Gond ke laddu is a popular winter sweet from north India. This nutrient dense laddu is made of gond aka edible gum, whole wheat flour, ghee and nuts. Gond laddu are tasty as well as healthy. This recipe can be halved, doubled or tripled.
Grind to a fine powder. Remove in a plate and set aside.
Frying nuts
Keep all the ingredients ready before you begin. Heat desi ghee in a heavy kadai. Please do not use a non-stick kadai. A heavy iron kadai or aluminium kadai works best for frying gond.
Let the ghee melt. Keep heat to medium-low.
Add almonds. stirring often fry almonds till their color changes and then remove with a slotted spoon. Keep aside.
Now add cashews. stirring often fry cashews till they become light golden or golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
Add pistachios. Fry for some seconds till their colour changes. remove and keep aside.
Frying gond
Now in the same ghee, add one piece of gond.
If the gond comes up gradually and puffs up, the oil is ready for the gond to be fried. If the gond settles down in the oil, then increase the flame and let oil become hot. If the gond comes up quickly, then oil is very hot. Reduce the flame to lower the oil temperature.
Add gond in two batches. If you are an experienced cook, then add gond in a single batch.
Stir non-stop and fry gond till all of them puff up.
The gond pieces have to be fried evenly. So stir non-stop. Fry them well in ghee and do not burn them.
Remove the puffed up gond in a slotted spoon. Keep the fried gond aside and let it cool.
Roasting wheat flour
Reduce the heat to a low and then add 2 cups whole wheat flour in the same ghee.
Mix flour very well with ghee. Begin to roast flour with the ghee.
Meanwhile when atta is getting roasted, add fried nuts in a grinder jar or spice-grinder. Also add the fried gond in a dry grinder jar.
Pulse and grind to a semi fine or coarse powder. You can keep the nuts whole if you prefer instead of powdering them.
Do note that atta is getting roasted when you grind the fried gond. If you are not able to multitask then switch off heat after frying gond. Crush gond in grinder. Then switch on heat again and let ghee become slightly hot. Add atta and roast. You can also use a belan (rolling pin) and crush gond. Keep the powdered gond and nuts aside.
Continue to keep on stirring and roasting the atta.
Roast atta till its color changes and you get a nutty aroma.
Then stir nonstop when you see the flour changing its color.
Stir and roast till the atta becomes golden or brown. Overall it took me a total of 17 minutes for the atta to get roasted to perfection.Note that the timing will vary with the material, size and thickness of the kadai or pan. If you use steel kadai, then it will take less time.
Making gond ke laddu
Switch off the heat. Keep the kadai down and raisins and cardamom powder.
Next add the powdered sugar. add the crushed gond and nuts mixture.
Begin to mix with a spoon. While mixing, break the sugar lumps if any in the ladoo mixture with a spatula or spoon. Mix very well.
When the laddu mixture is still hot and the heat is tolerable to you, take a heaped size portion of it in a spoon or in your palms. Shape in a round ladoo.
In case the heat is not tolerable, then do wait for some minutes. Avoid burning your hands. If the mixture does not hold shape, then add 1 to 2 tablespoons ghee. Note that the ghee should be in a semi-solid state at room temperature.
Make medium sized ladoo from this whole mixture. Store them in an airtight steel container (steel dabba).
They stay good for a couple of months. This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled. From this gond laddu recipe, you can make 17 to 18 laddu.
Serve Gond ke Laddu just by itself or with some hot or warm milk.
Notes
This recipe can be halved or doubled or tripled.
If you are unable to make laddu and the mixture crumbles and looks dry, then add 1 to 2 tablespoons ghee at room temperature. Mix and form laddu.
If the ladoo cannot hold shape and flattens then it means there is more ghee. Let the mixture cool completely and then shape into laddu.
Note that the approx nutrition data is for 1 gond ladoo.