Mooti Chur Ladoo

Ingredients:

For Boondi:

• Gram flour (besan)- 3 cups
• whole milk-500 ml
• Clarified butter (ghee), for deep frying-3 cups
• Dry fruits, finely chopped -1/4 cup
• For Sugar Syrup:
• Sugar-2 1/2 cups
• Whole milk-2 tbsp
• Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp
• Saffron essence (for deep frying)- a few drops
• Water-3 and 1/2 cups

Special Equipement:
A colander, strainer or fine sieve with droplet-sized or smaller pores.

Method

For Making the Sugar Syrup:
In a large deep pot, put the sugar and water and bring to a boil and than add milk.. Boil for 5 minutes or until scum forms on top. Strain with the strainer spoon and return to stove. Add in the saffron color and boil until it is muggy but no thread has created. Add in the cardamom powder and mix well. Then set aside.
For Making the Boondi:
Mix the flour and milk together to form a smooth batter. Heat the clarified butter in a heavy frying pan. Hold the boondi-strainer over the frying pan with one hand. With the other hand, pour some batter all over the holes. Tap gently until all of the batter has fallen into the hot clarified butter. Be careful to stay away from the stove as the ghee might spit a little. Stir with another strainer and remove once it is light golden in color. Set aside on a paper towel, and repeat the process for the remaining batter.

For Making the Ladoos:
Partly crush/smash 1/4th of the fried boondi with hand, submerge all the fried boondi in the syrup. Drain any excess syrup and spread in a large plate. Add the chopped dry fruits to this mixture. Sprinkle about 2 tsp of hot water over it. Cover and set aside for 5-10 minutes so the boondi soaks up the syrup and it becomes soft. Once it gets sticky, and cool enough to handle, take a small portion of the boondi mixture and shape into small round balls with wet palms. Do the same for all laddoos. Arrange on a plate and keep open to dry so the laddoos solidify. One they are hard enough, you can store in an air-tight container and keep in the refrigerator.