oil
  • ½ cup water
  • ¼ cup ghee (clarified butter)
  • 2 cups oil for frying
  • 1/3 cup jaggery
  • 1½ tbsp. powdered sugar
  • 1/8 tsp. nutmeg
  • 1 tsp. poppy seeds for garnish
  • 1 tbsp. raisins

Method:

Choorma Mixture. In a large mixing bowl take wheat flour (coarsely grounded), besan (garbanzo flour) and sooji (semolina). Add 1½ tbsp oil and ½ cup warm water. Combine all ingredients and knead into dough.

Now take a portion of wheat flour dough and press it by making fist. Press hard and make dumpling shapes from dough. Repeat the process for remaining wheat flour dough and make dumplings. Keep aside.

Heat oil in a deep bottom frying pan, on medium flame, don’t let the oil turn too hot. Deep fry the wheat flour dumpling in oil for 4 to 5 minutes or till it is completely cooked from inside and turns golden brown. Take out the fried muthias (dumplings) and drain excess oil on a kitchen towel or paper napkin. Let the dumplings cool down.

Cut the dumpling into pieces and further grind them in a food processor into fine powder. Sieve through a fine sieve to remove big chunks. Re-grind the remaining chunks if required.

Choorma Laddoo. Take a nutmeg and pound in a mortar and pestle. Add the nutmeg powder in Choorma mixture. You can also add dry fruits like raisins. This is however optional.

Melt ghee (clarified butter) in a pan and add jaggery. As soon as jaggery starts floating on ghee, turn off the stove. Pour melted jaggery and ghee into choorma mixture. Add powdered sugar (optional).

Combine all the ingredients to make a nice aromatic choorma mixture. Now make Choorma laddoos from choorma by pressing it in a laddoo mold. You can also make laddoo by taking a portion of choorma and rolling in hands and making nice spherical balls. Repeat the process for the remaining mixture. Apply some poppy seeds (khas khas) to garnish the choorma laddoos, and serve.