Boondi Ladoo

Adapted from http://www.neivedyam.com/2009/05/100th-post-boondi-laddu.html

Besan - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups

Sugar - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Saffron - a pinch
Cardamom Powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 1 tbsp
Handful of cashewnuts and raisins
Edible Camphor - a pinch

Peanut Oil for deep frying
Ladle with small holes

Heat ghee in a pan. Add the cashews and raisins and fry on low heat for 2 minutes. Add a pinch of edible camphor and cardamom powder and keep aside.

Sift the besan with a flour sifter. Add water slowly and make a batter by mixing simultaneously using a wire whisk. The batter should not be too watery and should be of dosa batter consistency.

Heat oil in a kadai over medium heat. The oil should be sufficiently hot before dropping the batter. This can be tested by putting a drop of batter in the oil. The drop should immediately bubble up.

Now hold the ladle over the kadai and pour some batter on it. The drops of batter will fall on the oil and immediately bubble up. Remove the boondis after 10 seconds. The boondis should not get dark in color and should not be crisp. If a boondi is pressed between 2 fingers, it should get squeezed in and not crumble. Leave the boondis on a paper towel to soak excess oil.

Before frying the next batch of boondis, wipe the ladle completely clean. If the ladle has some batter clinging to it, the next batch of boondis will not be round and they will have an elongated shape. Continue frying like this for the entire batter.

Make a sugar syrup of 2 cups sugar and 2 cups water. Boil till the syrup becomes thick (one thread consistency). Add saffron and some cardamom powder. Add all the fried boondis and fried cashew and raisins to the syrup and mix well. Now put the syrup along with the boondis back on heat for a few minutes till all the syrup is soaked. Leave the mixture to cool down for atleast 15 minutes.

Make small balls of the mixture and press hard as a fist so that the shape holds. Cool down completely and store in an airtight container.