Til Ke Laddu Recipe (Sesame Seeds Laddu)

Til Ke Laddu in 4 ways!!! Sesame Laddu also known as Til Ladoo are traditional Indian sweet balls made with sesame seeds, jaggery and cardamom powder. These sweet balls not only taste delicious with a nutty aroma but are also rich in iron & calcium. Sesame ladoo are known by different names such as Ellu urundai, Ellu unde or Nuvvula undalu in Indian regional languages. These are most commonly made in the Indian homes during festivals like Sankranti, Ganesh Chaturthi and even Navaratri. There are numerous recipes to make til ladoo. In this post I share 4 ways to make them.

In all the 4 ladoo varieties you can substitute a part of the sesame with some roasted, skinned and roughly crushed peanuts or copra (shredded coconut).

Andhra Style Sesame Laddu

I have the first one here (picture above) which is super easy to make in less than 25 mins. It is a traditional recipe from Andhra cuisine. These sesame ladoo have a melt-in-the-mouth texture and taste extremely delicious with a unique nutty aroma.

These are also offered to the deities during festivals as naivedyam. Most Telugu speaking households also make these often for their growing kids as they are nutritious. The only tweak I made to the traditional recipe is to add some roasted peanuts for a texture & aroma.

Making these healthy & delicious balls is super easy, even for a newbie. You can make them all alone without any help.

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Til Ladoo with Jaggery Syrup

The second one is made by boiling jaggery syrup until a soft ball consistency is achieved. Then the dry roasted sesame seeds are added & rolled to small balls. These are most commonly made in many states during Sankranti festival.

As part of the festive celebrations til ladoos are exchanged among friends & relatives.

This is not a beginner’s recipe as it needs understanding the syrup consistency. Secondly the mixture has to be rolled while it is still hot. Handling the hot mixture is the most difficult part of making these ladoos.

So if you are a beginner or new to cooking then the second recipe may not be for you.

Dates Sesame Ladoo

The 3rd recipe is made with sesame seeds, cashews, cardamoms and dates. These are slightly denser in texture and are great if you want to avoid jaggery. Dates provide the sweetness and texture to these ladoos. Make sure you use softer dates like Medjool so the texture is not too dense.

Oats Sesame Ladoo

The 4th recipe is made with Oatmeal, sesame seeds, cardamoms and jaggery. These can also be made with palm jaggery or coconut jaggery. If you are looking for ideas to use oats this is one fabulous way to use them and no one will will know these are made with oats and sesame seeds.

Photo Guide

How to make Sesame Laddu (Stepwise Photos)

Roast Sesame seeds

To make recipe 1 you will use 1½ cup (195 grams) sesame seeds. If making recipe 2 you will use 150 grams seeds.

1. Add sesame seeds to a wide and heavy bottom pan. Begin to roast on a medium heat, stirring continuously until they begin to sizzle/crackle or splutter. They also turn crunchy at this stage. Do not roast them for too long or until they brown as they tend to turn bitter quickly. Transfer to a wide plate immediately.

Note: When done you will begin to get a aroma. Some sesame seeds do not splutter so do not wait for too long. Remove them when they turn crunchy.

Recipe 1 – Andhra style Sesame Seeds Ladoo

2. Roast ¼ cup peanuts on a medium heat until aromatic and golden. Cool and rub them with your hands to peel the skin. Separate the nuts and the skin. Crush the nuts gently with the base of a cup or use a mortar pestle or a rolling pin. You don’t want a powder, we are using them in broken form so they add a crunch to your sesame ladoo.

3. Reserve 2 tablespoons roasted sesame seeds in a bowl for later. Add the rest to a grinder jar or food processor.

4. Grind to a powder. Do not over blend at this stage as they begin to release oil.

5. Add ¾ cup (150 grams) grated jaggery and ½ teaspoon cardamom powder.

6. Grind until you see the mixture turns greasy and has begun to release oil. Do not over do. Take handful of this mixture to check if it binds. If not grind it again until the mixture turns warm. If you fail even then, add 1 tablespoon melted ghee. Taste test and add little more jaggery if you want.

7. Add the crushed peanuts and the reserved toasted sesame seeds we set aside. If you want you can coarsely crush the seeds gently before adding.

8. Mix well. Take small portions of this mixture and press down with your palms to bind well to form ladoo. Bind them when the mixture is still warm. If your kitchen is too cold, you may not be able to bind. In this case you can run the blender once more. You will be able to make 12 ladoos.

9. Optional step: If you want to garnish your ladoos with sesame seeds, add 1 tablespoon ghee and 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds to a wide pan. Heat it on a low flame, as soon as it is medium hot (not very hot), turn off the heat. Add the ladoos to the pan and gently swirl them to coat the seeds and ghee. Take one by one and roll them in your palms. The seeds will begin stick to the ladoos. If your pan is too hot, the jaggery will melt and the ladoos will break down. If you over toast the seeds, they will taste bitter.

Store sesame ladoos in air tight jar and use within 2 to 3 weeks.

Photo Guide

Recipe 2 – Make Til ke Laddu

2. Add 150 grams grated jaggery to the same wide pan and pour 3 tbsps water. Do not melt it straight without water. Some kinds of jaggery will burn and leave a unpleasant flavor.

3. This is optional and you may skip if you don’t prefer. When the jaggery melts completely, I filter it to another bowl to remove the dust particles. I rinse the pan and pour back the syrup here to the same pan.

4. Continue to cook the syrup stirring often. After a while it reduces in volume, turns thick & frothy. Meanwhile keep aside, a small bowl half filled with water.

5. When you think the syrup is ready, reduce the flame completely and pour a tsp of jaggery syrup to the bowl of water. The syrup should stay in there without dissolving.

6. Remove it to check the consistency. Gather the jaggery. You should have a soft ball that turns firm upon cooling. Meaning it should neither be too soft nor too hard like a brittle. This is the stage at which I removed. It was past the soft ball stage and before the brittle stage.

The inner texture of the til ke laddu will depend on this jaggery consistency. If the jaggery ball is too soft, then the ladoos will have a soft texture inside and will stick to your teeth.

If the ball is hard and breaks like a brittle then it will be dry like a chikki.

7. You have to be quick at this stage and add toasted sesame seeds. Mix well and let it cool down a bit. Meanwhile keep a wide bowl half filled with water. Dip your palms in water and scoop 1 tbsp mixture each time and begin to roll.

This isn’t an easy work. Please take care and keep immersing your hands in water to prevent burns.

You will have to finish making all the balls while the mixture is still hot. If you are unable to do it, then cook the mixture further for a min and spread on a greased plate or parchment paper. Cut while hot or warm. Cool the til ke laddu completely.

Photo Guide

Dates Sesame Ladoo

Ingredients

300 grams dates (280 grams seedless) Prefer medjool
¾ to 1 cup sesame seeds (use as needed, prefer unhulled)
¼ cup sesame seeds for rolling
¼ cup chopped cashews or roasted crushed peanuts (optional)
4 green cardamoms elaichi

How to make

Dry roast sesame seeds on a low to medium heat until they turn aromatic.

Cool them and powder along with cardamoms in a grinder.

Mash the dates well with your fingers or simply add the softened dates to the grinder & pulse a few times. I use medjool dates which are very soft so don’t prefer them to add to the blender. If not using soft or medjool dates, then chop them and saute in 1 tsp ghee or coconut oil until soft.

Then add the sesame seeds powder little by little and knead to a soft mixture for 2 mins.

Add cashews or roasted crushed peanuts and roll.

Pinch off little mixture and roll to balls.

Roll them in sesame seeds or desiccated coconut. Store dates sesame ladoo in an air tight jar.

Photo Guide

Oats Sesame Laddu

Ingredients

1 cup organic rolled oats (or instant oats)
1 cup sesame seeds
3 to 4 green cardamoms / elaichi
1 ¼ to 1 ½ cup jaggery grated / palm jaggery/ coconut palm sugar (adjust)

On a medium heat dry roast oats until lightly golden. Transfer to a plate to cool.

Toast sesame seeds on a low to medium heat until they begin to sizzle. Turn off and cool them.

Add them to a grinder.

Powder them.

Add jaggery and grind until well combined.

Taste test and adjust the sweetness. Roll to balls. Store oats sesame ladoo in a air tight jar.

Here are some tips that may help you:

Pro Tips

Choosing sesame seeds: There are 2 kinds of sesame seeds in the market. The white ones are hulled, meaning the skin has been removed. These can be used directly after roasting. The light brown or light beige ones are the unhulled sesame which are slightly bitter. The unhulled seeds are richer in flavor, taste and nutrition.

If you are using this latter variety then you will need to rinse them rubbing very well to get rid of the bitter taste. I have shared more details here.

Prepare Sesame seeds

Skip this preparation section if using white hulled sesame seeds. Unhulled sesame seeds are naturally bitter in taste so you need to rinse them and dry before roasting else your ladoos will taste bitter.

If using unhulled sesame seeds, add them to a large bowl filled with water. Rub them very well with both your hands and drain the water. You will see some amount of hull floating over the water, just drain it off.

Repeat rubbing and rinsing 3 to 4 times discarding all the hulls floating on top. Then the last time drain to the colander and spread them well to drain the water completely.

Spread & air dry the sesame seeds on a dry cloth (preferably white) until the excess moisture dries off. This just takes about 30 mins.

Jaggery or sugar?  The aroma of jaggery is great and is more nutritious. However you can also replace jaggery with sugar to make the til ke laddu or even til chikki. Refined sugar gives best results. Just melt the sugar on a very low flame until it is all liquid.

Turn off and then add a pinch of baking soda and then sesame seeds. Pour it over a parchment paper or greased plate. Cut while still warm.

Copra (dried coconut), peanuts, roasted fried gram make a wonderful combo along with sesame seeds in any dish. We usually add all of these to make different kinds of ladoos like thambittu unde.

I did not add them this time. If you prefer to use them, substitute ¼ amount of the sesame seeds in the recipe with the same amount of crushed roasted peanuts and copra. More details in the recipe card notes.

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Recipe Card

Sesame seeds ladoo recipe originally published in September 2014. Republished in January 2023