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Bajra Besan Laddoo
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Bajra Besan Laddoo

Bajra (pearl millet)FestivalNorth IndiaSweetFlour (atta)VegetarianContains dairyContains nutsContains gluten

Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min · Servings not given in the source

Make

Ingredients

  • bajra (pearl millet) flour — 100 g
  • besan (gram flour) — 50 g
  • wheat rava — 50 g
  • cardamom powder — 1 tsp
  • ghee — 50 g (for roasting, frying the dry fruits and shaping)
  • dry fruits (pistachios, almonds and cashew nuts) — 20 g
  • sugar — 100 g

Method

  1. Roast the bajra flour, the besan and the wheat rava one after another, each in a little of the ghee, until they smell toasted. Put them together in a large bowl and mix well.
  2. Warm a little more ghee in a small pan and fry the dry fruits.
  3. Add the fried dry fruits to the roasted flours and stir through.
  4. Mix in the sugar and the cardamom powder.
  5. Shape into small laddoos, using the rest of the ghee to help them hold together.

Tips

  • General practice: powdered sugar binds more evenly than granulated sugar.
  • General practice: roast on a low flame and keep stirring; besan and bajra flour burn quickly.
  • General practice: shape the laddoos while the mixture is still warm; they firm up as they cool.

Fresh atta: grind small, use soon

  • Millets keep for months as whole grain; flour is best ground as it is needed, because it turns rancid. (FAO, Sorghum and millets in human nutrition (1995))
  • Bajra changes fastest: its grain stores for months, but its milled flour has a very short shelf life. (ICAR-IIMR scientists, Food Chemistry Advances (2023) (DOI 10.1016/j.focha.2023.100190))
  • In an Indian study, untreated bajra flour stayed within the quality limit only about 2 days at room temperature. (ICAR-IARI, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2016))
  • Ragi flour keeps better than foxtail, barnyard or bajra flour (it carries less fat). (Planta (2024), review)
  • Keep atta closed and cool: bajra flour kept best in polythene and worst in gunny sacks; grains should be dry and in airtight containers. (Chaudhary & Kapoor, J Sci Food Agric (1984); ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines (2024) (DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2740351113))
  • Going off shows first as smell and taste — sour, musty or dusty, then bitter. (Lai & Varriano-Marston, Cereal Chemistry (1980))

So: buy the grain, grind a week’s worth at a time — less for bajra in summer.

Recipe from ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, Millet Recipes (2021), PDF p. 56 (printed p. 54), written in our own words.