A popular sweet from South India, Maladu is prepared from roasted gram and sugar. These are melt-in-the-mouth ladoos which can be prepared real quick.
My memories of Maladu goes back to those days when we picked them up from bakeries for Ammumma (grandma). She was fond of them and always looked forward to it. That’s how I started having them in the first place. Ammumma has always been an inspiration to me. She had a huge collection of books, including classics like Shakespeare. Whenever someone says I’m humble and grounded, I remember her fondly. When I was with her, I felt like the most special person in the world. Oh, how I miss her! Today when I told Mom that I would try to make Maladu today, she spoke of Grandma and the many memories associated with her.
Maladu or Maalaadu is one of the popular and easiest sweet dishes from South India, especially Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
Maladu or Malad is an easy sweet to prepare. It can be prepared for celebrations and festivals like Diwali. It needs only a few ingredients like roasted gram or chana dal, sugar, cardamom and ghee.
The best part is that it needs only a little ghee, unlike Besan Ladoos, i.e only for binding.
And no, Maladu is different from Besan Ladoos. The preparation is different, so is the taste and texture. Maladu isn’t sticky and is more powdery. When you take a bite, it simply melts in the mouth. Besan Ladoo is more gummy and gluey.
How to prepare Maladu?
Roast gram and powder it when it is cooled down. Powder sugar and few cardamon pods. Sift powdered gram and sugar. Melt ghee and add to the mix. Make balls when still hot. You can add fried cashews and/or raisins while making the ladoos.
Maladu Recipe:
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Maladu
- Prep Time: 0 hours
- Cook Time: 0 hours
- Total Time: 0 hours
- Yield: Makes 8 ladoos 1x
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup gram (chana dal)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 cardamon pods
- 3 tablespoon ghee
- 7–8 cashews
Instructions
- Dry roast the gram on medium heat. Do not wait for it to change color. Do not overcook.
- Let it cool down completely. Powder it finely and sieve.
- Powder sugar and cardamon pods. Sieve and mix well with the powdered gram.
- Roast cashew in a teaspoon of ghee and keep aside.
- Heat and melt remaining ghee and add to the flour-sugar mixture.
- Take on roasted cashew along and make balls/ladoos of the mixture when still hot. You can always add more hot ghee if you find you are unable to make balls.
- Consume immediately or you can store in airtight containers for upto a week.
Like it? Here are other Indian Sweets which you can prepare this Diwali!
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looks so good…visit my page too
Most of our traditions and their importance come through our grandparents only. I was also very attached to my maternal grandmother and learned so many things from her. She is alive in most of my habits.
Haven’t heard of this before but seems pretty much similar to what our laddoos look like in the north. They are mostly made of chickpea flour or semolina!
Heard this for the first time. Anything sweet and I am sold 😛
This is super yummy & easy recipe 🙂 totally mouth-watering.
The recipe looks simple but sounds mouth-watering. Now I want to try it out too!
Haven’t heard of maladu before but then I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. Los story simple though!
This is an easy to make recipe. I will try it. Also Shalini most of your recipes are very healthy.
Yummm! This is a hot favourite at home! Thank you for the recipe. This is so easy.
Thank you Shalini for your kind words. I love being here. This maladu is super easy! Can this be done with besan or I have to use roasted and powdered gram?
Thanks for sharing this recipe of sweet. Best to make this festive season. I love to make sweets at home. My kids love to eat home made sweets. Will try this one soon.
What a delicious recipe.I will try to make this.The lower ghee content is making me happy.
Yummy! My mom used to make this pretty regularly when me and my younger brother were schoolkids. This took me back to those years. Need to have it one of these days 🙂
Yet again something new! I knew chana dal is used to make besan laddu’s but this variation is more like “Sunnundalu” made from Urad dal! Will try this variation for sure!
Looks absolutely delicious, T. I think my ammuma makes it too, though we called it poruvalankaya 🙂 at least, it looks so!
Hey the making is similar to besan k laddu. Maybe I should give this a try. Your pictures always make me so hungry.
Thank you for a lovely recipe Shalzzz. As always, you make my mouth water.
Learnt something new. Since it made from roasting the gram dal and then powdering it, does it taste different from besan ka laddoo which is made from besan (powdered gram dal), though it certainly looks different from besan ka laddu!