Recipe | Churma Ladoos - Traditional Diwali Sweet

Hmm...traditional sweet recipe from Rajasthan -  and I could not think beyond Churma Ladoos. 

The instant flashbacks I get when I think of Churma Ladoos is - firewood, smoke filled kitchen, large black iron kadai (wok) and my grandma with a ladle sitting on a small wooden stool, slow roasting coarse whole wheat flour adding ladlefuls of fresh homemade cow’s ghee from a copper burni (pot) beside her and a funnel in another to fan the hearth.

This if the ‘power of food’ - to bring back good memories.

It has been years I made Churma Ladoos the authentic way, but for the recipe submission to the magazine....I can't imagine deep frying the Baatis in Ghee. I did roll the Ladooso be done for the magazine but made a slightly lighter version also by adding millet and baking the Baatis instead of deep frying the same in ghee.

The recipe is features in one of the popular regional magazines in South India, Dinakaran in their Diwali edition. 

Ingredients;

(makes about 20 small ladoos)

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 11/4 cups powdered sugar
• 3/4 th cup warm milk
• 3 tbsp + 1/2 cup Ghee
• 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
• 1/2 tsp. cardamom powder
• Ghee for deep frying

Method;

Take a large bowl, add wheat flour and 3 tbsp. ghee in it. Rub the mixture with fingers to form crumbles.

Add warm milk and knead stiff dough.

Pinch small balls of dough and roll into cylindrical shape ‘Baatis’ and press it slightly to make impressions of your fingers.

Heat ghee (for deep frying) in a thick bottomed kadai and deep fry all the Baatis till they are golden brown in color.

Let the fried Baatis cool slightly and break them into small pieces.

Grind the broken ‘Baatis’ into fine powder in a blender.

If your mixture is very fine you can continue making the Laddos or else sieve the mixture and grind the larger pieces again into fine powder or ‘Churma’.

Add powdered sugar, finely chopped nuts (almonds/cashewnuts/pistachios), cardamom powder and 1/2 cupp ghee to the ‘Churma’ and mix well.

Take small portion of above ‘Churma’ in your palm and press it lightly to make a firm ball of 'Churma Ladoos’.  

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