Laddou (Sweet Mauritian Besan Flour Balls)

Divali is all about sweet desserts. And they don’t get much more iconic than Laddou, Mauritius’s take on the classic Indian dessert Laddu.

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 20

Resting Time 30

Total Time 1 20

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mauritian

Servings 20 balls

Calories 372 kcal

Mix the besan, baking powder, yellow food colouring (optional), and a teaspoon of water into a thick batter. Cover with a tea towel and allow the batter to rest for 30 minutes.
500 g chickpea flour, 1 tsp yellow food colouring, 1 tsp baking powder
Add the sugar, water and ground cardamon to a saucepan and bring to the boil to make a clear syrup. Put the lid on the saucepan to keep the syrup warm
250 g caster sugar, 1 L water, ½ tsp cardamon
Heat the oil in a pan for deep frying. Once the oil is hot enough, transfer a ladleful of batter into a perforated spoon, then lightly tap the perforated spoon so that tiny amounts of batter drop into the oil.
rice bran oil
Fry the tiny balls of batter for about 30-40 seconds in batches until they are brown and scoop them out into a bowl lined with a paper towel. We will call these tiny balls “boondi”.
Keep frying the boondi until you use up the batter.
Transfer the boondi to the sugar syrup and allow to soak.
When the boondi are lukewarm, add the raisins and almonds and mix thoroughly.
2 tbsp raisins, 3 tbsp almonds
Form the boondi mixture into balls about the size of golf balls and allow to cool before serving.

Use caster sugar to make the sugar syrup as it dissolves faster than regular granulated sugar. If you don’t have caster sugar, you can still use regular sugar or golden or unrefined sugars. They will work just as fine. Unrefined sugars will add more of a caramel flavour
You can test if the frying oil is hot enough by dropping a small amount of batter into the oil, the batter should brown and little bubbles should form around the batter.
For an alternative, you can roll the Laddou balls in desiccated coconut

Keyword Divali, Gato Delwil, Gato Dou