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The harvest festival of Punjab, Lohri, is all about sitting with friends and family circling the holy fire. With folk songs and dances, the only thing that completes the festival is traditional dishes and desserts. While sarson ka saag or pindi chana are usually savoured for a hearty meal, til ke laddu always steals the spotlight.
Made with sesame seeds and jaggery, til ke laddu offer you the warmth and energy required on a cold winter night. But just like every other recipe, mastering a dessert requires practice and precision. To make sure that you don’t repeat some common mistakes, here are some tips to help you make the softest laddus.
Picking Ingredients
The key components to make til ke laddu are sesame seeds (til), jaggery (gud), and clarified butter (ghee). Always use the highest quality ingredients to ensure you get the best taste and flavour. When it comes to sesame seeds, choose fresh and white ones that are clean and have a nutty fragrance. As for gud, pick the soft and organic pieces. Lastly, if possible, use homemade ghee to ensure purity.
Roasting Til
Once you have all the ingredients, the next important step is to roast the sesame seeds. To roast them flawlessly, you can simply take a heavy-bottomed pan and heat some ghee on medium flame. Then, add the sesame seeds and keep stirring to prevent burning. Another handy tip is to turn off the heat once the colour changes to golden brown, as over-roasted sesame seeds will have a bitter taste.
Making Jaggery Syrup
Getting a grip on the consistency of the jaggery syrup can help you master the texture of the til laddus. You can start by chopping the gud into small pieces so that they melt quickly. You can then take some water and melt the jaggery on low flame. Don’t forget to continuously stir till you get a sticky and consistent mixture.
Temperatures For Mixing
The key to achieving soft laddus that also won’t break on the first bite is to mix all the ingredients when they are warm. Both the roasted til and the jaggery syrup should be warm, and it will also take you less time to shape it into balls.
Shaping The Laddus
Once you get a well-combined mixture, the next step would be the most therapeutic. All you need to do is take small portions of the mixture and make small balls. To do so smoothly, you must first moisten your hands before rolling so that the mixture is not hardened before it is round.
Experimenting With Flavours
Even though the process of making traditional til ke laddu ends here, you can always take it a step further by adding flavours. You can try to incorporate spices like cardamom powder or also add chopped nuts like almonds, cashew nuts, or dates.
