Gond (Gum Acacia) ke laddoo

Ingredients

500 gm whole wheat flour

30 gm eatable gond (gum acacia)

100 gm almonds

1 teaspoon sonth (dried ginger powder)

300 gm pure ghee (clarified butter)

½ teaspoon cardamom powder

400 gm bura or powdered sugar
(bura is a yellowish white fine powder, very sweet in taste; it is different from powdered sugar; it is quite commonly used in north Indian households to sweeten curds and home made sweets)

Method

Crush eatable gond to small pieces.

Microwave all the gond pieces for 2 minutes.

Most of the gond pieces will pop up like pop corn. (like in the picture below)

Again microwave the remaining pieces of gond.

Grind them to powder.

(gond pieces can also be fried in ghee. For which heat ghee in kadhai. Fry all gond pieces)

Microwave almonds for 3-4 minutes. Alternatively roasted almonds may be used. Grind them to a coarse powder.

Mix powdered gond, powdered almonds, sonth and wheat flour together.

Melt ghee in a heavy bottom kadhai or wok.

Add flour to it. Mix well.

Cook over a slow flame and continuously keep stirring, so that no lumps are found and all the  flour gets cooked evenly.

This process takes about 20-30 minutes.

Once it gets cooked, the ghee starts separating. A sweet aroma will spread in the kitchen. All the members of the household will get to know that something special and delicious is being cooked.    

Remove from stove.

Let the mixture cool completely.

Add bura / sugar powder and cardamom powder to it and mix it well.

Make small balls out of this mixture by pressing it with your palm.

These laddoos can be stored at room temperature, in an air tight container. They remain edible and will retain the taste and not get spoilt for about 5 - 6 weeks.

These laddoos have a high calorofic value. They add nutritive content for young mothers, in the post delivery period (when they require extra calories). Young children (in the fast growing up phase) will also benefit from these extra calories.