Borugulunda / Puffed Rice Balls
The puffed rice laddus are prepared as a part of a festival / even weddings in some parts of India. For me somehow, it is a snack that is a part of old world charm. The kind mothers / grand mothers lovingly prepared when candies and other junk were not there to entice kids. When I was little, I remember the small stores near schools stocking puffed rice / peanut / sesame laddus in bottles along with candies. The kids would hop to these stores during lunch time to buy the delicious treats.
These laddus are one of the traditional dishes you can pull through in no time. Jaggery and puffed rice are two ingredients you need to make these delicious laddus, besides the cardamom for flavor. As many of the traditional Indian sweets, these laddus make use of jaggery, a healthier option over sugar. Hard ball consistency jaggery syrup is made, then flavored with cardamom and then puffed rice is gently mixed in. And then shaped into laddus to enjoy.
Ingredients (yield a dozen laddus)
1/2 cup jaggery
2 cups puffed rice
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Method:
* Heat jaggery and 3 to 4 Tbsp water in a pan. After cooking for about 8 - 10 minutes, the jaggery melts, turns frothy forming syrup.
(If you need to get rid of the impurities from the jaggery, you can do it two ways. Either you can soak jaggery powder in water allowing it to melt, strain the impurities and then heat. Or heat jaggery and water until the jaggery just melts and then stain.)
* Cook until the syrup
reaches hard ball consistency. (Unda paakam). To check the correct consistency, take a few
tablespoons of water in a small plate or cup. Drop a tiny quantity of syrup
into the water. Check whether a ball can be formed using your fingers. If the
syrup doesn't melt in the water and a ball is formed, then we got the correct
consistency. When you touch the syrup with your fingers and it disintegrates
into the water, then some more cooking is needed.
* When the required consistency is reached, add cardamom and puffed rice. Mix well and turn off the stove.
* Wet your hands in cold water and shape the mixture into lemon sized balls. Once cool, store them in an airtight container.
Comments
12 comments:
yummy and delicious.
I too remember seeing these laddos in my childhood at granny's place..these days we only make it during karthiga deepam..very nicely done, and I like that jaggary ball..:)
Makes me nostalgic, cute balls and i know how addictive they are.
These are one of the best ladoos..very light and crunchy.well made ..and surely tempting!
these are looking nice and easy ones to make
very similar to a popular treat we have here called Rice Krispie treats (Rice Krispies are a brand name breakfast cereal here which is basically puffed rice)
We used to get these during puja's at home. One dish that goes beyond borders.
it's so delicious... want to crunch some balls.....
This was common when I was growing up, its kind of becoming a rare treat now a days. Kids munch on lays and kurkure instead...
Anyway, the ladoos look really nice and light and perfect!
Perfect Borugulundalu..Ekkadiko theesukuni vellipoyaru ee undalu choopinchi :)
Those look so tempting. Naaku Paakam pattalante tension for the fear of making a hard rock. Maybe I have to give this a try to practice :-)
Looks very tempting Suma..!!!!
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