Crumbly and not overly sweet stuffed with khoya (solid milk) and nuts, these Moong Dal Ladoo are an easy dessert choice during the Indian festive season. Moong Dal Ladoo needs a bit of planning in advance to soa the lentil, but overall it's quite effortless to prepare.
Moong Dal Ladoo
A quick sweet treat to welcome Ganpati Bappa! This year, the 10-day festival starts today and Indians all over the world, especially in Maharashtra, must be all excited and busy making all kind of Bappa's favorite food.
His favorite happens to be all kind of sweets, especially Modak and Ladoos. I am hoping to make some Modak for him too but these Moong Dal Ladoo will defitely cheer him up until then.
Moong Dal that I have used here are the yellow split lentils. This variety of lentil is used a lot to prepare Indian dessert and snacks.
Ingredients used in Moong Dal Ladoo
- Yellow Split Lentils (Moong Dal/ Mung Dal)
- Jaggery (You can use sugar or brown sugar too)
- Ghee - (Learn how to make homemade ghee)
I also used a quick stuffing inside the ladoo with
- Khoya (solid milk)
- Assorted nuts (cashew and walnut)
- A bit of sugar to add sweetness to the unsweetened store bough Khoya
There are few different techniques to prepare moong daal ladoo. The tricky part when it comes to using lentils in ladoo is that it will need some binding element.
In my recipe, it's ghee and some prefers to use condensed milk too.
Texture of the Ladoo
Depending on how much ghee you add in the mixture, the texture of the ladoo get change accordingly.
I like these ladoo little crumbly, which means you better carry a bowl along with a ladoo or don't mind the mess a little.
But if you like the ladoo to be more fudgy, then definitely add ghee or cook the moong daal powder in condensed milk.
How to prepare Moong Dal Ladoo?
A detailed Recipe is mentioned below in recipe card, but here is a quick step in nuteshell.
Wash dry and dry roast the moong daal then cool and grind into a fine powder.
Prepare the filling by stirring the grated khoya with finely chopped nuts and sugar in a skillet.
The fine moong daal powder is now mixed with finely grated or powdered jaggery. You can use brown sugar or coconut sugar too.
The sugar with moong daal is now mixed with lots of ghee, so it comes together into a ladoo. To test, make sure when you take a little amount of the mix and hold it tightly in your fist, it should retain the shape.
Once it binds together, start making the ladoo by adding a little amount of the stuffing in the center.
KEYNOTES TO FOLLOW
Do not grind the roasted moong daal while still hot. That will add moisture from the heat as you grind, turning the texture into muggy instead of dry powder. So let the roasted mung daal cool down completely.
For the best fine texture of the moong daal, make sure to sift the moon dal powder.
The filling is not a mandate, and you can discard the khoya if you can't find it. Just add some chopped nuts.
While I have given the measurement of the ghee to add, I would suggest you to add slowly, so you get the right texture. Depending on the brand of daal you use, sometimes the overall texture of the moong daal powder can differ.
Making the moong daal ladoo is extremely easy, and you will love the nutty aromatic taste that comes from roasting the mung daal.
More Ganapati Special Food
Moong Dal Ladoo
Ingredients
- 1 and ¼ cup split yellow mung daal
- ½ cup grated jaggery or brown sugar
- ⅓ cup ghee
for the filling
- ½ cup grated khoya
- 2 tablespoons milk
- ¼ cup finely chopped assorted nuts (cashew and walnut)
- 2 tablespoons sugar or jaggery
Instructions
- Wash and soak the daal for 1 hour.
- Layer the soak ed daal on a clean kitchen cloth and let some moisture get absorbed by the cloth. Leave aside for 15 minutes.
- Place a heavy skillet in medium heat and drop the semi dry moong daal. Keep stirring and dry roasting for 10 to 15 minutes. At first, it will stick to the bottom of the pan, so keep stirring. You want to roast it until it's dry and the color changes to one shade darker.
- Once done, layer the roasted daal on a plate or a cloth to cool down completely.
- In the meantime prepare the filling by adding the grated khoya on a heavy bottom skillet along with the milk at medium heat. Stir it around until it gets a little soft in texture.
- Add the finely chopped nuts and mix it around until it comes together into a dough like consistency. Keepit aside to cool down a bit.
- Once roasted moong daal has cooled completely, grind it to a fine powder.
- Sift the moong daal powder in a mixing bowl. You want very fine texture of the powder for a smooth texture of the ladoo. Put the coarse texture back in the blender along with the jaggery and powder the jaggery too.
- Sift the remaining moong daal and powdered jaggery in the mixing bowl.
- Mix everything with hand and add the ghee little by little as you mix. The final texture of the mixture should be tight enough to hold shape.
- To prepare the stuffed moong dal ladoo, take a little portion of the mixture and flatten it on your hand. Add a tiny amount of the filling that was kept aside and fold it all over to shape the ladoo.
- I pretty much eyeballed to quantity to use to shape the ladoo, and surprisingly they all look the exact same size.
