Maaladdu or maalaadoo or maladu or pottukadalai laddoo is one of the easiest no cook recipes for Indian sweets, out there! Growing up, this was made for any and every occasion and in spite of that it remained all our favorite laddoo ever. It still is. My paatti and her sister were known in the little town they lived for the most tastiest maladus made. My paatti always told me that the secret was not skimping on the ingredients. Use the best of the ingredients – fresh dal (not something you found in the corner of your pantry from the last time you made this), enough sugar, real homemade ghee and not dalda (a kind of margarine type fat that was very popular in those times) and freshly ground cardamom. She said that you get what you put in it and would proudly say that it was the reason why her laddoos were better than others

There are so many memories attached to this simple sweet ball of goodness. I was my paatti’s sous chef to help make these balls once she had carefully poured out all the ingredients into the mixing bowl. Paatti taught me how to scoop up enough of the mixture, how to roll them between your palms with just enough pressure so that they would bind together but not break from the pressure. She would talk, gossip and we would laugh as we sat on the kitchen floor making this. Making a mental note to do this again the next time I visit her.

Maaladdu ~ Roasted Gram Laddoo – The Recipe

Ingredients

Dahlia / Pottu kadalai / Roasted Gram Dal – 2 cups
Sugar – 1 1/4 cup
Ghee – 3/4 cup
Cardamom – 4 or 5 pods
Cashew nuts – 5
Golden Raisins – 5

Instructions

Grind the dahlia in the food processor or mixer to form a fine powder. Grind the sugar along with the seeds from the cardamom pod to a fine powder.
Mix the dahlia powder and sugar + cardamom powder in a mixing bowl.
Break the cashew nuts to small pieces using your hands.
Heat 1 tbsp of ghee and add the cashew nut pieces and raisins to it. Heat till the cashews turn slightly brown and the raisins swell up.
Pour this into the mixing bowl as well.
Add the remaining ghee little by little and keep mixing as you add till you are able to hold some of the mixture firmly in your hand and it stays and does not crumble.
At this point the laddoos are structurally done. You can add more ghee to make it richer and tastier.
Make key lime size balls our of the mixture till all of the mixture is used up.
Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks or so.