Sleight of hand laadu

Vegan and Low-Sugar Besanacha Laadu

Besan laadus are loved by one and all – right from our modest middle class Marathi homes, to the flamboyant filmy families – yes, those made by “Maa with her own hands”.

I wonder how “Maa” can make them with someone else’s hands….

Talking about mothers and hands, my Aai always rolled laadus with both her hands.

A large portion of the laadu mixture was made into a rough ball shaped with both the hands cupping it, the heel of the hand and the two middle fingers dexterously rotating in opposite directions.  This process was supervised by the artistically curved fore and little fingers, who didn’t realise they were only being kept on this post as they didn’t have a role to play in the real process

The result was a perfectly round large ball of unqualified happiness.

But…. this was in the days when people ate whole and big laadus without a worry.

With time and with our growing health considerations to limit or eliminate sugar and fats from our diets, the size of laadus is getting smaller and smaller.

And there is nothing more irritating than watching a perfect laadu made with such love and care, being broken and scattered and totally wasted.

The only way to do justice to a laadu is to bite into it. Or better still - roll them with only one hand, I mean - smaller, so you could pop a whole laadu into your mouth.

There are other types of sleights of hand we need to learn and practice all the time.

For the last few years since my daughters have become vegan, I have started experimenting with alternate fats in the making of sweets, especially the besan laadu.

Having tried olive oil, vegan margarine, I have now zeroed in on making these laadus in RBD Coconut oil, which is refined, bleached, and deodorized coconut oil, for it mimics the properties of ghee or toop, and there is absolutely no flavour or smell of coconut to this oil.

Microwaving besan and ghee/coconut oil is a very quick process as the actual roasting is done in a few minutes – the only issue with this is you need to microwave in short bursts and remove the bowl and stir the besan thoroughly.

Another advantage is that you can also use significantly less amounts of ghee or oil when you make roast the besan in a microwave, as it the mixture does not need to be stirred all the time while roasting.

As a result of being low fat, the laadus retain their shapes better and do not “sit” – a literal translation of Marathi - लाडू बसले :) 

You can cut out or cut down cane sugar from the laadu by using Splenda or sucralose in this laadu, as it can be mixed just as you would mix the powdered sugar. You can make the laadus with only Splenda, but it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste and lacks the full body that sugar gives.

But there’s something for this in my bag of tricks! 

Some powdered sugar completes the taste left a little lacking by the substitutes –after all you make these once a year for Diwali, which of course is unimaginable without these besan laadus. 

Ingredients

2 cups laadu besan (this is coarse chick pea flour – also known as laadu besan)

¾ cup refined organic coconut oil – this works just as ghee does- except for the flavour – but if you ignore that, you wouldn’t know it’s not ghee!

2 cups powdered sugar  - I used a mixture of ¾ cup powdered sugar and ½ cup Splenda powder (sucralose) but you could vary the proportion.

1 tsp powdered cardamom

Method

In a microwave proof bowl, melt the coconut oil. Add the besan and mix well with your hand till you get a mixture that looks like breadcrumbs.

Place the bowl in microwave and set on maximum temperature for 1 minute.

After 1 minute take out bowl form the microwave and mix thoroughly. Repeat this 2-3 times, taking care to mix thoroughly each time, until the mixture has cooled considerably.

The microwaves cook the insides of the besan mixture, so the besan actually gets roasted more than it shows form the outside. Hence, it’s important to stir and mix thoroughly and making sure that the temperature’s come down considerably before placing the bowl back into the microwave.

At some point, the mixture becomes lighter as the besan gets dehydrated and becomes more fluid. This is also when it starts to ooze out the oil.

From this point onwards, you should keep a keen look out for the colour of the besan, especially from deep within the mixture.

After about 3 - 4 minutes, you should get the besan roasted to a darker shade of golden brown.

Remove the bowl and continue to stir the mixture, as it continues to cook in its own heat.

When the mixture cools down add the powdered sugar and Splenda and the powdered cardamoms.

Mix well and roll out small laadus. These laadus don’t need refrigeration and last well for a few weeks.

Greed is good!

Diamond cuts

Caveat!

I am going to make a bold statement that seems a tad ungenerous, not at all in keeping with the season’s spirit! But do read on…

Children can be greedy- especially children of mothers who are prolific and good cooks! Mother often would reproach us. “One would think that such kids would be so satisfied with the fare coming their way that they wouldn’t be greedy at all!”

But alas! She had no such luck.

The adults in the family had all grown up in the tradition of at once rapping kids on the knuckles for gluttony as indulging in their cravings. It was customary to offer the first portion of any sweets made (without tasting) to the almighty as naivedya or offering in thanksgiving! All laddus, burfis, karanjis had to wait for the sprinkling of the holy water, before we kids could attack them. Oh, it was so excruciating to hold off our instincts to tuck in. But we were God-fearing children- well, almost always.  

However, if a tyke were inconsolably nagging a parent for a treat, hanging by the mother’s pallu, then a grandmother would intervene with some homespun wisdom and even reproach the mother – a younger woman usually a daughter or a daughter-in-law, “ Children are in the image of God, so if your kid wants the sweets so badly, God wants them to have the sweets!” This logic extended to family pets as well.

Now that was very convenient!

So by now you may have guessed, yours truly belonged to that greedy broods brigade. Legend has it that I once ate thirteen gulab jamuns in one sitting, but I still maintain that they were very tiny ones! And once I hogged a whole bunch of frosted diamond cuts or sweet shankarpali during one Diwali – but then, they were too delicious to stop with a few!

Greed, avarice, covetousness… no no no no – these are very unforgiving words – associated with sin – how can innocent kids be called greedy? Well, let me qualify the word – to assuage troubled or annoyed mums, much to the consternation of critical relatives and neighbours- and in self-defence!

Kids seem greedy, for they usually start early on their way to become gargantuan gourmands, finicky foodies and imaginative innovators. Only, since they haven’t developed a thermostat of social pressure, they may be freely expressing their feelings. Maybe all the greed is nothing but nature’s way of packing in as much sensory and experiential exposure as possible? Perhaps this avarice is not a sin at all, but a powerful motivator for people to innovate and create new things. 

And if kids act greedily when visiting or eating out, perhaps it's more to explore other people's cooking, diverse tastes rather than just plotting to embarrass their mortified parents! 

As long as kids are generous and grateful, why worry about their being greedy-except of course for health reasons!

Yes, greed can be good!

As good as these diamond cuts or frosted Shankerpali pictured here- which aren’t exactly diamond shaped because all the perfectly shaped ones were devoured – er greedily- before I zealously salvaged some of the stragglers for a photo shoot!

Frosted Shankerpali

1 cup maida

1 tbsp ghee or butter for shortening

A pinch of salt

Oil for deep frying

For the frosting     

1 cup sugar

1/3  cup water (approx.)

½ tsp ground elaichi or cardamom (optional)

Method

Sift the flour with a pinch of salt and rub in the ghee or butter. Add cold water, little by little and make a stiff dough. Keep covered for 30 minutes.

Melt sugar with 1/3 cup water (approx.) over medium heat. When the syrup starts boiling, add 1tsp of cardamom powder and check for thread consistency till you get a two string consistency. You will need to keep this syrup warm, or it will crystallise. Also, if you are frying several batches of shapes, you will need to adjust the syrup by adding a spoonful of water, scarping the sides of the pan and boiling it till the syrup is formed to two string consistency again.

Heat about 2 cups of oil in a wok.

Divide the dough into two balls and roll it out into a large disc, about 2-3 mm uniformly thick. With a fluted cutter or knife, cut the dough disc into diamond shapes or squares.  Fry the shapes in medium hot oil till very light brown and transfer them onto kitchen paper.

Dunk the diamond cuts into the sugar syrup and move them around gently to coat each one with the syrup. Remove with a slotted spoon draining all the syrup and arrange them in a plate to cool. Separate clusters, if any, when still wet.  As the diamonds dry the sugar hardens providing a lovely frosting. Dust with some coloured sugar, if you wish.

I think it is useless to tell you about the shelf life of these – for there isn’t any! Just remember to keep them in an airtight container- if ever you are required to store them.