Tilache Ladoo/Sesame Seed Balls
These festive sesame seed balls are like hard candy. The crunchy texture of roasted nuts, sesame seeds and jaggery makes it a unique snack. It is also made on the special occasion of Sankranti – a harvest festival celebrated in India on January 14th.
Ingredients
- 1 cup white sesame seeds
- ½ cup dry desiccated coconut
- ¼ cup roasted chana dal/Bengal gram/dalia
- ½ cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts coarsely ground
- 1 tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tbsp ghee
- 1 cup jaggery
Instructions
- In a rounded heavy bottom pan, roast the sesame seeds on medium heat. Sesame seeds burn easily so adjust the heat accordingly. Roast them for about five minutes until the sesame seeds turn light brown and start popping. Remove them in a bowl and return the pan to the stove.
- On low heat, roast the coconut until it slightly changes color.
- In a bowl, add the sesame seeds, coconut, peanuts, chana dal, cardamom powder and mix well.
- Heat a rounded heavy bottom pan on medium heat and add ghee to it. As soon as the ghee melts, add the jaggery. On low heat, let the jaggery melt slowly.
- After 2 to 3 minutes of simmering, dip the metal spatula in the jaggery and hold it up above the mixture. As the melted jaggery drips from the spatula, look carefully at the bottom of the dripping liquid. If the syrup is ready, you will notice tiny horizontal strings stemming from the end of the dripping liquid. It takes only 3 to 4 minutes to make this syrup, so watch carefully. Make sure you don’t burn the jaggery, otherwise, your ladoos are going to be dark. The perfect crunch of the ladoos is the indicator of a perfect syrup. Hard, teeth breaking ladoos is the indicator of an overcooked syrup and chewy ladoos means an undercooked syrup.
- Once the syrup is ready, add the ladoo mixture to the syrup and mix well. Reduce the heat to the lowest setting.
- Quickly, rub a little ghee on both your palms and take about one tablespoon of the hot mixture, and roll it between your palms to a ball. The mixture will still be hot and may hurt your hands, but using ghee helps a bit. While rolling the ladoos, don’t forget to stir the mixture frequently to maintain the heat evenly throughout the mixture. If you let the mixture cool down, it will become too hard to roll the ladoos. Let the ladoos cool to room temperature before storing them in an air-tight container.
