Why laddoos are the ideal winter sweet

It started with an allergy. Being rushed to the hospital as a five-year-old with a swollen face and hives was petrifying, but realising besan laddoos were now off limits left one dejected. Motichoor and boondi laddoos weren't up the alley, and while rava laddoos seemed more fillers than sweetmeats, the delectable coconut and til variants weren't as common as their cousins.

Milestones, everyday indulgences and festivities without besan laddoos were like Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce. Or so one thought, until the day mother opened a dabba of laddoos that tasted even better than they smelled.

Besan? Who needed besan?

“Did you know those are for pregnant women?” a school friend would balk, underlining the second-to-last word with a hiss. If most reactions were anything to go by, one's newfound discovery was the epitome of uncool.

But the Maharashtrian dinkache laadu – gond ke laddoo in north India and antinunde as Kannadigas call it – never failed to hit the sweet spot for its complex texture, which surpassed those of its popular cousins. Each bite offered the gooeyness of dink (edible gum or gum Arabica) and jaggery syrup, the crunchiness of kopra (roasted, grated coconut) and a bevy of dry fruits – almonds, cashews, raisins, dried figs and kharik (dried dates) – tempered with desi ghee and a hint of spice (elaichi and nutmeg powder).

Although labelled 'pregnant woman food' due to its galactagogue or breast milk-facilitating properties, dinkache laadu is a great winter go-to, outlines food historian Pushpesh Pant. Dink or gond, he says, is cited in Ayurvedic pharmacopeia texts as a satvik, heat-generating tonic and galactagogue. “The satvik connection is because gond, a resin, is kosher and can be had on fasting days,” says Pant. “Gond is also used in panjiri laddoo, which too is recommended to lactating mothers. But the laddoos themselves weren't mentioned in ancient texts. They're just vehicles to deliver recommended ingredients in palatable ways.”

Other texts like the Bhaishajya Ratnavali also point to edible gum's cleansing properties, says Ayurvedic dietician Dr. Kaustubh Gadre. “Dink provides mucilage and aids food passage through the gut. Everything in the laddoo is beneficial: dry fruits offer energy and fibre. The coconut and ghee, lubrication for the bones. And jaggery generates heat.”

It's believed that dinkache laadus are heavy on the stomach (true), but Gadre feels there's no problem having it everyday, as long as it's had in the morning on an empty stomach. “And not more than one”, he laughs.

The specialists
Mango barfis and bhaakarwadis may be Chitale Bandhu's claim to fame. But the dinkache laadu in Pune's landmark 76-year-old establishment isn't far behind either.It has had loyalists throughout generations, and much of this has to do with the late Mangala Chitale, who oversaw the recipe herself.The dinkache laadu here, as in most sweet shops today, is available year-round. But sales peak between November-March, shares Mangala's grandson Chitale, third-generation partner at Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale.

“Dinkache laadu is typically south Maharashtrian, which explains the coconut,” shares Chitale. “It was also a meal-on-the-go since it provided enough energy for three-four hours – way before energy bars and drinks came into the picture.”

Apart from the coconut, dinkache laadu differs from gond ke laddoo in terms of preparation. While many in the north soak gond overnight in ghee, in Maharashtra, the gum is roasted before being coarsely, rather than finely, ground. This gives the sweet a texture Chitale describes as 'khushkhushi' – a balance between soft and crispy. “If you fry the gum too much or not enough, you won’t get this texture,” he points out.

Until a few years ago, the Chitales had employees who specialised in making dinkache laadus, because the jaggery syrup used to make them “has to be of the perfect consistency”. But due to increased demand and consumption, a decision was made to automate the process, using a machine imported from Germany for the purpose.

Winter sweets, out in the cold
Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale may be selling many dinkache laadus, but in north India, there are few takers for gond ke laddoo, says Pant. “There aren’t enough customers, even in winters. I've had gond ki barfi only from a halwai called Bhagatji, who has small shops in Dehradun and Delhi and makes these as 'specialty items'.”

Sweets like these, he adds, are rustic and considered 'lowbrow' and plebeian by many. Citing increasingly-rare winter sweets like the habshi (milk), kali gajar, khus khus (poppy seed) and jauzi (wheat sprout) halwas and the panjiri laddoo, sugarcane kheer and lasan (garlic) kheer, he adds: “We’ve become too Anglicised and Frenchified. We now want rasgullas descontructed and gulab jamuns chocolate-topped.”

Goregaon-based homemaker Vijaya Pawar, who, like many Maharashtrian women, prefers her dinkache laadu homemade, also bemoans the difficulty in getting people to consume such sweets. Readying to make this year's batch of laddoos, she harks back to when her mother would send a dabba everyday after she'd given birth. People these days are too paranoid about fats to even consider their merits, she says. Referring to her own household, she adds: “Now I make more methi ke laddoo than dinkache laadu. Kamar ke liye achcha hota hai na, isliye.”