These Kesar Badam Ladoo are probably the easiest sweet you can make for the festive season. You need only 6 ingredients and 20 minutes to make them. They can also be easily made vegan and refined sugar-free!

Almond flour is one of my favorite ingredients to make Diwali sweets. It can be used in so many different ways in different recipes and is readily available in the market these days.

There’s no peeling and soaking of the almonds involved, just get the flour from the store and you are ready to make some delicious sweets for Diwali.

Couple of years back, I shared this Badam Burfi Recipe made with almond flour and it has been such a big hit ever since. You guys seem to love the convenience of it.

So, it was about time I give you guys another recipe with almond flour and this time make it even simpler. These Kesar Badam Ladoo cannot be easier to make!

Kesar=saffron and badam=almonds so these ladoos are made with almonds and flavored with saffron (hence that beautiful yellow color)!

Easy Ladoo With No Cooking (almost)!

The only cooking that you need to do for these Kesar Badam Ladoo is cooking the almond flour for a bit. We do this to get rid of that raw aroma/flavor that the almond flour has.

So, sautéing for 3 to 4 minutes in little ghee helps remove that aroma. That’s pretty much the only cooking you need to do for this recipe. These are the easiest treats you can make for a number of reasons!

• need only 6 ingredients!
• can be made in 20 minutes.
• involves very little cooking.
• can be easily customized to make it vegan or refined sugar-free.
• no sugar-syrup, zero to minimal prep-work!

Are you convinced now that it can’t get easier than this? I am sure you are, now let’s look at the ingredients.

Ingredients

They are only 6 ingredients needed to make these kesar badam ladoo.

Almond flour: you need fine almond flour for this recipe, I like using Bob’s Red Mill fine almond flour for this recipe. In the market you also get “Almond meal” which isn’t as fine as the flour. You can use it but I would not recommend it.

Powdered sugar: also known as icing sugar/confectioners sugar is used in this recipe as it mixes easily with the almond flour. Do not replace it with granulated white sugar, though you can replace with it with jaggery powder (see notes).

Ghee: We need little ghee to flavor the ladoo and also to saute the almond flour. You can replace the ghee with oil.

Milk: to make the saffron milk and to help bind the ladoos, I have used some milk in the recipe. You can use any milk of choice.

Flavorings: the ladoos are flavored with cardamom and saffron, you can also flavor them with rose water.

Step by Step Instructions

Make saffron milk before you start. Heat 1 tablespoon milk in a small pan, just warm it up, no need to boil. Once the milk is warm remove pan from heat, crush some saffron strands between your palms and add to the milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes before using in the recipe.

1- Add 1 teaspoon ghee into a pan on medium heat. Add almond flour, stir continuously and cook for around 3 to 4 minutes until it’s fragrant. We do not want to brown the flour but just want to remove the raw aroma. Remove pan from heat.

2- To a blender, transfer the pan roasted almond flour.

3- Also add powdered sugar (also known as icing sugar/confectioners sugar).

4- And the saffron milk that we had prepared earlier.

5- Add 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder.

6- And 1 tablespoon ghee. Now blend until everything is well combined. I use twister jar from blendtec which does this easily, you can also a food processor or just your hands.

7 & 8- Once everything is well combined, transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

9- Try and see if you are able to bind the mixture into ladoos, if you are unable to do so, add the remaining 1 tablespoon milk (this also makes them smoother so I usually add extra milk at this point). You may need more liquid depending on the brand of the almond flour being used.

10- Now mix everything very well with your hands.

11- Take a small portion of the mixture and press between your palm.

12- Then roll to give it a round shape like a ladoo. Make all ladoos similarly.

Storage

These kesar badam ladoo will keep well for 3 days, keep them refrigerated. They will also be good at room temperature for a day. Keep them in an airtight container.

Vegan Variation

Like I said in the beginning, these are easily customizable! If you want to make these vegan:

• replace ghee with coconut oil.
• replace milk with non-dairy milk.

It’s super easy to make them vegan with these easy swaps.

Refined-Sugar Free Option

If you want to keep these refined sugar-free:

• replace the powdered sugar with same amount of powdered jaggery.

If you do that, the ladoos will not have this yellow color anymore though. Jaggery is brown and that will make the ladoos appear brown. But if the appearance isn’t that big of a deal for you, just use the jaggery and it will still be good.

Adding Nuts

If you want to add some texture to these ladoos, you can add some chopped cashews and almonds to them too. That will give them a nice crunch.

I would recommend chopping them fine using a food processor and then use in the recipe.

Tips & Notes

• Use fine almond flour for this recipe. Almond meal that we get in the market isn’t fine (it has almonds with skin on) so even though it will work in this recipe, I would not recommend it. Flour will give it a smoother texture.
• Replace sugar with jaggery powder for a refined sugar version. But the ladoos will lose their yellow color if you do so.
• You may adjust the sweetness of this ladoo to taste. They are lightly sweetened.
• This makes 10 to 12 ladoos, it will make more if you make smaller ones.

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