Ata and Dry Fruits are ball shaped sweets famous across the Indian sub-continent since ages. They are prepared specially on festivals and religious occassions, to be served as prasad. The combination of ata and dry fruits make it a healthy and nutritious sweet snack. Besides this, having one ladoo with a glass full of milk serves as a complete breakfast meal to kickstart day. These ladoos are given to lactating mothers and pregnant women as they help in milk production and strengthening the backbone. These ladoos can be preserved for long in an air-tight containers, without the use of any preservatives. Therefore they are an easy energy giving snack, that can be carried along on long tours. Prepare these yummy and healthy ladoos with the given recipe:
Preparation Time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking Time: 30-40 minutes
Nutritional content: Ladoos are an extremely healthy and nutritious sweet as they are a storehouse of carbohydrates, fibres and enrgy from whole wheat flour. The desi ghee and nuts provide protein.
Recipe yield: 10 ladoos
Ingredients:
- Whole wheat flour (Gehun ka ata) - 1 cup
- Sugar powder (pisi hui cheeni) - 1/3 cup
- Dry fruits - 1/3 cup (crushed to small pieces)
- Cashew (kaju)
- Almonds (badaam)
- Raisins (kismis)
- Pistachios (pista)
- Desi Ghee - 4-5 table spoon
Procedure:
- Heat a kadhai and put the wheat flour (gehun ka ata) in it to roast it till golden brown. (Do not use ghee at this stage; only dry roast the wheat flour).
- Transfer the roasted wheat flour (gehun ka ata) to a flat utensil or plate to cool it till it is a little warmer than the room temperature. Then add the sugar powder and mix it well.
- Now add ghee to the wheat flour (gehun ka ata) and sugar mixture. Mix well as if forming a dough. (If required add more ghee)
- Add the crushed dry nuts (kaju, badaam, pista) and raisins (kismis) to the mixture. Again mix to spread them uniformly.
- Moisten your hands with water and start forming small balls or ladoos of the mixture. Serve beautifully in a bowl or plate. You can store it as well in an air tight container.
(Tips: 1. Never add sugar while roasting the wheat flour. It may result in hardening of the wheat flour; 2. Add sugar only after transfering the roasted flour to a flat plate and it cools to a temperature a bit warmer than the room temperature. 3. Do not add water to the mixture to form the balls or ladoos. Only moisten your hands to form smooth round ladoos)