Besan Ladoo

Its the season of festivals in India. The nip in the air is the indicator of a month long list of festivals falling one after the other. After all the fun and frolic and major binging during Durga Puja, we start afresh with the Diwali celebrations. 
Staying in Kolkata, we had the privilege as children to enjoy a month long holiday which started with the Durga Puja and ended with Diwali. Pre-Diwali preprations meant cleaning up every nook and corner of the house with great zeal by every member in the family. I remember as a kid I would love to scrub floors and feel elated at the tiny help I would provide my mother. Alongside, Grandma and mum would prepare all the Diwali goodies which ranged from sweet to savoury. I would love the job of making tiny cuts on the savoury 'Mathri'. By Diwali eve, our house smelled heavenly with Gulabjamuns, Balushahi's, Gujiya's, Mathri's etc and my personal favourite Besan ladoos. I remember relishing on these ghee laden balls of sweetmeat. 
Diwali nowadays is not the kind of Diwali I have grown up into. Its no more about making all the yummy sinful stuff and distributing it to all the neighbours. It is no more about the joy of hopping into all the neighbourhood houses and eating all the homemade yummies at their place. People have become lazy with time and prefer buying instead of enjoying the fun of making things at home. 
This Diwali, I attempted to bring back a slice of my childhood fun with these Besan ladoos. I have tried to give it a contemporary look with a little drizzle of chocolate. The pat on my back was my husbands question when he returned back from his trip to the Sunderbans, "Who gave these?" 

Ingredients : Makes 6 medium sized ladoos

• 3/4 cup besan/gram flour
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar 
• 3 tbsp melted ghee (or a little more if the mixture does not bind)
• 1/4 tsp elaichi/cardamom powder
• Silver warq for  garnishing
• melted chocolate compound for drizzling

Procedure : 

Take a heavy bottomed pan and dry roast the besan on low heat for about 10 minutes or till the raw smell goes away. Keep stirring all along as it can easily get burnt. 

Add melted ghee and stir well. Keep stirring and cooking on low heat till you see the mixture binding well and leaving ghee. 

Remove from heat and add the powdered sugar and cardamom powder and mix well.

Allow to cool completely.

Shape them in round balls and place them in an individual wrapper or place them on a greased plate. 

Garnish with silver warq and drizzle the melted chocolate on top. 

After some major convincing my 'now camera shy' daughter agreed on getting some pics clicked while she enjoyed the ladoo just like I would do when I was her age. Circle of life, they say. 

This recipe is part of Kolkata Food Bloggers ongoing event "Dessert/Festive Dessert" where Sarani Tarafder is the featured blogger who blogs from Cocawind. 

Wishing you all a happy and safe Diwali

Amrita