Chimmili ( Sesame Laddu )

Chimmili is a laddu made with roasted sesame seeds and jaggery. It is usually made on Nagula Chavithi as an offering to the Snake God . Today, I performed this puja and made Chimmili and Chalimidi as naivedyam.
There are various ways to make this sweet, I shall mention a couple of them.


Ingredients:

• Sesame Seeds - 1 cup
• Grated Jaggery - 3/4 th cup or to taste
• Ghee - 1 tbsp

Directions:

• Dry roast sesame seeds for a few seconds till they turn slightly golden. Remove and let it cool.
• Grind the sesame seeds for just a couple of pulses. Do not powder them. Just 1 or 2 pulses so that they are slightly crushed. You can avoid this and use them as whole as well.
• Grate jaggery finely.
• Mix sesame seeds and grated jaggery, add little ghee and make small balls.

Another Method:

• In a pan, add jaggery and 1/4th cup of water and make a thick syrup.
• Add roasted sesame seeds to the syrup and mix well.
• Let it cool and then make small balls.

Variation:

• As I mentioned earlier, it can be made in various ways. It can also be made by grinding the sesame seeds into powder.
• You can add cardamom powder to the jaggery syrup.
• You can add small dry coconut pieces to the jaggery syrup.