Oats Almond Laddoos

If you love Indian food you would definitely have tried one laddu or another atleast once that too even if you are not a dessert/sweet meat person. Laddoos or Laddu -coming from the sanskrit word 'Ladduka' meaning small ball-are typical Indian sweets made using flour and sugar. Several types of laddoos/laddu  can be found throughout the diverse cuisines of India and each one is as delectable. Come festivals like Diwali or marriages or even promotions then its raining laddoos. Generally a flour -chickpea/semolina/wheat along with nuts,grains are cooked/mixed/warmed with ghee/clarified butter (which acts as a binder) and shaped into small balls. 

Most of us love laddus one variety or another and my daughter too. Another reason for her laddoo fancy is Chhota Bheem. She loves Chhota Bheem and Chhota Bheem loves Laddoos. Right now, while I am typing this she is engrossed in Chhotta Bheem and also consuming laddoos which I had adapted from Priya of Nowserving for BlogHop Wednesdays (week 6) by Radhika. 

Ingredients:

Almonds :3/4 cup

Quick Oats: 1/2 cup

Brown Sugar/ Demerara Sugar/ Turbinado sugar: 1 cup

Cardamom: 1/2 -1 tsp powdered /crushed

Ghee/Clarified Butter: 3 tbsp +

Cashews: chopped handful

Raisins: handful 

Preparation:

Powder almonds,oats and sugar separately and mix together. The time required for powdering varies for each and hence separately powder them and mix these together with the powdered cardamom. I actually powdered together the sugar and cardamom so that cardamom will be equally distributed. 

Heat ghee in a deep pan and add chopped cashews and raisins. Saute till cashew is browned and the raisins plumps up. Remove with a slotted spoon and keep aside. In the same pan add the powder mix and saute for 2-4 minutes till a nice roasted aroma floats and the mix looks moist and sort of comes together.Add in the roasted cashews and raisins and mix well. All this take barely 5 minutes,so keep your eyes open while roasting the flours.

Remove from heat and allow to cool a little bit.Take out palmfuls of the powder and press together to form laddoos. If they crumble while handling/pressing together then you may have to add more ghee and try to bind again.  After forming the balls you can optionally chill them in the fridge so that they are more set and harden as well till consumptiom. You can serve as an anytime snack or dessert.

Healthy twist to the regular flours make it a nutritious treat. Rather than going the traditional way,the laddoos are made more healthy what with the oats and almonds. An  easy delectable treat to make indeed. ! And within minutes, it will be reduced to crumbles as well ...