Sunnundalu

Sunnunda... If you aren't from Andhra, you might not know what I am talking about. Sunnundalu are one of the most-made all-purpose, storage-friendly sweets made in South India. Just one week away from the Christmas break, I know I need to stock up on comfort food, and having just made fresh ghee, it seemed obvious that the urad dal ladoo's are the easiest things to make.

Ingredients:
Makes 65 medium sized sunnundalu:
Urad dal: 4 cups (minapappu)
Ghee: 1 cup
Powdered sugar: 5 cups




Method:
Layer the urad dal on a cookie sheet and bake at 300F for 20 minutes, mixing occasionally. If you cannot use an oven, dry roast the dal in a large skillet till the dal turns brown.... it smells wonderful at this point.
Let the urad dal cool. Grind dal to fine powder.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the 1 cup urad dal powder, 1.25 cups powdered sugar and heated ghee.
Shape into round balls. Store in an air tight box.




Tips: The longer you take to make each sunnunda, the smoother it is, and the firmer it is. (Won't crack or become powdery.)
Use more hot ghee if it becomes difficult to shape. Once the ghee cools, it is difficult to mould.
Powdered sugar can be replaced by an equal portion of grated bellam or gur or molasses.