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5 from 3 votes

Boondi Ladoo Recipe

An Indian sweet treat made with gram flour and soaked in a sugar syrup
Prep Time5 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Course: Sweetmeat
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: boondi ladoo, indian sweet recipes, ladoo recipe, mithai recipe
Servings: 20

Ingredients

Sugar Syrup

  • 1 cup granulated sugar see notes
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon rose water
  • 4 green cardamom pods slightly smashed
  • few strands of saffron
  • 1/2 teaspoon egg yellow food colouring see note 1

Boondi

  • 1 cup gram flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 2 teaspoon melted butter ghee
  • 3/4 cup water
  • vegetable oil for frying

Ladoo

  • 2 tablespoon powdered milk
  • 1/2 teaspoon elachie powder
  • 1 teaspoon almond powder

Instructions

Syrup

  • Place the sugar, water, saffron, rose water, cardamom and food colouring in a pan, place on the stovetop on medium heat and allow the sugar to dissolve.
  • Heat for about 5 minutes until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is slightly thick. Rub some syrup between your fingers. When you pull your fingers apart a single thread should form. Turn off the heat and leave it on the stovetop to stay warm.
  • In a large bowl mix the gram flour, bicarbonate of soda, butter ghee and water. You should have a runny batter.
  • Heat some oil in a pan and pass the mixture through a spoon with holes. Little round boondis will be released. Fry for a few seconds, the boondis shouldn't be over fried. Use a slotted spoon to remove the boondi. Drain the excess oil and place the boondis straight into the warm syrup.
  • Remove the cardamom/elachie pods from the syrup. (To be safe remove 1/3 cup of the syrup and set it aside, if you feel the mixture is too dry after you've added all the boondis into the syrup then add the extra syrup).Mix the boondis into the syrup and set aside to cool, for an hour and a half.
  • Add the elachie powder, almond powder and powdered milk to the boondi mixture Mix well. Use a small ice-cream scoop to scoop out the mixture and form into round balls. Decorate with pistachio or almonds.
  • Store the ladoos in an airtight container. Refrigerate for up to a week

Notes

  1. I used a powdered food colouring, it has a more intense colour. At first I did add the liquid but it was more yellow than orange
  2. The powdered milk is totally optional so if you don't have any you can totally leave it out.
  3. The saffron does add to the flavour but again if you don't have any leave it out
  4. The boondi sits in the syrup for a little while because you need the syrup to soak in. If you attempt to make them into balls too soon the mixture may be a bit runny
  5. If you do not have a spoon with holes, you can use a piping bag but ensure you make a very small hole to release the batter.
  6. An ice-cream scoop is the perfect tool to help create even sized shapes. I have a mini one and it works wonders
  7. If you add the boondis to the syrup and if for some reason the syrup turned out too thick add a little hot water, it should fix the problem
  8. Sometimes your syrup may not thicken enough or you may have measured incorrectly resulting in more syrup than required. I suggest you remove at least 1/3 cup of the syrup or more and set it aside. After you add all of the boondis to the syrup and you feel it is dry then add the remaining syrup. This is just a precautionary measure although the recipe as is worked perfectly fine for me.