Bandaru Laddu/Thokkudu Laddoo

Laddoo/Laddu, this popular Indian sweets are our family favourite, yes i never forget to prepare them every year especially for Diwali festival. Laddoos, this sweet balls are usually prepared with fried boondis, sugar syrup with dry fruits. But my today's post is a very popular Andhra sweets aka Bandaru Laddoo. This laddoos was originated in 'Machilipatnam' in Andhra Pradesh which is also known as 'Bandar'. Not to forget that this laddoo is also prepared during auspicious days like Sankranti, Deepavali etc. Though this laddoo calls for besan flour aka gram flour, this laddoo's preparation sounds very much different from the usual laddoos.

When i was searching for an interesting dish for sankranti Festival, i accidently saw this fantastic laddoo while googling. The name of this dish intriguted me, obviously i went through this recipe. Am running this week's blogging marathon with 'Festival Special' as theme, hence am posting Sankranti special recipes. For the first day of this week's blogging marathon, i want to post this different laddoo as this recipe calls for fried chaklis which is grounded or pounded as a fine powder, then mixed in a jaggery or sugar syrup which is later shaped as laddoos. Obviously these laddus are also called as Thokkudu laddoos as Tokkatam in Telugu means Pounding.

1cup Besan/Gram flour

1cup Grated Jaggery

3nos Cardamoms (crushed)

Oil for deep frying

Fried cashewnuts

Mix the gram flour with water and make a dough,drop enough dough into a greased murukku/chakli press with star nozzle.

Heat the oil for deep frying, once the oil is hot, press the dough into the oil, and fry the murukkus until they turns crispy but not brown in colour.

Drain the murukku and keep aside, let it cool. Fry the same way the remaining dough. Break the murukku with the fingers, drop the pieces into a mixie and grind as fine powder. 

Meanwhile make a jaggery syrup with enough water, once the jaggery gets dissolves and bubbles strain the syrup.

Transfer the syrup to a pan, cook with crushed cardamom powder, once the syrup reach one string consistency,add the grounded powder and cook until the mixture turns thick.

Remove from the flame, make medium sized balls from this warm mixture. Place a fried cashewnuts to the laddoos.

Let it cool completely and serve.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM#72