Peanut Laddus

Food for me is a connecting link to my grandmother, then to my mother, to my childhood… to my past. Food is what connects us to our roots, to our past in different ways. It gives you identity, it gives you a profile of who you are, where you come from and what you become over the years.

The sweetened and scrumptious aroma of roasted peanuts, sesame, cardamom and dry ginger that fills my kitchen as I recognize, is so similar and as intoxicating to the ardent aroma coming from my mom’s kitchen whenever she prepared these ‘Peanut Laddus’ and the mind brings back to me the signs of recognition, old memories and old connection. Her love infused creations of all the traditional delightful sweets always unfailingly filled my heart, and later my tummy, with joy. I miss her a lot and her sweetmeats a big time. As kids, we would tip toe and quietly sneak into the kitchen and gobble up these Laddus. They would vanish in a single day after my mom made them.

Years have passed since, and my fascination with these traditional home made sweets continues the same way, the differences being that I now make them myself!

When you are looking for something to satisfy that sweet tooth and a quick burst of energy, the Peanut Laddus are sure to satisfy that craving. They are tasty snacks and super-easy to assemble, require practically no cooking and are so simple to make. The wholesome goodness of jaggery and the protein rich peanuts pack in quite a powerful punch!!

Laddu comes from the Sanskrit word transliterated as ‘ladduka ‘or ‘lattika’ meaning a small ball. In India, Laddus come in many varieties. A delicious Indian sweet common in every household, ‘Laddu’ is made of flour and sugar with other ingredients that vary by recipe.  Laddus are often part of the traditional recipes prepared for festivals like Sankranti, Naga Panchami, Rakhi, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali et al. or family events and celebrations such as weddings and births, or given as offering to the deities during worship in the temples.

Common flours used for Laddu include Besan (chickpea flour), Rava (wheat semolina). They can also be prepared with ground coconut, peanuts, sesame seeds, dry fruits. These are combined with sugar and other spice flavorings, cooked in ghee (clarified butter) and molded into a ball shape.

Peanut Laddu Recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups Roasted Unsalted Peanuts

2 tablespoons Sesame Seeds

¾ cup Jaggery (Jaggery is a traditional unrefined non-centrifugal whole cane sugar consumed in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean. It is a concentrated product of cane juice without separation of the molasses and crystals, and can vary from golden brown to dark brown in color)

½ teaspoon Cardamom Powder

½ teaspoon Dry Ginger Powder

Method:

1.    Arrange the peanuts on large, flat baking tray and roast the whole unsalted peanuts in the oven at 350ºF for 15 minutes until they turn golden brown and then cool.

2.     In a pan dry roast the sesame seeds till the color slightly changes to pale brown.

3.     Skin them. (An easy way to skin: Take peanuts in a large plate and gently rub the nuts with both hands. The skins would come away very easily. Now blow away the skins into the sink.)

4.     Grind the whole, roasted, unsalted peanuts without skin in a food processor Long with cardamon powder and dry ginger powder. Work in short pulses and give the peanuts a few seconds to cool between each pulse or else you’ll end up with a sticky mass.

5.      Now add jaggery and grind it coarsely (5 - 10 sec).

6.      Transfer the mixture into a bowl and add the sesame seeds.

7.      Shape the mixture into small round balls.

Makes about 24 delicious bite sized Laddus.

Enjoy them!