Besan and Oats Laddu

Ingredients (for 15-20 laddus)

Besan (gram flour) 1 1/4 cup
Rolled Oats (dry roasted & finely powdered) 1/2 cup
Semolina Flour (Suji) 1 TSP
Butter(softened) 1/2 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp


Procedure

Melt the butter in a wide mouthed heavy bottom pan.
Mix Besan and Suji. Roast this mixture in the butter on medium heat stirring constantly to prevent the Besan from burning.
Now, add the Oats powder. Make sure to keep the stove on medium to low heat and roast the mixture till it becomes light golden brown in colour.
You can smell the delicious aroma at this point.
Remove the pan from heat and add sugar and cardamom powder and mix well.

The mixture will attain the consistency of 'halwa'. Allow it to cool for sometime and use your palms to make small spherical laddus.

You can also decorate laddus with sliced almonds or cashews if desired.

For a healthier version, reduce the qty of butter and sugar

Brown Rice Laddu

This recipe reminds me of my days in college hostel where good food was rare.
My friend's mom used to pack a huge box of the laddus also known as 'ari unda',
almost every week and we had fun devouring the laddus. They taste amazing and are almost guilt free. so here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Brown Rice- 1 cup
Peanuts- 1/2 cup
Grated coconut- 1/2 cup
Powdered jaggery 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
a few tsp of ghee (optional)


Method:

Dry roast rice, peanuts and coconut separately and powder them. you can hear small popping of rice while roasting. This indicates that rice is getting roasted nicely. Melt jaggery in a pan and sieve the jaggery to remove the impurities. Mix the powdered mixtures and cardamom powder with the jaggery and allow it to cool so that it is warm enough to shape them into laddus using your palms. Ghee can be added if the mixture is too dry to hold as ghee helps in binding.

Lovely 'ari undas' are ready to serve. Store them in air-tight containers, preferably in refrigerator.