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Motichoor ke ladoo are an essential for any Pakistani festivity

Motichoor ke ladoo are an essential for any Pakistani festivity

The round, yellow dessert is made from gram flour, oil, sugar, cardamom, saffron, nuts, all of which are mixed together
Updated 23 Aug, 2018

Soft and creamy, motichoor keh ladoo are one of the most sought after desserts in the garrison city.

Ladoo is a traditional Indian sweet and is mentioned in folk stories. The sweet was served to rajas and maharajas and is still one of the most popular sweets in religious functions.

The round, yellow dessert is made from gram flour, oil, sugar, cardamom, saffron and nuts all of which are mixed together.

The mix is shaped into balls and fried in butter oil before they are put in sugar syrup. The balls are garnished with pistachios and silver paper.

Many people serve ladoos at festivals and special occasions and distribute it among family and friends. Children like the sweet for the colourful toppings.

Many shops across the city offer ladoos, many of which are located along Murree Road, Saddar, Raja Bazaar and in many lanes in the city. Customers can tell if the ladoos are fresh from the taste.

“The ladoos are named motichoor keh ladoo after pearl shaped drops which come together to form a bigger drop. We have been making ladoos for 60 years and they are one of our most popular items. We use traditional recipes from our native Amritsar,” said Chaudhry Zafar, owner of Sweet Palace.

“He said vegetable oil was used for frying ladoos in his shop. “Our ladoos taste better because of the good quality of ingredients,” he said.

He said chefs trained in making traditional sweets work in the shop and that the taste is maintained according to the customer’s taste. He said no preservatives and chemicals are used so the flavour does not change.

Ladoo is a traditional sweet and is served at festivals and special occasions. — White Star
Ladoo is a traditional sweet and is served at festivals and special occasions. — White Star

A sweet shop owner at Bhabara Bazaar, Mohammad Sajjad said there are many flavours of ladoo including motichoor keh ladoo, malai ladoo, khopra ladoo and paira ladoo which is made from condensed milk.

He said people like motichoor keh ladoo best as the recipe was simple and they are not that heavy.

“I have always loved ladoos because they are soft and sweet and I still like them. Ladoos and jalebi could be found in every house when we were children,” said Raja Jehandad Khan, former vice president Rawalpindi Cantonment Board.

You would always want to buy ladoos when you saw them arranged in the displays in sweet shops and they would have colourful toppings with nuts, he said.

A customer at a sweet shop in Westridge, Ahmad Malik said ladoo is one of the most popular deserts and is served in most functions.

“The sweet is deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup like jalebi and gulab jamun,” he said.

“I used to love ladoo and gulab jamun when I was a child. I can point you towards the best shops in the twin cities which make the best ladoos because I have tried them all,” said Hassan Qureshi, a resident of Chaklala Scheme III.

He added that he cannot resist buying the desert when he visits a sweet shop, as the ladoos melt in your mouth.

“The dairy products used in the recipe are good for children and the elderly and it is best had after a spicy meal,” he said.

Originally published in Dawn, June 26th, 2017

Comments

INDIAN Muslim Jun 26, 2017 12:42pm
Lots of sweet "laddoo" love from us Muslims in India. We love Pakistan and never hide it. Eid Mubarak bhai jan and double congrats on the great victory! :)
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syed ahmed Jun 26, 2017 01:03pm
Mouth watering article.
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skumar Jun 26, 2017 01:04pm
Eid Mubarak to all our friends , brothers, sisters - in pakistan . Motichoor laddu is my kids favourite sweet especially my daughter . When it melts in mouth it is just awesome. It is a must for any festival
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wellwisher Jun 26, 2017 01:20pm
mouth watering
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only Jun 26, 2017 02:03pm
Biryani swapped with laddoo...
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SGH Jun 26, 2017 05:29pm
@INDIAN Muslim . Eid Mubarak to you and your family. Thank you for your friendly words. I pray for peace between our two countries.
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Ali Sabir Aug 23, 2018 05:47pm
A tasty treat. Now I am hungry. Will not tell you how many I can eat.
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AKB Aug 23, 2018 06:19pm
Every 6th person is a patient of Blood Pressure and Sugar ailment is also on the constant rise in the country so under the prevailing health conditions who will eat these ladoos or sweets. Any how Eid Mubarak to every one.
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Babu Aug 23, 2018 06:31pm
Laddoo is a traditional Indian Sweet, liked all over the world, have many varieties too.
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Rev. Eldrick Lal Aug 23, 2018 07:03pm
My favorite dessert.
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Syed Hafeez Imran Aug 23, 2018 07:18pm
The writer is confusing two different types of laddoos- Beasn and Moti choor. While both are made from Beysan the preparation, appearance and taste is different
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Vidyut Bharadwaj Aug 23, 2018 10:20pm
It is nice to know that Hindu sweets motichoor ke laddoo are popular in Pakistan too.
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Shahzad Aug 24, 2018 12:08am
@Vidyut Bharadwaj its not a hindu or Muslim sweet. It's a sweet belonging to this subcontinent. I dont think food items have a religion so expand your little brain a bit with this common knowledge.
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JA-Australia Aug 24, 2018 02:40am
We used to special order saffron-pistachio pairas from Bohra Bazaar in Karachi. The mass produced store bought pairas don't do justice to the authentic original.
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Socrates Aug 24, 2018 08:19am
These sweets do not make a healthy dessert, especially the ones prepared in Pakistan, for reasons of a lack of cleanliness in kitchens of sweets shops, untidiness of those who prepare these sweets, sugar, poor quality oil, margarine etc. If one still ventures into enjoying these sweets despite knowing the unhealthy facts, one realizes that Luddoos are almost extinct in sweet shops in Islamabad. I have not seen Luddoos anywhere in any major known sweet shop in the capital. Barfi has instead become widely available, which is still a more unhealthy choice because of its ingredients, especially Milk which is collected from open sources and may contain all conceivable impurities.
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Vikash Karmani Aug 24, 2018 08:25am
Yes! It’s a traditional dessert and everyone loves to eat it in any occasion.
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Adnan 2 Aug 24, 2018 08:27am
Ladoo is Pakistani food not Indian food.
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RationalBabu Aug 24, 2018 11:24pm
@Adnan 2 : Your innocence and ignorance is so sweet!
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Socrates Aug 25, 2018 08:14am
@Adnan 2 : Who told you that Laddoo is a Pakistani food and not an Indian one? Laddoo is originally Indian. Please do not show your bias in everything you say.
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Socrates Aug 25, 2018 08:44am
@Shahzad : Laddoos are a sweet of Indian origin. Indians make Laddoos from over a dozen tupes of seeds, not just gram flour. Please be polite when reacting. Hatred and bias have a limit. Improve your knowledge before commenting.
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Imtiaz Ali Khan Aug 27, 2018 08:21am
Please do a news on thadal in Sindh or lassi in Punjab or some our faluda from Baluchistan not to forget a new trend of Tandoor Pizza from Peshawar. So happy to see this trend growing in Pakistan Zindabad KPK family for starting this new trend. Everyone think KPK is meat only but they have some great new trend of veggie pizza for vegetarians like us in Pakistan available in tandoors along with great Afghani roti with some chai yummy :) Love you all no matter where you come from, let eat food and drink some Thadal. IndoPak Blood Brothers 4 Life!
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