Gram Flour - 3 cups heaped or tightly filled
Wheat Flour - 1 cup heaped or tightly filled
Powdered Sugar - 2 cups heaped or tightly packed
Green Cardammom - Pealed and pounded
Pure Ghee - 300gms
Almomds - 200gms
Tools you will need:
Big Kadhai or deep colander, Pounder, Grinder, Tongs
The Burpy To-do
Grind the Almonds to a powder and then roast this in the collander and keep aside to cool in an open plate (you could also choose not to roast them and just leave them raw).
Strain the flours to remove any lumps/balls.
Wipe the kadhai and put the ghee into it to heat.
Add the pounded cardammom to the ghee and let it simmer for a few seconds.
Minimise the flame/heat and while holding the kadhai firmly with the tongs add the flours in to the hot ghee slowly stiring them in. It is obvious that the flours will gather up in to rough lumps ... ignore this and keep the stiring so that the flours dont burn at the bottom. As you proceed with the stiring (which continues using the low heat) the lumps will ease out and you will have a thick paste that will fall in a thick slow stream when you lift it off the pan. If the thick paste consistency does not happen you could add another Tbsp of ghee.
This thick paste needs to be stirred every few seconds so that it does not burn at the bottom. As you stir please be careful to take in all the portions of the paste on the sides of the kadhai/collander ... basically it should all be part of the paste and have turns at being at the centre of the collander.
Soon the paste will give out a beautiful aroma of roasted gram flour. You continue the stirring until the gram paste is almost the color of milk chocolate -- this should take up to 25 30 mins of stirring on a low flame. By this stage the flour is very delicate and could burn if neglected for even a few seconds ... so be alert with your stirring.
Once the right colour is achieved, pour out the paste into a large metal dish which is clean and dry (the indian PARAAT is ideal for this). The objective is that the preparations cools without burning at the bottom.
Let the preparation cool for about 40mins to an hour ... basically you should be able to knead your hands thru the mixture without any problem.
Once you are comfortable with the temperature add the sugar and almomds into the paste and slowly knead them into the paste until theay are all well blended in. This will lead into a coarse textured mix. Taste this raw mix for its sweetness. If you feel that the sugar is adequate as per your family' taste you can proceed. However, if you find it too sweet you can add a handful of ground almonds to the preparation.
Take appropriate partions into your fist and make round balls as per your preferred size.
Store the laddoos in a dry clean box separating each layer of laddoos with either butter paper or aluminium foil and store in the refridgerator.
ENJOY them as they are prepared fresh, or heated for 10secs in the Microwave or just cold out of the refridgerator.
