Thinai Laddu – A guilt-free, healthy, and delicious laddu recipe with foxtail millet and honey. A four-ingredient laddu recipe that you can prepare quickly and a perfect sweet for any occasion.
Learn how to make foxtail millet flour and laddu with detailed step-wise pictures.
Are you looking for a healthy dessert recipe that is perfect for any festival or everyday munch? Then you are in the right place. I have a fantastic recipe for you all – it’s the thinai laddu or the foxtail millet laddu.
During Diwali, I always experiment with ricotta cheese and millets. This year I could share chhenna poda, but I missed the millet recipe. So here I am sharing it right in time for the karthigai festival.
Jump to:
- Karthigai Festival | Thiru Karthigai
- Thinai & Thean | Foxtail Millet & Honey | Theanum Thinai Maavum
- What’s So Special About This Thinai Laddu?
- Homemade Foxtail Millet Flour
- How To Prepare Thinai Laddu?
- Recipe Notes
- More Karthigai Deepam Recipes
- Easy Laddu Recipes
- Thinai Laddu | Foxtail Millet and Honey Balls | Thinai Urundai
Karthigai Festival | Thiru Karthigai
Karthigai Deepam or Thiru Karthigai, like Deepavali, is a festival of lights, and it is celebrated in the South Indian states, especially in Tamil Nadu, Kerala. It is one of the ancient festivals, and you can find its reference in Ahananooru (Tamil Poetic book which dates to Sangam Literature)
There are two stories behind this festival, and I have explained it both on my nel pori urundai post. So I don’t want to repeat it again. :-)
Like every other festival, we prepared sweets and savories. We lit and decorate the house with clay oil lamps (Agal deepam) and offer the food to God and celebrate the festivals.
Typically we make pori urundai, nei appam, panchamritham, kheer for this festival. Laddu or any urundai(balls) with nuts and flour and puffed rice are typical during this festival. And today, I am going to share one such laddu recipe.
Thinai & Thean | Foxtail Millet & Honey | Theanum Thinai Maavum
“Thinai” means foxtail millet, and “thean” means honey in Tamil. This combination is quite popular, and it is offered as prasadam in Lord Murugan temples. That’s how I got to know about this recipe, and it has been on my todo list for a long time and finally got a chance to make it and share it here.
In Sangam Tamil literature, the lands are classified into 5 regions – kurunji (mountain region), mullai (forest region), marutham (agricultural farm region), neithal (sea and seashore region), and paalai (desert and arid region).
This foxtail millet (thinai) and thean(honey) are quite popular in the kurunji landscape. It is popularly known as thinaiyum theanum or thinai maavum theanum. All mean the same – foxtail millet flour and honey.
What’s So Special About This Thinai Laddu?
A dessert can’t get healthier than this. Seriously I was thinking why I didn’t make this laddu earlier. Foxtail millets are rich in Vitamin B12. Needless to say, about the fiber and protein content of the millets, these laddus are indeed energy balls without any artificial agents and sugar.
As I mentioned before, we only need 4 ingredients for this thinai laddu,
- Foxtail millet
- Honey
- Ghee
- Cardamom
Even if you include water, it’s just 5 ingredients. :-) And it’s easy to make, and nut-free and gluten-free.
Don’t miss to check out my foxtail millet biryani and foxtail millet pongal recipes on the blog.
Homemade Foxtail Millet Flour
I am using homemade foxtail millet flour for this recipe. I can easily find millets here in groceries but not the millet flour. But folks, it is relatively easy to make millet flour. You can grind it finely or a little coarsely according to your preference.
Usually, we, in our family, don’t rinse and soak the millets for porridge powder. I follow the same procedure while making bajra/pearl millet flour and for bajra laddu. I directly roast the millet and grind them.
But for the foxtail millet flour, I took a different route. Followed the procedure mentioned by Kannama cooks. I rinsed and soaked the millets. Then let it dry and roasted it and then ground it. It might sound lengthy, but folks, the procedure is very straight forward and effortless.
PS – Soaking is optional, but I got used to soaking millets these days, so I soaked them for 10 minutes. I saw a few recipes where they roast the millet directly without rinsing and drying.
Once you have the millet flour ready, you can make this laddu in less than 10 minutes. You can very well make the millet flour ahead of time and store it in an air-tight container.
Okay, let’s see how to make this thinai laddu with detailed step-wise pictures without further ado.
How To Prepare Thinai Laddu?
Prepare thinai maavu | foxtail millet flour
- Wash the millet until the water becomes clear, and you can see the millet through the water. And soak it in water for 10 to 12 minutes.
- After 10 minutes of soaking, drain the water thoroughly, and spread the millet on the kitchen towel. Let it dry under the shade for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Do not dry it in the sun.
- Now dry roast this millet in a pan or kadai over medium-low heat for about 6 to 8 minutes until a pleasant aroma comes. Do not let it brown.
- Let it cool, and then transfer it to a mixer jar. Now add the ground cardamom as well and grind it into a fine powder. (Please see notes if you want to use green cardamom)
- Transfer the ground flour to a plate. The foxtail millet flour or the thinai maavu is ready.
Prepare the thinai laddu.
- Add 1 tbsp of honey to the prepared flour and mix well.
- Then add 1 tbsp of ghee and mix well.
- Now the flour mix will have sufficient moisture. Now take a small amount of the prepared mix and shape it into a small round ball. Press the laddu tightly so that it stays intact. (If the balls are not remaining intact, add one to two tsps of ghee and mix. Then shape them into small balls) Similarly, make laddus with the remaining flour.
- Store in an air-tight container. It should stay well for about ten days when refrigerated. Mine get’s over within 2 days. :-)
Recipe Notes
- I used my homemade cardamom powder in this recipe. Instead, you can also use whole green cardamoms. While roasting the foxtail millet, you can add the green cardamoms and roast along with the millet and grind them all together.
- I haven’t tried this recipe by skipping ghee. Ghee adds a nice flavor, but you can also try with maple syrup and vegan butter for the vegan option.
- Adjust the honey as per your sweet preference.
- Make sure you rinse the millet until the water is clear. And roast the millet over medium-low flame, and do not roast for more than 10 minutes. When you get the aroma of millets and when they turn crisp, turn the heat off. Few millets might turn light brown, but that’s okay.
- I did not add any nuts or dry fruits. You can add both for enhanced flavors.
- Soaking millets is optional.
More Karthigai Deepam Recipes
Easy Laddu Recipes
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Thinai Laddu | Foxtail Millet and Honey Balls | Thinai Urundai
Equipment
- Mixing bowl and fry pan
Ingredients
Measurement Details: 1 cup=240ml; 1 tbsp=15ml; 1tsp=5ml;
- 1/2 cup foxtail millet / thinai
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp ghee melted
- water to rinse and soak the millet
Instructions
Prepare thinai maavu | foxtail millet flour
- Wash the millet until the water becomes clear, and you can see the millet through the water. And soak it in water for 10 to 12 minutes.
- After 10 minutes of soaking, drain the water thoroughly, and spread the millet on the kitchen towel. Let it dry under the shade for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Do not dry it in the sun.
- Now dry roast this millet in a pan or kadai over medium-low heat for about 6 to 8 minutes until a pleasant aroma comes. Do not let it brown.
- Let it cool, and then transfer it to a mixer jar. Now add the ground cardamom as well and grind it into a fine powder. (Please see notes if you want to use green cardamom)
- Transfer the ground flour to a plate. The foxtail millet flour or the thinai maavu is ready.
Prepare the thinai laddu.
- Add 1 tbsp of honey to the prepared flour and mix well.
- Then add 1 tbsp of ghee and mix well.
- Now the flour mix will have sufficient moisture. Now take a small amount of the prepared mix and shape it into a small round ball. Press the laddu tightly so that it stays intact. (If the balls are not remaining intact, add one to two tsps of ghee and mix. Then shape them into small balls) Similarly, make laddus with the remaining flour.
- Store in an air-tight container. It should stay well for about ten days when refrigerated.
Notes
- I used my homemade cardamom powder in this recipe. Instead, you can also use whole green cardamoms. While roasting the foxtail millet, you can add the green cardamoms and roast along with the millet and grind them all together.
- I haven’t tried this recipe by skipping ghee. Ghee adds a nice flavor, but you can also try with maple syrup and vegan butter for the vegan option.
- Adjust the honey as per your sweet preference.
- Make sure you rinse the millet until the water is clear. And roast the millet over medium-low flame, and do not roast for more than 10 minutes. When you get the aroma of millets and when they turn crisp, turn the heat off. Few millets might turn light brown, but that’s okay.
- I did not add any nuts or dry fruits. You can add both for enhanced flavors.
- Soaking millets is optional.
Nutrition
I am not a nutritionist. The nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It varies depending upon the product types or brands.
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