Mohan Laddu

Mohan laddus are a sweet treat fit for any festive occasion, especially Diwali. Traditional sweets that do not involve laborious process and hard to mess kind appeal to me more and these laddus fit the bill. They were on my to do list for the past 15 years and thanks to this blogging marathon, I could try them at last. I am not sure why they are named so but "mohan(a)" literally means enchanting / delightful and they sure taste good.  
When the word "calories" is doing a jig in the back of my mind, I couldn't dare to use ghee liberally. And that too deep frying using ghee is something that I would never be able to do and so used some milk at the end to shape balls. However I am sure that ghee definitely enhances the flavor of these laddus and one may use it if preferred.

Ingredients: (yield 12 laddus)
1.5 cups wheat flour (atta) / all purpose flour
A pinch of salt
4 tsp ghee + extra for shaping laddus
1 Tbsp each - cashews & raisins
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
Oil / ghee to fry

Method:
1. Mix flour, salt and 2 tsp ghee in a bowl. Add water as needed to form a firm dough. There is no need to rest this dough but I did as I was busy with something else.

2. Take a lemon sized ball of dough and roll out thinly. Cut diamonds out of it. Repeat the process with the remaining dough. Prick it randomly with a fork so that they don't puff up while frying.

3. Toast cashews and raisins in about 2 tsp ghee and keep them aside. 
4. Mean while, heat oil / ghee to fry in a frying pan / kadai. There is no need to bring the oil to a smoking point. If a small pinch of dough is dropped into the oil and then if it sizzles and comes up to the surface, then the oil is hot enough.

 

5. Drop the rolled out drop pieces one by one into the oil. Drop as many as the kadai can fit. Fry on medium flame until they turn golden brown on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent towels. Let them cool.

6. Grind them fine using a blender. Add sugar, cardamom and toasted cashews - raisins to it.

7. Add ghee as needed to shape the mixture into lime sized balls. I skipped the ghee and added milk instead to shape the balls. If milk is used then the laddus need to be refrigerated as their shelf life is reduced.

Check what other marathoners are cooking during this month long marathon.

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