Preparing Laddu or is it Laddoo, whatever you name it, it is easy to prepare and very tasty

Laddu or Laddoo are sphere-shaped sweets popular in South Asia. Laddus are made of flour, minced dough and sugar with other ingredients that vary by recipe. They are often served on festive or religious occasions.

Ingredients

• 3½ cups of gram flour
• 20ml baking powder
• 5ml yellow food colour
• 10ml ghee
• 5ml elachi powder
• Water to form a batter, I used roughly 1¾ cup water
• Finely chopped coloured almonds for decoration
• Oil for deep-frying

Ingredients for syrup

• 2 cups castor sugar
• 3 cups water
• 2ml elachi
• 2 drops of yellow food colour

Method for syrup

Combine the above ingredients in a pot and boil till a sticky consistency is reached.

Method for laddoo

Combine the above ingredients to form a smooth, thick liquid batter.

Pour the batter through a spoon with large holes, I used the lid of my icing sugar shaker held over the hot oil.

Fry the tiny balls until golden brown and place them into the syrup.

Allow the tiny balls to stand for a couple of minutes till you see that the balls have changed colour and the syrup has seeped into the balls.

Using a spoon remove the balls from the syrup and drain excess syrup, place on a plate till all the balls have been removed from the syrup

Mould the mixture and form round golf-sized balls.

Decorate with coloured almonds.

Prepared, tried and tested by: Bobby Swanson