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This special ‘rakhi’ is accompanied by several types of sweetmeats to sweeten the occasion and the mood is celebratory. There are no dearth of sweets in India – every region, state and cuisine has a dozen different sweets that range in texture, colour, aroma and taste. Ladoos, pedas, halwas & kheers are just large umbrellas under which a thousand varieties take shelter. Then throw in another few hundred regional varieties and what you have is a mind boggling platter of sweets.
Speaking of laddoos – these are my favourite type of Indian sweets. I simply love laddoos and while in Mangalore I never fail to buy my favourite mithai ladoos or boondi laddoos (made of deep fried chick pea batter). When I was little my Konkani (GSB) neighbours used to prepare the ‘Churmundo’ very often and I remember eating them whenever I used to visit their place. I was one of the youngest and most loved among all the neighbourhood kids, so I always used to get some extra TLC (tender, love & care) at their place. Today, when one of my new friends on Facebook – Mrs. Vidya Nayak Shenoy posted a picture of these laddoos, my mouth watered and I had a rush of old memories. Vidyakka as I fondly call her has been so kind as to share many of her priceless recipes with me in the past. Dalitoy, Khotto, Chane Ghashi and Coconut Burfi are a few that have been tried & tested in my kitchen so far. I have another couple to try and post, but the Churmundo beat all of them to the blog. Her recipes have never failed me and she is more than happy to give me accurate measurements and patiently answers all my queries no matter how many times I bug her. So this post is dedicated to you dear Vidyakka. Thank You!! We may have never met, but I am glad I found a sister in you. Happy Rakshabandhan!
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Churmundo
Prep time: nil | Cook time: 20mins + 15mins | Yield: 17-18 lime sized laddoos
You Need:
- 1/2 cup ghee
- 1/4 cup chickpea flour (besan/kadlehittu)
- 1/4 cup semolina (fine rava/bombay sooji)
- 1 cup whole wheat flour (atta)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- a few raisins (approx 1/8th cup) optional
- 1 few broken cashewnuts (approx 1/8th cup) optional
- 2-3 powdered cardamoms
Method:
1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed kadhai/wok and add the chick pea flour, stir to avoid lumps and fry for half a minute on a slow flame. Add in the whole wheat flour and semolina and fry for 15-20minutes. Take care to ensure that the mixture does not burn.
2. Remove the mixture from heat and allow to cool completely. Add the powdered sugar, cardamom powder and the optional items – raisins & cashewnuts and mix thoroughly to ensure that there are no lumps. The mixture will resemble fine bread crumbs/rawa after a point.
3. Lightly grease your palm if required and take a fistful of the mixture and compress well, release excess mixture and proceed to shape the mixture into lime sized balls. Roll between palms if necessary for a smooth round finish.
4. Store in an airtight container for upto 2 weeks (if they last that long!)
Notes:
If you wish to store the ladoos for longer, you will need to fry the raisins and cashewnuts as well. Do this right after the ghee is heated. Remove and keep aside until you require to shape the laddoos.
Don’t be tempted to add the sugar before the flour mixture has cooled completely. You don’t want the heat to melt the sugar and make a mess of the situation, do you?
Don’t be alarmed at the quantity of ghee used here – don’t skimp, don’t use oil – ghee is necessary to form perfectly shaped laddoos that are moist too. If you reduce the ghee, the laddoos will crumble or taste very dry
Wow looks so tempting, love those healthy ladoos!
tht's a wonderful post shireen- raksha bandhan is indeed a delightful celebration and these churmundos symbolise that !
you have made the ladoos so perfect. thanks to you and vidya akka for sharing this healthy recipe
Beautiful raksha bandhan post and the ladoos look equally delicious and great texture too.
The laddoos looks oh so delicious 🙂
Aparna
so yummy laddus and what a lovely presentation 🙂
These look divine and what beautiful color and texture
making these tomorrow 🙂 they sound yum!
I made these Laddoos a while ago, but somehow there not as smooth as yours. And I used exactly the same recipe 🙁
Wonder what could have gone bad ..
The pics are amazing :)…
These look so inviting! and yes I loved your wooden bowl too..now following your blog 🙂
Thanks everybody for the lovely comments!!
@Nupur: When you form the balls you need to compress the mixture in your palm really hard..each laddoo will take a few compressions before it is ready. Then i carefully rolled each one between my palms just to give it a smooth round surface.
what a delightful festival treat..very smooth and nice texture…
Enjoyed reading your post. These undos look really good..
Very nice, i too have in archive..
They look delicious, my grandmother used to make laddoos like these!
sorry i thought your name is Ruchik, then later realized that it means Delicious…. nice blog name Shireen 🙂
Real feast, lovely laddoos.
Wooh! It's a beauty! Churmundo looks delicious!
Made Churmundo Shireen. A big hit at home. Both the kids were fighting for it and next day Nicole accuses me of eating up all the ladoos! Short term memory with delicious ladoos 🙂
Haha..thanks Prema!! That sounds great, glad that the kids liked it…in my house it was a war between the husband & wife 😀