Sweet Boondi / Sweet crunchy petite balls

In my house, almost all of us will first go for any hot and spicy eatables rather any sweet stuff. My kids are now only starting to like some of the Indian sweets and are willing to try them out.

For that reason, I usually prepare spicy snacks more than sweet ones.
When I was making sweets for Diwali, I wanted to make something which would be easy and also easy to eat and something which they already know kind of thing....

I am sure we all know and have eaten sweet Boondi at one point of time in our life but the kids probably only know Boondi Ladoo and not the simple version which is the sweet Boondi.

That's the reason I went on to make Sweet boondi and it is very easy to make and takes about an hour from start to finish.
The sweetness and aroma of the saffron strands and cardamom powder makes this a very tempting and addictive snack.
This is also sometimes served as naivedyam and prasadam in Temples. So what are you waiting for, go ahead and try it out!

Required: a Boondi Ladle
Ingredients:

1 cup besan
1 cup rice flour
pinch of baking soda
warm water to make into batter

Oil for deep frying

1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
pinch of saffron strands
pinch of elaichi

2 tbsp golden raisins
2 tbsp cashews or cashew halves
ghee for roasting the cashews and raisins


Method:

Mix the ingredients together with some warm water into a thick batter.

When oil is hot enough, Use the regular ladle to spoon some batter onto the boondi ladle.

Use the regular ladle to make circular motions on the Boondi ladle so that the batter drops as balls into the oil.

The batter, when in oil, will puff up into balls. Fry for minute, not till they are totally crunchy or brown.

Remove onto paper napkin. Make all the boondi with the rest of the batter.

Make sugar syrup in a wide pan with the sugar and water. Let it boil until it comes to one string consistency. Add the cardamom powder and few strands of saffron.

Add the Boondi and mix well to get all of them coated. They also absorb the syrup and become dry when cooled.

Fry the cashew pieces and raisins in a bit of ghee to golden brown and add to the sweet boondi.

Note: Refer to the post Spicy Boondi on how to make the boondi.