Prepare churma ladoos this Muharram to celebrate the festival with a treat that brings people together. Churma ladoos are especially good for large gatherings as they give you the option for individual serving that is preferred when you are serving it to kids and elderly. Individual servings make the distribution less messy and easy. These churma ladoos are festive friendly and you can also have them any day and anytime you want. You can also prepare these ladoos and store them for up to a week to enjoy later, so you don’t have to worry about spoilage when you make some extra. Follow the recipe below and make delightful churma ladoo at home.
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Take a bowl and in it combine whole wheat flour with ½ cup of ghee. Rub the flour between your palms until it starts to look like breadcrumbs. The mixture should have a few big chunks of flour that look like crumbs and it should stop sticking to your hand. This is when you know that ghee is perfectly mixed. Once this is done, add water gradually and knead the mixture to a stiff dough. Do not make the dough too soft. Shape the dough into small balls or muthiyas/ Heat ½ cup of ghee in a pan and deep fry these dough balls on medium heat until it turns golden brown and crisp. Take the balls out on a paper towel and let the oil drain. Set aside to cool.
Once the balls have cooled down, smash them with your hands and break them to a coarsely ground mixture. You can also use a mortar and pestle to make the crumbs, and also you can use a rolling pin to crush the balls, there are a lot of options to make the mixture evenly crumbly.
Take a saucepan and heat 1 to 2 tablespoons of ghee in it. Add chopped nuts and toast them slightly until turned golden and brown. Once the nuts have turned brown and aromatic, add the churma, grated jaggery, and cardamom powder to the mixture. Mix everything together well on low heat until jaggery melts and blends in completely. Melted jaggery will bring the mixture together. Once the jaggery is completely mixed, turn off the heat.
While the mixture is still warm, add a splash of milk and more ghee to help with the binding. Take small portions of the mixture in your greased hands and shape it into round ladoos. You can adjust the content of milk and ghee based on how dry the mixture is. If the mixture is already sticky enough to bind, you can skip adding milk. Once you have made the ladoos, roll them in poppy seeds.
Serve these churma ladoos as a part of Muharram niyas as an offering and enjoy them as a heartfelt dessert by sharing them with family, friends, and your community.
The recipe for churma ladoos is versatile and you can make it in many different ways as per your flavor preferences. Here are a few variations you can try.