Hard-pressed for time and looking for quick and easy sweet, mithai or dessert recipe for festive occasions? Try our Gluten Free Almond Flour Ladoo or Badam Laddu recipe that satisfies those instant sweet cravings and doubles up as a healthy after school snack for kids.
Almond Flour Ladoo or Badam Laddu is an easy Dessert Recipe that uses few ingredients. Made with Gluten-Free Almond flour, this dessert contains no refined sugar and is made with just 5 Ingredients.
With festive season around the corner in India, I am sharing easy, effortless mithai or sweet recipes that balances both health without taking up too much of your time in the kitchen.
There is no boiling of sugar involved, no one string consistency hassles. You can dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix well, shape ladoos and immediately enjoy them.
Best part about this recipe is that you don't need to be an expert. Amateur cooks and Experts can both excel in making this dessert with equal ease.
This Laddu recipe or Almond Balls is one of the quickest ways to satisfy those urgent sweet cravings. They are kid friendly and you can serve them as after school snack or pack them in their lunch boxes as a healthy treat (unless allergic to nuts)
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What is Ladoo or Laddu?
Laddu or Ladoo is a traditional Indian Mithai, Sweet or Dessert primarily made with flour, ghee and sugar.
Gram Flour (Chickpea Flour) and Semolina are most common ingredients used for making ladoo.
They are round shaped sweet balls that are served for all festive and auspicious occasions in India. Be it Raksha Bandhan, Diwali, Navratri, making ladoo is mandatory.
Ladoos are sweetened with sugar and/or jaggery. They are loaded with nuts, ghee (clarified butter) and saffron. They also contain warm spices or aromatics like cardamom powder and nutmeg.
Over the years, we have reduced our dependency on white / refined sugar and have switched to alternatives like Jaggery, Dates etc to satisfy sweet cravings.
Blanched Almonds Flour
We have used Blanched Almond Flour for Almond Ladoo Recipe.
Blanching simply means removing the skin of the Almonds. The almonds are ground to obtain "flour like texture"
Almond Flour is naturally gluten-free in nature.
Almond Flour is used for baking Gluten Free Breads, cakes, muffins, pancakes and waffles. It is used largely by folks following a Keto Diet.
Please note that this is not a Keto Recipe as it does not use a keto friendly sweetener.
Blanched Almond Flour has a lighter texture as compared to the unblanched variety.
Our Vegan Mushroom Soup recipe uses Almond Flour to thicken the soup instead of flour.
You can make Almond Flour at home or use store bought ready to use flour for the recipe. I have used store bought flour that saves time + effort for busy festive occasions.
How to Store Almond Flour
It is best to store Almond Flour in an airtight container. Store it in a cool, dry place, away from direct heat. Since almonds contain oil, heat tends to make the flour smell or turn rancid.
I highly recommend storing the flour in the refrigerator and/or freezer for long shelf life.
If freezing the flour, thaw it overnight in the refrigerator or on kitchen counter until its turned room temperature especially for baking recipes.
Step-wise Almond Ladoo recipe using blanched almond flour
STEP 1 - Dry Roast Almond Flour for a couple of minutes. It is to remove excess moisture. Do not brown it. Once the almond flour is warm, switch off heat.
STEP 2 - Add the almond flour to the mixer grinder jar along with powdered jaggery, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder.
STEP 1 STEP 2
STEP 3 - Do not grind for long (almond releases oil). Pulse for few seconds only
STEP 4 - Add to a bowl. Slowly add ghee and mix.
STEP 3 STEP 4
STEP 5 & 6 - If the ladoo doesn't hold shape, add more ghee until it resembles a round ball.
STEP 5 STEP 6
Recipe Notes / Tips
- Use powdered jaggery for best results. If using block jaggery, chop it well using a knife.
- Pulsing the ladoo mixture is optional. I find this quite useful as it mixes everything evenly, especially when using jaggery.
- Always taste check your jaggery and add more or less, as required. Some jaggery variety tastes sweeter and you might not require the quantity as mentioned in the recipe card.
- Add ghee slowly, shape and add extra, if required. I have used melted ghee for the recipe.
- The Recipe yields 6 ladoos. Store the ladoo in airtight container. It stays fresh for more than a week.
Indian Sweets Recipes for Festive Occasions
Aval Kesari - Gluten Free Quick Dessert made with Poha or Flattened Rice for Janmashtami or Krishna Jayanti
Banana Sheera - Semolina Pudding made with ripe banana and nuts for Satya Narayan Pooja during the month of Shravan
Nei Appam - Kerala's traditional sweet recipe made with rice, jaggery, banana and cooked in ghee.
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Almond Flour Ladoo | Badam Laddu
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almond Flour Blanched Almond Flour used
- 1/3 cup Powdered Jaggery
- 1/8 tsp Green Cardamom Powder
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg Powder
- 2 ½ tbsp Ghee melted ghee used
1 cup is 250ml, 1 tbsp 15ml, 1 tsp 5 ml
Instructions
- Heat a pan, add 1 cup almond flour and saute for a couple of seconds until the flour is warm. Do not Roast the flour. Note - This is an optional step but ensures there is no moisture from the flour that compromises shelf life.
- Switch off the heat, transfer the almond flour to a mixer grinder jar and set aside for cooling.
- Once cool, add 1/3 cup of powdered jaggery, cardamom powder and nutmeg powder into the jar and pulse it for a couple of times until all the ingredients have mixed well.
- Remove the mixture on to a bowl, slowly add 1 tbsp of ghee at a time, mix well using hands and try to shape the ladoos. If the ladoo breaks or does not hold shape, add more ghee.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Use powdered jaggery for best results. If using block jaggery, chop it well using a knife.
- Powdered sugar can be used instead of jaggery.
- I have not tried any other sugar substitutes like dates, honey or maple syrup for this recipe.
- Pulsing the ladoo mixture is optional. I find this quite useful as it mixes everything evenly, especially when using jaggery.
- Always taste check your jaggery and add more or less, as required. Some jaggery variety tastes sweeter and you might not require the quantity as mentioned in the recipe.
- Add ghee slowly, shape and add extra, if required. Melted ghee is used for the recipe.
- The Recipe yields 6 ladoos. It can be easily doubled, based on consumption. Store the ladoo in airtight container. It stays fresh for more than a week.
- The Recipe is gluten-free. It contains ghee which can be easily replaced with coconut oil for a Vegan Recipe.
- Please note that this is not a Keto Recipe as it does not use a keto friendly sugar substitute or sweetener. I have not tried any of the Keto substitutes so will not be able to provide exact measurements.
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We will be back again with yet another exciting recipe .. Until then, stay healthy and happy!
Vidya Narayan
Hi .
Tried ur recipe with stevia .. taste is good but the laddoos are so soft that they are not holding shape.. pls help me out
Hi Dolly,
Firstly, this recipe wasn't tested for sugar / stevia hence substituting ingredients will not lead to accurate results. I have mentioned in the recipe notes that this recipe wasn't tested with any of the sugar substitutes. Jaggery is used because it binds the almond flour with ghee. Try to increase the quantity of almond flour by 1/2 cup and use extra ghee for binding. I am not certain this will work 100% and the ladoo will have soft texture. Thank you for trying the recipe!