UradDalLaddu/Sunnundalu

Today I am going to post ‘Sunnundalu’, one of the traditional sweets of Andhra Pradesh. I loved this urad dal laddu (MinapaSunni) as a child very much but did not make this very often all these years; thinking it takes lot of ghee. I was really surprised how less ghee it takes. For the first time I also realized why my grandmother used to call this a ‘rich’ sweet – in taste, nutrition and flavour. It is very flavourful – roasted urad dal and fresh ghee combination gives out nice aroma, no deep frying is required, no closely watching for the sugar syrup consistency like lot of sweets. So, I could say this is one of the easy sweets to make. What is better than easy and tasty…give it a try!

I made this for Telugu New Year Ugadi, which fell on 29^th of march this year. I also made Tamarind rice, which is a must in almost every telugu household for all the festivals.

Sunnundalu – UradDalLaddu

1 cup of urad dal

1 cup of sugar, I used ¾ cup of regular sugar, ¼ cup of brown sugar.

About ¼ cup of ghee, melted and slightly warm.

In a pan add little bit of ghee and roast urad dal until brown. Add about 1/8 cup of rice to this and roast for one more minute. Let this cool down.

     

Grind sugar into powder along with few pods of cardamoms.

Grind urad dal into powder too; this does not need to be very fine powder. It just needs to be slightly coarse. Take them into a deep plate or a bowl. Mix well.

Add few spoons of slightly warm ghee and mix. Make a laddu like this.

Keep adding ghee little bit at a time and complete making the laddus.

Ingredients:

Urad dal                               – 1 cup

Sugar                                     – about 1 cup

Rice                                        – 1/8 cup

Ghee                                     – about ¼ cup

Cardamoms                        – few

Method:

• In a pan add little bit of ghee and roast urad dal until brown. Takes about 10 minutes on low to medium heat.
• In the same pan add rice and roast for 1 to 2 minutes. Keep this aside to cool down.
• Grind sugar into powder along with few pods of cardamoms.
• Grind urad dal, rice into powder.
• Take these powders into a deep plate or a bowl, and mix well.
• Add few spoons of slightly warm ghee, and make few balls at a time.
• Keep adding ghee little bit at a time, just enough such that laddu can be formed. Complete making the laddus.

Note:

1.  I felt this does not take as much ghee, as it seems. I feel that just enough ghee should  be added so such that the ball could be formed, it does not need to be drenched in ghee.
2. I also felt even if the laddu feels dry, reheating it in the microwave for few seconds melts the ghee and gives nice aroma and texture to the laddu.
3. Traditionally no nuts are added to this, so perfect for my kids as they are allergic to nuts. But nuts can be added if you prefer.
4. Substituting sugar with jaggery gives completely different taste, definitely worth a try. Grate the jaggery and add to the powdered urad dal. Proceed to make laddus by adding warm ghee.