Aate ke Laddoo

Update: I am submitting this entry for Jhiva for Love which is being hosted by Jigyasa and Pratibha and would like to dedicate it to my mom. I love my mom and of course her cooking - there is nothing better than "mummy ke haat ka khana"! She is the one who inspires me to cook and before I started this blog it was with her that I shared all my culinary adventures - good or bad!


Aate ke laddoo bring back fond memories of my childhood. I can clearly picture my mom roasting the flour in a big kadhai, the home filling up with heavenly aroma and then all of us, my dad included, sitting around in a circle and making the laddoos together. Then comparing the sizes of the laddoos and laughing coz of course mine would be the smallest! This was a regular occurrence several times over the winter coz those laddoos used to get over in a jiffy!

Besides so many other things, I missed the laddoos a lot once I move to the US. Mom used to make and send them to me whenever she found anybody coming over from India to US and of course whenever I visited India, the laddoos were always ready, to eat as well as take. We always relive the laddoo making sessions when we are together, and had one even in summer at my place when my parents visited me.

This winter was the first time I tried my hands at making them on my own. When I ask my mom for the proportions, she never has it coz she makes it "Andaz se". So I had to look up the recipe and I found one at bawarchi which got my mom's approval. I, however, used only the proportions of the ingredients from the recipe and used my mom's way of making it.

So here's my version of the recipe

Ingredients

4 cups wholewheat flour
2 cups powdered sugar or बूरा (sorry don't know the English equivalent)
1 1/2 cups ghee
1 tsp. cardamom powder
2 tbsp. slivered almonds
1 tbsp. chopped cashews
1 tbsp. raisins

Method

1. Melt ghee in a large pan.
2. Add wheat flour, stir continuously, till light brown.
3. Roast flour on very slow flame. Roast it until its dark brown and ghee starts to separate from the flour. This takes a long time and you have to stir frequently to avoid burning.
   
4. Once the flour is dark brown, take the pan off the heat.
5. Add बूरा now. - the advantage of using बूरा is that it does not leave water. while if you are using powdered sugar, you have to wait till the flour is colder else it leaves water.
   
6. Now add the dry fruits and cardamom powder.
   
7. Mix well and shape into laddoos while its still warm. - good time to involve DH here!
   
8. Cool completely before storing in airtight container. Enjoy!

I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted the laddoos that they tasted very much like my mom's! DH agreed too. I think I made around 25-30 of them and they were all gone within 2 weeks!