3 Ingredient Besan Ladoo

Besan ladoo is a indian sweet made with 3 main ingredients - besan (gram flour), ghee, and sugar. Also known as besan laddu, these sweet balls are one of the most popular mithai in India especially on festivals like Diwali, Dusherra and Ganesh Puja.

Indian mithai made with besan like besan halwa or besan ki barfi are my most favorite. I grew up eating homemade besan ladoos. Not just for festivals or special occasions, my grandmother treated us to besan ladoos throughtout the year. I can't even begin to describe how the house smelled whenever these ladoos were made at home. The aroma while besan roasts in ghee is very nutty, sweet & comforting and is my one of my loved memory of festival time in India.

About Besan Laddu

Ladoo are sweet round balls made using several kinds of ingredients. Besan ladoos are made using besan (gram flour). Requiring just 3 main ingredients, besan ladoo recipe is gluten-free and is super easy to put together. Optional flavorings include green cardamom powder and chopped nuts.

To make besan ladoo, coarse chickpea flour is roasted in ghee till it changes color to deep golden and starts emanating a nutty fragrance. The roasted besan minture is then sweetened with sugar and rolled into small round balls. You could add in a variety of nuts and seeds but I like to add only raisins.

What is besan laddu made of

• Ladoo Besan (Coarse Gram Flour) - Easily available in most indin grocery stores.
• Sugar - Ideally we need to use boora or bura. Boora is used to make lot of indian sweets (mithai). Boora is just plain ground sugar. It is different from powdered sugar or confectioners sugar (these two have cornstarch mixed in). I simply grind granulated sugar using a coffee grinder and use.
• Ghee - Homemade ghee is the best for purity, taste and aroma. However use any brand of plain ghee that you use in your home.
• Green Cardamom Powder (Optional)- You just need a pinch or two.Dont go overboard on flavors because you want the ladoo to prominently taste of besan.
• Raisins (Optional) - I add them because my granmother used to. You may skip or add finely chopepd nuts of your choice (almonds & cashews).

How To Make Boora

Add sugar (granulated or crystal) to a dry coffee grinder jar. Grind until sugar turns into a fine powder. Your homemade boora is ready.

Laddu Besan Vs Regular Besan

Ladoo besan or mota besan is coarsely ground gram flour. Besan is not made from garbanzo beans (chickpeas). It is made from shelled kala chana (black chickpeas).

I have tried several brands of ladoo flour in the past years and trust me they are not the same. Depending on the brand, the texture is medium coarse or too coarse. Personally I prefer using medium coarse besan.

Ladoo besan is specfically used for making besan ladoos to give the right texture. You will find it in indian grocery stores.

Regular besan that we use for making besan burfi or besan halwa is fine ground and is supposed to give a melt in the mouth texture to the mithai.

On the other hand, besan ladoos are supposed to have a coarse and chewy texture.

7 Tips to make Best Besan Ladoo

1. Use fresh besan - Avoid using besan that has been lying around for over 2-3 months in your pantry. Once the bag is opened, it slowly starts losing its aroma and nutty flavor.
2. Use Ladoo besan- For the ideal texture of the ladoos, use besan ladoo flour. It is easily avilable in all indian grocery stores. Bonus is that since ladoo flour is coarse, it takes less time to roast it.
3. Roast on low heat - For the perfect golden color, nutty flavor as well as to make sure that ladoos don't taste raw. If besan is not roasted properly, ladoos will stick to roof of your mouth and teeth.
4. Watch the ratio of ghee and add ghee slowly - Remeber that you can add ghee at any stage of besan ladoo making process. However, once the ghee is more, it is difficult to troubleshoot. Start with the ghee quantity I mentioned in the recipe.
5. Add sugar at the right stage - When the roasted besan mixture is luke warm. If it's too hot, the sugar may melt and create a sticky mixture. If its too cold, you wont be able to incorporate sugar properly.
6. Feel The Ladoo Mixture with hands- You can trust your spatula only to an extent. After mixing sugar, feeling ladoo mixture with hands will help you understand if the mixture has right amount of ghee.
7. Don’t squish the ladoos while shaping - Avoid squeezing or squishing the besan mixture while shaping. That creates a dense ladoo that will stick to your teeth. If the proportions are right, you should be easily able to shape the ladoos with gentle hands.

My Top Tip

Non stop Stirring - Stir the ladoo mixture continuously.You will quite a lot of patience and elbow grease to make besan ladoos. The moment you stop stirring, the besan will burn. Stirring makes sure that the besan roasts evenly. Also, as you stir, you will be able to get a feel of the mixture- it is dry, clumpy or fluffly & airy. Based on that, keep adjusting the stove level.

As a reference, it took me little over 18 minutes to roast 1 cup of besan. That said, do not go by that time, just use it as a guideline. Depending on quality of besan, your stove settings and the kind of pot or pan you are using, the time will be different for you.

How To Make Besan Ladoo (Stepwise Photos)

1. Measure out all the ingredients. (images 1 & 2).
2. Add sugar to a dry grinder jar (I use my coffee grinder) and grind to a fine powder. Your boora is ready. If you are using green cardamom, add the seeds to the sugar and grind together. (images 3 & 4)
3. In a wide mouthed and heavy cooking pot, add the besan and ¼ cup ghee. (image5, 6 &7 )

Tip #1 - Use a heavy and wide pot or pan in which it is easy for your to stir the besan.

4. Place the pot on low medium flame. 
5. Start roasting besan on a low flame, stirring continuously using a soft spatula or wooden spoon. As the besan mixture warms up, it will resemble coarse wet sand. This is becasue as soon as you combine together, besan absorbs the gee and clumps together. At this stage you might feel that the ghee is less, however don't add any more. 

6. In about 10 -12 minutes, you will feel that the besan mixture is much easier to stir and feel fluffy. This is when the besan starts toasting in ghee and releasing it at the same time. The besan mixture will resemble a slurry and will be glistening. (image 8)
7. In about 15-16 minutes, besan will slowly start changing color and you will smell a very nice aroma. Keep a close eye close since besan can burn easily at this stage. Continue to stir it. The slow roasting is extremely important to ensure that the raw taste of besan is gone and besan roasts evenly. (image 9,10)
8. After about 20-21 minutes of slow roasting, you will also see little ghee is starting to separate on the sides of pot. And the besan mixture will feel airy and fluffy. Immediatley take off the stove. The cooking pot is still hot and besan will continue to roast for next 2-3 minutes. Make sure that you keep and eye and keep stirring. If you feel that besan is going to burn, transfer it to a plate. 
9. Mix in the raisins (or nuts if using) after 5 minutes of taking off the stove. The raisins will plump up. Set aside to cool down for 15-25 minutes but dont let get cold. (images 11 & 12)
10. Once the roasted besan is cooled (but not cold) and easy to handle, add in the sugar (image 13).
11. Combine so that everything is mixed together. At this stage if you feel that the mixture is dry, add 1 tablespoon of melted ghee and mix. (image 14)
12. Take small portions of the ladoo mixture and roll into smooth round balls. You can moisten your palms with little melted ghee (if required) while making balls. (image 15 & 16).
13. Store for up to a month in an air tight container at room temperature.

Troubleshooting Tips

1. If besan mixture is dry after adding sugar and you are not able to shape the ladoos, it is very easy to fix this problem. Add melted ghee ½ tablespoon at a first and mix well. Feel the besan mixture with your hands. If needed, add more melted ghee. Add gradually and stop in between to feel the mixture until you can shape them.
2. When the besan is not roasted properly or roasted in a hurry the ladoos turn out sticky. Unfortunately it is not possible to fix it. However keep it in mind next time you make nesan ladoos.
3. If you are not able to shape the ladoo mixture, refrigerate the mixture until the ghee soldifies (about 15-20 minutes). Then you can shape it into ladoos. In this case, you cannot store the ladoos at room temperature. You have to store them in the refrigerator. Try to finish them within 2 weeks.
4. If you use powdered sugar, the texture of ladoo is slightly different because often, powdered sugar has cornstarch in it. You might need to add a little extra ghee while binding because sometimes the ladoos mixture becomes dry with powdered sugar.

Note - This post was originally published in May 2014. I modified it in October 2021 and subsequently in September 2023 to include stepwise pictures and description.