Gond Ke Laddu Recipe - Traditional Winter Sweet with Jaggery & Dry Fruits

Gond ke laddoo are round sweets made from puffed edible gum (gond), roasted wheat flour, ghee, jaggery, and chopped dry fruits. 

People mostly eat this sweet in winter because edible gum and ghee help keep the body warm. You can make about 15 laddus in 45 minutes with this recipe, and you can eat them for a month if you store them in a steel dabba.

In many Indian households, people make the first batch of these sweet gond ladoos when the weather starts to turn cold, usually around Diwali. 

Grandmothers make a huge batch and serve two every morning with hot milk. This sweet is best for new mothers, growing children, and anyone with knee or back pain. 

It has a nutty, grainy, and mildly sweet taste, with a warm finish from sonth and ganthoda powders.

What Is Gond?

Gond is a natural, edible gum. This is the dried resin from the babul or kikar tree. It looks similar to small, pale crystals or stones. 

It has no taste on its own. But when you fry it in hot ghee, it puffs up like popcorn and turns light, white, and crunchy. This crunch makes the gond ke laddu special.

Gond and gond katira are completely different. When you soak gond katira in water, it turns into a soft jelly, and you use it in summer drinks. You can’t fry it, and it won’t work in this recipe.

Why You Will Love This Gond Ke Laddu Recipe

• The gond puffs properly if you follow the ghee test given in this recipe.
• You can make the entire sweet in one pan or kadhai.
• This recipe contains sonth and ganthoda powder. They give your sweet a warm winter taste.
• Binding these laddus is easy because the flour is roasted in the right amount of ghee.

List of Ingredients

This recipe makes 15 medium gond ke laddu.

Main ingredients

• ⅓ cup gond (edible gum)
• 1½ cups wheat flour
• ¾ cup ghee 
• 1 cup jaggery powder or grated jaggery

Dry fruits and seeds

• ¼ cup chopped almonds and cashews
• 2 tablespoons grated dry coconut
• 1 tablespoon white poppy seeds

For the warm winter taste

• 1 teaspoon dry ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ganthoda powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom (elaichi) powder

Step-by-Step Gond Ke Laddu Recipe

Step 1: Roast the chopped almonds and cashews in ghee

Take 1 tablespoon ghee in a heavy-bottomed kadhai. Never use a non-stick pan, because the dried gum and nuts might scratch it.

Heat the ghee over medium flame. Once heated, add the chopped almonds and cashews. Roast until light golden. 

Then add the grated dry coconut and white poppy seeds, and roast for one more minute, until aromatic. Transfer everything onto a plate.

Step 2: Fry the gond in ghee in small batches

Never forget to check the gond first. Sometimes small pieces of bark or stones get stuck to it. Throw those pieces away.

Add ½ cup more ghee into the same kadhai and heat it over medium flame. Make sure you’ve tested the ghee before adding all the gond. 

Drop one small piece of gond first. If it swells up and rises within a few seconds, the ghee is hot enough. 

If it sinks and sits at the bottom, the ghee isn’t hot enough. If the gond piece turns brown quickly, the ghee is too hot; reduce the heat.

Now add the gond in two batches. The gond must be fully coated in ghee; otherwise, it will not puff. Keep stirring. In one or two minutes, it will puff into light white pieces and soak up almost all the ghee.

Take it out on a plate and let it cool. Then crush it with a rolling pin or pulse it once in a food processor. Do not make it a fine powder. Small crunchy pieces taste better.

Step 3: Roast the wheat flour in ghee

Pour in the remaining ghee (about 3 tablespoons) into the same kadhai. Heat the ghee; once heated enough, add the wheat flour.

Roast the flour in ghee over a low-medium flame. Keep stirring the flour for 10-12 minutes. 

At the start, the flour looks pale and dry. Then it will start to loosen, turn deep golden, and start smelling like halwa. That fragrance means your atta is cooked. 

Raw atta can ruin the taste of the final dish, so never rush this step. Always taste a pinch of atta to make sure it is properly cooked and not raw.

Step 4: Mix everything

Turn off the flame. Then add the crushed, fried gond, roasted nuts, grated coconut, dry ginger powder, ganthoda powder, and cardamom powder. Mix everything well.

After that, let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes. Make sure it's warm, not hot. If you add jaggery to a very hot flour mixture, the jaggery melts, and you’ll get hard, stone-like laddus.

Finally, add the jaggery powder or chopped (melted) jaggery and mix everything with your hands or a spatula until the ghee spreads evenly. 

Taste the mixture. Adjust the jaggery amount to taste.

Step 5: Roll and shape the laddus

Take a small portion of the warm jaggery-flour mixture and press it between your fists, then roll it into a tight, round ball with your palms. A key trick is to press the mixture first, then roll it.

If your mixture feels dry and hard to roll, add 2 tablespoons of heated ghee and pour it in gradually. If the mixture feels very loose, add 2 tablespoons of roasted flour to thicken it.

Let the rolled laddus sit for an hour to harden before you store them.

Gond Ke Laddu Recipe Method Variations

Dink laddu (Maharashtrian style)

This variant of gond ke laddus is famous across Maharashtra. Add about ¼ cup of dried date powder (kharik) along with the chopped jaggery or jaggery powder at step 4. This is how mothers made this sweet in most Maharashtrian homes.

Gluten-free variant

If you’re making this ladoo for someone who’s watching gluten intake, you can use ragi flour, jowar flour, or roasted makhana powder instead of the whole wheat flour. 

These flours are drier than atta, so you might need 2 tablespoons extra ghee. Roast ragi powder carefully on low heat; it burns and turns bitter quickly.

Sugar variant 

Use about ¾ cup brown or powdered sugar. Always start with less than you think is needed, because sugar tastes sweeter than jaggery in equal amounts. Taste and adjust later.

Expert Tips To Make Perfect Gond Ke Laddu

• Never use too little ghee to fry the gond. Use enough ghee to fry the gond. Half-fried gond stays hard and sticks to the teeth.
• Always fry gond in small batches. In an overcrowded pan, some gond soaks up all the ghee at once, while others stay hard inside.
• Make sure your mixture is warm, not hot. If you add jaggery to a hot mixture, it melts, resulting in hard laddus.
• Always roast the wheat flour on a low heat. High heat quickly browns the outer layer while the inner layer remains raw.
• Add ganthoda and dry ginger powder after turning off the flame. Heat can burn off its aroma.

Serving Suggestions

• Serve one or two laddus for breakfast with a glass of plain hot milk. This is the popular way to eat this sweet in the winter.
• Pack one laddoo in a school tiffin or work lunchbox instead of a piece of biscuit.
• Serve this sweet dish as a Diwali or Makar Sankranti sweet along with a few other homemade mithai.

Storage

• These gond ke laddu stay fresh and good for a month. Transfer them to a clean, dry, airtight steel or glass jar after they cool; keep the jar at room temperature, away from moisture or steam.
• Never refrigerate these laddus. Refrigerating hardens the ghee and makes the laddus like rocks.
• Always use dry hands or a spoon while taking out the laddus.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is gond and how is it made? 

Gond is edible gum. It is the dried resin of the babul or kikar tree. They have no taste of its own. When you fry it in hot ghee, it will puff up into light, crunchy pieces. You can purchase it at kirana shops, supermarkets, Ayurvedic shops, and online.

Why did my gond ke laddu not bind? 

There are two common reasons: you added too little ghee, or your flour mixture has gone cold. 

In this case, reheat the mixture slightly, add 1-2 tbsp hot ghee, and press it in your fist before shaping.

Why are my gond ladoo hard as stone? 

This happens if you add the jaggery when the mixture is too hot, so it melts and then sets solid. Always let the mixture sit and cool for 5 minutes before adding chopped jaggery. Sometimes ghee hardens during cold weather, which is normal. You can steam it slightly to soften it.

Is gond ke laddu good for new mothers? 

These laddus are given to women after childbirth for ages. They are rich in ghee, calcium, and iron, and are known to support strength and relieve back pain. However, dry ginger and ghanthoda powder are potent ingredients, so please consult your doctor or an Ayurvedic practitioner before consuming them daily.

Can children eat gond ladoo? 

Yes. You can give these ladoos to kids over 2 years. They can eat them without any problems. You can make the pieces smaller and crush the gond finer for kids. Reduce the amount of sonth and ganthoda powder to half if you are making a batch only for children.

Is gond and gond katira the same? 

No. Gond is a dried resin from the babul tree, fried in ghee. Gond katira comes from a different plant; it is soaked in water, turns into a jelly, and is used mainly in summer drinks. You can’t swap them in recipes.

Can I use oil instead of ghee? 

Technically, it works, but you won’t get the same taste and smell, and the binding will be poorer. Ghee is the main ingredient in gond ke laddu, and its taste and texture depend entirely on it. 

How long do gond ke laddu stay fresh? 

You can store these gond ke laddoos at room temperature for a month. Transfer them to an airtight jar. Always use a dry spoon and keep the jar away from direct sunlight, moisture, and steam.

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