SUNNUNDALU

A quintessential winter delight, indulgent and nutritious urad dal laddu.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

Total Time40

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: Andhra, Indian, Telugu

Keyword: Gluten free, healthy snacks, Vegetarian

Author: Shravani Abhishek

Wash the urad dal in a colander under cold running water, and keep rinsing until the water runs clear.
Now drain the water completely, and spread a thick cotton cloth/ clean bedsheet (2*2 feet or big enough for the dal to spread evenly).
Now transfer the washed rice on the thick cotton cloth and spread the urad dal evenly, leave for 10-15 mins until dal dries out completely.

Measure the jaggery powder/jaggery cube and if you are using the soft jaggery cube, grate it and keep it ready.
If you are adding cardamom, then take the seeds out of cardamom pods and pound to a fine powder.

Heat a thick bottomed skillet/wide pan, and bring it to high heat. Then reduce the heat to low.
Now divide the urad dal into smaller portions to roast, and one portion at a time and roast on low flame until it turns caramel brown.
Note : If you're using whole urad dal/urad dal with skin on, then it might be difficult to notice the change color, so go by the aroma instead. When the urad dal roasts enough, it leaves a nice nutty aroma.
Transfer the roasted nutty urad dal to a wide plate and let it cool down.
Repeat the roasting urad dal until you have finished roasting all the portions. And keep the roasted dal aside on a plate.
Now add the raw rice to the skillet and roast for 5 mins. Transfer the cooled down roasted urad dal to a blender jar, add roasted rice and blend to a semi-coarse powder.
Note : You can also blend to a fine powder, but blending to a coarse consistency is recommended. As it helps in keeping the laddus crunchy and prevents the laddu from sticking to your teeth.

Heat a saucepan, add ghee and get it to a piping hot consistency.
Add the blended urad dal+rice powder, cardamom powder to a mixing bowl and mix it thoroughly.
Now add the sweetener of your choice (jaggery powder/powdered sugar/grated jaggery) into the mixing bowl, mix until everything is well combined.

Take small portion of the above sunnundalu mixture to a wide plate, and into that plate add piping hot ghee to this mixture, and be quick in mixing it and immediately start shaping laddus.
Take a handful of mixture at a time, squeeze the mixture, roll and shape tightly into balls or undalu/laddus. Keep them aside on a clean plate.
Repeat the above process for remaining sunnundalu mixture.
Let the sunnundalu/urad dal laddus dry out and harden completely, it may take around 3-4 hours.

Store the air-dried sunnundalu in a clean and dry air-tight container. These sunnundalu stay good upto a month.

If you're making a vegan version replace the ghee with nut butter, warm the nut butter slightly, and add it to the sunnundalu mixture. Roll and shape them tightly into laddus.
If you are allergic nuts and want to make a vegan version, omit the ghee and used pitted dates instead. Chop the dates roughly, and blend to a smooth paste. Later heat the dates paste in a non-stick pan and cook until it turns glossy and smooth, add this dates paste to the sunnundalu mixture and roll into laddus. Here make sure to reduce the amount of jaggery/sugar.
You can make a huge batch of sunnundalu mixture and store in freezer upto 6 months, take small amount of mixture and add ghee/nut butter/dates paste and roll them into laddus.