Microwave Besan Laddoo

Hello dear readers,

I am back after a long break. We were busy shifting to our new home here. Yes, we bought a townhouse here in Ashland. It was a moment of great joy the day the papers were signed. I was busy for the last two months trying to arrange and decorate our nest :) .
Many friends kept asking me whether I stopped blogging altogether :) . I found that I was giving excuse after excuse, and yesterday night I decided, enough was enough, I am going to blog, because deep inside I was missing my blogging buddies a lot ! So here I am with a sweet start :D

Sweet start with Besan Laddoo. Did you know that this sweet can be made with ease in a microwave in few minutes? I was surprised too when I found this recipe at the following blogs:

Saffron Trail
Bhaatukli

I instantly fell in love with the mouth watering pictures of these laddoos on their blogs. I tried the recipe at Saffron Trail as she tells it takes 5 minutes only, and yes indeed it took only so much time when I prepared the laddoos. I also liked the tip given at 'Bhaatukli' by Tee, where she tells that 'the powder should not be too dry , else it will not hold shape'. Thanks Tee, it really helped.

Now let me share the recipe I used: I used butter instead of ghee as we don't use ghee in our house, but it didn't make a significant difference to us, as me and V enjoyed the delicate taste of melted butter and roasted Besan in the laddoo. You may use ghee as that's what the original recipe calls for in Saffron Trail's blog. I also added a little bit of Nutmeg powder to get an added flavor.

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan
1 stick butter (1/2 cup butter, or 8 tablespoons butter)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon powdered cardamom
1/4 teaspoon powdered nutmeg



Method:

1. Mix besan and butter (cut in cubes if there are straight from the fridge) in a microwaveable safe flat dish. If you have a dish where the food doesn't stick to the plate after microwaving , it would serve the purpose much better. For eg: I used my silicon baking pan (its freezer safe, and microwave safe too). It made the in between stirring easier.
2. Microwave for 5 minutes , stirring the mixture a little after every minute. As suggested at Saffron Trail, you may increase your time to additional 2 minutes if your microwave power is low.
3. At the end of 5 minutes, take the pan out of the microwave and wait until it cools down (it should be cool, not cold, so don't rush and keep it in the fridge ;) ]. It should take half hour to cool down.
4. Add powdered sugar, cardamom and nutmeg to the mixture and stir well and then make round laddoos ( don't worry the first time if you don't get it right, it takes a little practice, that's all. my laddoos didn't turn out the perfect round when I initially tried it).
5. I stored these laddoos in the fridge after there were formed for around 1 hour. This helps in setting the laddoo.
   
6. Store laddoos in the fridge if you are serving them at a later time.
7. Enjoy :)

Hope you too will like these when you make them !