Besan Ladoo is a very popular sweet of Northern India often made during the festival season. Although this sweet uses only handful ingredients but it is super delicious and highly addictive. Most often, I make bite sized Besan Laddu to control the intake. It is a popular Diwali sweet.

Check out more Festival Mithai from the blog – Besan Barfi, Besan Halwa, Coconut Ladoo, Kalakand, Badam Katli and more.

Post contains affiliate links. Please read disclosure here.

Easy Besan Ladoo Recipe

Besan Ladoo or Besan ke Laddu are melt in the mouth dessert rounds made with Besan (gramflour), Ghee, Sugar and aromatics like cardamom powderwith some nuts mixed in. It is one of the easiest Indian Dessert Recipe made during festival season.

Our Indian Festivals are incomplete without any kind of laddus. Although Besan and Atta Ladoo are the most comoon ones but coconut ladoo or rawa ladoo are very popular too.

I have fond memories of these ladoos. Not only for the festivals, mom would make these for us siblings to take to our hostel. These ladoo came very handy as a snack whenever the hunger would strike.

What is Besan Ladoo?

Besan is Gramflour also known as CHickpea flour. And Ladoo is a dessert that is round in shape. Therefore Besan Laddu is a sweet round dessert made with roasting besan (gramflour) in ghee till it turns golden brown. Further sugar and nuts plus aromatics are mixed for more texture and flavor.

It is one of the easiest Indian Dessert to make at home. Although you can buy these ladoos from the store but home-made are the best. Also when you make these at home, you can control the sweetness of the laddu. Moreover, homemade guarantees the use of best ingredients and no use of any preservatives or artificial coloring.

What are the Ingredients?

 As I mentioned above, this recipe uses handful ingredients that are readily available in any Indian household. Here is the list –

• Besan – It is also known as Chickpea flour or Gram flour. It is easily available at any Indian Grocery Store. Or you can buy it from amazon too. Now there are 2 kinds available – regular fine flour and other thick besan or laddu besan. Although many people use the thick flour, I like to use the regular CHickpea flour. It is your choice.
• Ghee – I prefer using Ghee made with cow milk. But you can use any ghee available. Please do not make it in oil or dalda. GHEE is the only fat to be used.
• Sugar – Although the traditional recipe calls for Boora or Tagaar that is now available in Indian grocery stores in USA. But I always use regular sugar in my recipe. You can use either. If you are using Sugar then make sure that it is fine in texture and not thick.
• Aromatics – Although I use Cardamom powder only for flavoring, but you can use saffron as well if you want.
• Nuts – A lot of times cashews and raisins are recommended, but I prefer using coarsely grounded almonds for my laddu. And sometimes add crushed pistachios on top for finishing. It is your choice.

How to make Besan Ladoo at home?

It is so super easy to make these laddus at home. Here is how –

1- Firstly add 1/4 cup Ghee to a heavy pan and melt it on a medium heat. Once the ghee melts, add 1 cup besan (gramflour) to it and stir these 2 together. Reduce the heat to lower medium heat.

2- As you start mixing the ghee and besan, it will start clumping together. It is normal. Do not worry. Keep stirirng it on lower medium heat. It will start loosening up in about 8 minutes. Keep stirring continously or the besan will burn.

3- As you keep stirring the besan and ghee mixture, you will see that it keeps getting loose and light to handle. Continous stirring is very important.

4- Once the ghee besan mix loosens, keep roasting it on low heat while continously stirring to get that beautiful golden color. In Northern India, our laddoos are slightly more roasted for that color. It will take about 10-12 minutes more on low heat to get the desired color. Now the timing will depend upon the thickness of your pan, the heating temperature etc.

5- Further switch off the heat and transfer the roasted mixture to another bowl. I prefer to take a flattish bowl or paraat. Let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes till it is kind of lukewarm.

6- Now add Fine Sugar or Boora/Tagaar to the mixture along with nuts and cardamom powder. Mix all the ingredients together with hands. Make sure that the sugar is well incorporated with besan. Bring the mix together.

7- Now scoop about 1 tbsp of the mixture. Bind and roll it gently between your palms to make a round/ball. WATCH THE VIDEO CAREFULLY to learn how to do that. Repeat the process till you finish the mixture. It shall give you about 14-15 one bite laddoo. You can make larger laddu too. Garnish with some cardmaom powder and ground nuts if you want to.

How to store Besan Laddu?

Store these ladoos in an air tight container at the room temperature. They will stay good upto 2 weeks. For longer shelf-life, refrigerate these.

Tips and Tricks

1. Patience is the key. Literally. Have patience when you make these ladoos.
2. Roasting the Besan – It is so important that you roast the besan right and to the desired golden color. Or else the ladoo might taste raw. Besan has strong flavor of its own. If not roasted properly, you can taste the rawness.
3. Control the Heat – It is very important to keep the temperature to medium low or low all the time. The heat temperature will vary depending upon the kind of pan you are using like non stick, steel, hard anodized etc.
4. Continous Stirring is another important step or else the mixture will burn at the bottom.
5. Adding Sugar – Make sure that you add sugar to the besan mix when it cools down a bit. If you will add sugar to the hot mixture, sugar will melt and make it more runny.
6. Kind of Sugar – As mentioned before, boora or tagaar is used traditionally in ladoo. Boora is the crystalized sugar powder which is a long process in itself. Buy it from the store. Or do what I do. Use fine sugar. It is not icing sugar. The regular sugar that we get in USA is good. If your sugar is large grain then pulse it a bit in the blender and use that.

Besan Ladoo Recipe

 If you try it then do let me know your experience or feedback in the comments section.

Thank you.