This air fryer motichoor laddu recipe makes soft festive sweets using a different method from traditional fried boondi. I boil balls of gram-flour dough, let them cool, grate them into fine pieces and air fry them before finishing with sugar syrup. The freshly shaped ladoos may look sticky, but their texture improves after refrigerating overnight.
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Why Use the Air Fryer?
This method avoids deep frying tiny boondi drops. The grated cooked dough is air fried in a shallow metal pan, then warmed again with syrup. Keep the pan covered with a perforated air-fryer-safe tray during both air-fryer stages to prevent overcooking. For another take on fried boondi sweets, see my kale boondi ke laddoo.
For a different flour-roasting technique, see my air fryer besan ladoo.
Ingredients
- Besan (gram flour)
- Plain flour
- Powdered sugar
- Water
- Ghee
- Baking soda
- Glucose syrup (optional; helps bind)
- Saffron food colour
- Pistachios (optional garnish)
Sugar syrup ratio: Measure the final usable air-fried boondi first. Use half that volume of powdered sugar, then half the sugar volume of water. The sugar mixed directly into the dough is separate from the syrup sugar.
How to Make Air Fryer Motichoor Laddu
Sift the ingredients
Mix the baking soda with the plain flour first, then sift it with the besan and the dough sugar.
Mix the dough
Add the ghee and water to the sifted flour mixture and mix into a smooth, thick dough.
Boil the dough balls
Shape the dough into balls and boil for 10 minutes.
Cool the dough
Remove the balls and leave to cool for about 1 hour before grating.
Grate finely
Grate the cooled dough into fine boondi-like crumbs.
First air-fryer cook
Spread in a shallow pan, keep covered with a perforated air-fryer-safe tray throughout cooking to prevent overcooking, and air fry at 140°C for 15 minutes. Add ghee after 10 minutes. Discard any hard pieces.
Mix the syrup ingredients
Measure the usable cooked boondi. For every 1 cup, use ½ cup powdered sugar and ¼ cup water. Add saffron food colour; glucose syrup is optional but helps bind the ladoos. Scale the syrup ratio to your cooked batch.
Combine with the cooked crumbs
Mix the syrup ingredients with the cooked boondi until evenly coated.
Cook the syrup mixture
Keep the pan covered with a perforated air-fryer-safe tray throughout the second air-fryer stage to prevent overcooking. Cook at 140°C for 10 minutes.
Shape the ladoos
Let the mixture become comfortable to handle, then form around 12 small ladoos. Refrigerate; the initially sticky texture improves by the next day.
Variations and Substitutions
Use neutral oil in place of ghee if preferred. Saffron food colour can be adjusted or left out. Pistachio garnish is optional. Cardamom was not used in this version. Find more recipes in my air fryer Indian sweets collection.
Recipe Card
The editable recipe card contains the complete measured dough ingredients, a syrup ratio based on the cooked boondi, and the tested cooking times.
Air Fryer Motichoor Laddu
Ingredients
For the dough
- 2 cups besan (gram flour)
- ½ cup plain flour
- ¼ cup powdered sugar for dough
- ⅔ cup water for dough
- 2 tablespoon ghee plus ghee used during air frying; extra amount not recorded
- ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
For the sugar syrup - measure after air frying
- ½ part powdered sugar for 1 part measured usable cooked boondi
- ¼ part water for 1 part measured usable cooked boondi
- 2-3 tablespoon glucose syrup optional; helps bind the ladoos; recorded batch amount
- as required saffron food colour
Optional garnish
- as desired pistachio slivers
Instructions
- Mix baking soda with the plain flour first. Sift with besan and ¼ cup powdered sugar. Add ghee and water and mix into a smooth thick dough.
- Shape into balls and boil in water for 10 minutes.
- Remove and cool the cooked balls for 1 hour. Grate finely into boondi-like crumbs.
- Spread grated boondi in a shallow air-fryer-safe metal pan and cover with a perforated air-fryer-safe tray throughout cooking to prevent overcooking. Air fry at 140°C for 15 minutes, adding ghee after 10 minutes. Discard hard pieces.
- Measure usable cooked boondi. For every 1 cup, use ½ cup powdered sugar and ¼ cup water. Add saffron food colour; glucose syrup is optional but helps bind the ladoos.
- Mix syrup with boondi. Keep the pan covered with the perforated air-fryer-safe tray throughout the second stage to prevent overcooking. Air fry at 140°C for 10 minutes.
- When cool enough to handle, form approximately 12 small ladoos and garnish with pistachio if using. Refrigerate for best next-day texture.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. Traditional motichoor uses tiny fried boondi. Here, boiled gram-flour dough is grated and air fried instead.
The usable boondi amount can vary after air frying. Measure it first, then use half that volume of powdered sugar and half the sugar volume of water. This keeps the syrup proportion consistent with the cooked batch.
Freshly shaped ladoos may look sticky from the syrup. Do not reduce the syrup too much, as the ladoos can become hard. Refrigerate for a full day; in my test, the texture was better the next day.
Storage
Texture and syrup tips: These ladoos tasted nice, although the texture is different from traditional motichoor because of the boiling, grating and air-frying method. The sugar syrup may look like too much when you first add it, but reducing it can make the ladoos hard. Keep the measured syrup ratio and refrigerate the shaped ladoos for a full day. They may look sticky at first, but I found their texture much better the next day. Store them covered in the fridge; an exact shelf life was not tested.
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