In the festival of “Nine Nights,” Hindus across the globe worship the feminine form of the Supreme. No other major religion of the world acknowledges God as part female but for Hindus, the Goddess, Shakti, is the emanating power, the essence and the creative manifestation of the Supreme Being. This unique broadness of Hinduism makes Navratri the world’s greatest festival dedicated to the Goddess. This yearly festival is celebrated for nine or ten days in the lunar month of Ashvina. Hindu women consider Navratri as a festival they can deeply connect to. Many see it as a way to commune with their own feminine divinity. A widespread practice to honor the Goddess is by inviting young girls home, feeding them and offering them new clothes and gifts.
In a ritual performed throughout India, Hindus begin the observances with the sprouting of seeds. In this ceremony, an earthen or silver pitcher is filled with water and barley seeds. The vessel is placed in the shrine room or some other honored place in the home, where the seeds will sprout over the next nine days. It is a green exuberance that displays the fertility power of the Goddess and brings blessings for a bountiful crop. A traditional deity kumbha is also prepared; this is an ornate brass pot filled with water, herbs and metals, with mango leaves and a coconut on top. The kumbha is set up to invoke the Goddess during the festival period.
Durga is worshiped as Navdurga, the one with nine manifestations, one for each day of the festival. They vary in attributes and appearance – Shailputri, daughter of the mountain; Brahmacharini, the chaste one; Chandraghanta, the fighter; Kushmanda, of many lights; Skanda Mata, mother to Lord Skanda; Katyayani, the divine daughter; Kalratri, the black one; young-looking Maha Gauri, who seems no older than eight years; and Siddhidatri, the all-powerful Siva-Shakti. Each is invoked with a special mantra. On the tenth day or Vijaya Dashami, the festival culminates in the triumph of the Goddesses over the demon Mahishasura.
Prayer ceremonies are held in homes and temples in reverence of the Goddess and are attended by large numbers of devotees. Some form of prasad/offering is always distributed to everyone at the end of each prayer session – roath being among the more common ones. Roath is a kinda deep-fried biscuit, with a thick crisp crust and a soft chewy interior, made out of very basic ingredients. I’m not sure about the spelling so please correct me if I’m wrong. The recipe is from my mum who makes the best one I know so far.
‘ROATH’
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup full cream milk powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
75 g pure ghee, melted
120 ml cold water
1 tbs anise seeds
Vegetable oil, for frying
Method:
- Combine flour, milk powder, sugar and anise seeds in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre.
- Work the ghee into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the mixture looks like fine crumbs.
- Add water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture comes together as a soft sticky dough.
- Leave dough to stand for 15 minutes before dividing into 10 balls. Flatten into a disc of 10 cm diameter.
- Heat oil in a deep pan and cook in batches of 2 to 3 over lowest heat until dark brown in colour.
- Flip over and cook on the other side. Drain well on absorbent paper and cool to room temperature.
- Store in an airtight container for 2-3 days. Makes 10 pieces.
Milk laddoos are always there on the puja thali next to semolina halwa and roath. They are a childhood favourite of mine and I remember asking for seconds whenever we were given offerings to take home. Laddoo blanc/white laddoo, as we called them back then, are very, very easy to make. Once again, the recipe is from my mother who cooks and bakes without kitchen scales. So I had to go around measuring everything [Thank God, there were only three ingredients!] before I could post the recipe on the blog.
MILK LADDOO
Ingredients:
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup cold water
1/2 cup + 2 tbs milk powder
5 cardamom pods, crushed
1 tbs pure ghee, melted
Method:
- Place water and sugar in a heavy based saucepan and cook over low heat until sugar dissolves.
- Cook until syrup reaches the one-string consistency – it forms a thin thread when lifted by a spoon.
- At this point, add milk powder and stir vigourouly until mixture becomes thick and sticky.
- Add ghee and cook over low heat, stirring continously, until mixture forms a ball and leaves sides of pan.
- Remove from heat immediately and dump into a greased dish. Add cardamom and knead to form a smooth mixture.
- Shape into balls. Dip your fingers in water as you work to give them a glossy finish and leave out to air dry.
- You will need to work quickly as the mixture will solidify pretty fast. If it does, sprinkle cold water over and knead again.
34 comments
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October 22, 2012 at 5:38 pm
Tushal
hi prerrna can u plz tell me how do you make ur laddoos ‘shiny’?
October 23, 2012 at 12:53 pm
prerrnamirchi
hi tushal u simply have to grease ur hands with a bit of ghee before you roll the dough into laddoos to give them that extra shine 😉
October 23, 2012 at 8:05 pm
Juhi
Hi Prerna, Milk laddoos is my favourite. I remember whenever I attended Durga Puja at my relatives and friends place, I would always look for the milk ladoos! Mo ti pe bien entonner!!!
November 20, 2012 at 9:55 pm
anousha
hi there r u sure u use anni seeds its not fennel seeds that u use to make roath
November 21, 2012 at 2:55 pm
prerrnamirchi
hi anousha i’m not sure about the english name. it’s actually “gros anis” that goes in the making, dunno how it translates to u.
December 12, 2012 at 8:18 pm
Nisha
Fennel seed is the english name for “gros anis”. Finally figured it out after years of living in Canada. Will try to make mini versions of these for a Christmas party. I have never made Mauritian sweets before so I hope these work out. Will let you know. Thanks for the wonderful recipes.
December 14, 2012 at 2:28 am
prerrnamirchi
hi nisha, hope they turn out as per ur expectations [though i’d recommend napolitaines for a christmas party] 🙂
September 28, 2013 at 12:09 am
Medha
Hi i was looking for this recipe everywhere.Thank you for that
September 28, 2013 at 4:00 am
Medha
What if we dont have milk powder?
September 28, 2013 at 7:57 pm
prerrnamirchi
I have never tried the recipe with alternatives, will let u know if I do..
November 15, 2013 at 12:47 pm
axelle
can we use caster sugar??
November 15, 2013 at 5:22 pm
prerrnamirchi
hello axelle, you can go ahead with caster sugar but i’m not so sure about the brown sugar!
May 6, 2014 at 7:30 am
Gavnisha
had tried with brown sugar….the laddoo become brown…better use white sugar
May 11, 2014 at 2:03 pm
prerrnamirchi
haha of course it would have turned brown 😀
November 15, 2013 at 3:14 pm
dorine
can we use brown sugar??
May 6, 2014 at 7:47 am
Gavnisha
hi..i had done laddoo recipe..1 cup sugar for 1 1/2 cup water with no ghee…same procedure as your recipe…n the laddoo turn out to be soft…will surely try ur laddoo recipe.
May 11, 2014 at 2:00 pm
prerrnamirchi
hi gavnisha, maybe u did not reach the one strand consistency for the sugar syrup. ideally the sugar to water ratio should be 2:1, therefore 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup water. hope u have better luck next time 🙂
May 12, 2014 at 8:48 am
Gavnisha
thx this time will follow ur recipe and advice.thx
September 24, 2014 at 12:56 pm
jenny
Thank u ur recipe mean a lot to me.
JENNY
September 27, 2014 at 5:11 pm
sarekha ghumaria
Thank you for this recipes… tomorrow I’ll charao kheer puri and my sons’ demands in advance laddoo blanc… last time i did it was too runny, this time i’ll follow your method hopefully i’ll do it right 😀
September 30, 2014 at 7:36 pm
prerrnamirchi
wish u all the best sarekha 🙂
October 2, 2014 at 10:02 am
NUNDANEE REEBYE
hi thanks for recipes. For the laddoo blanc, instead of using power milk, I used the (liquid milk – 1 cup) and taste awesome. But it is a very difficult procedure and at times the laddoo turns to be brown and by luck at times it turn out white
October 9, 2014 at 3:15 pm
prerrnamirchi
must be really brave to try this with liquid milk :p
May 7, 2015 at 6:24 am
Karuna
Do you knw the version of milk Ladoo that’s more hard in texture . Not cheese consistency or chewy. I remember growing up I would patiently wait for Prashaad during navratri, and make sure I get more than one Ladoo if possible . I’ll try the roat soon and let you knw how it came out .
Thanks
May 27, 2015 at 9:22 pm
prerrnamirchi
Hi you can make it of harder consistency by getting the sugar syrup to crystalise more and leaving the laddoos to dry overnight.
June 8, 2015 at 1:49 pm
diya
hi.prerna. can you tell me this quantity of ingredients you used. how many laddoo do you get?
June 15, 2015 at 3:24 am
prerrnamirchi
hi diya I think it should yield about 12-15 laddoos
September 2, 2015 at 8:44 am
Divyesh Ramdawor
Dear Prernamrichi. Thank you very much for this recipe. Aruna
September 5, 2015 at 8:42 pm
prerrnamirchi
u’re welcome dear!
July 26, 2016 at 6:03 pm
Artee artee
Hi prerna i made the ladoos yesterday it came out very hard.. why that? I have followed all the steps
August 24, 2016 at 6:15 pm
prerrnamirchi
Hello I think u must have cooked the syrup too much causing it too thicken beyond the 1-string consistency.
June 4, 2018 at 7:51 am
Vamia Roy
Wonderful recipe…..
June 4, 2018 at 7:52 am
Vamia Roy
I really appreciate the way the ladoo has been made, mouth watering….
August 10, 2018 at 7:18 am
prerrnamirchi
Thank you Vamia!