Fresh coconut and ghee-roasted foxtail millet rava rolled with melted jaggery into soft, fragrant ladoo studded with fried cashews.
Ingredients
From the TrooFoodz pantry
Fresh
- Fresh coconut, grated 1½ cups
- Jaggery, grated 200 g
- Ghee 3 tbsp
- Cashews, broken 3 tbsp
- Cardamom powder ¾ tsp
- Milk, warm, for rolling 2 tbsp
Method
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Fry the cashews
Fry the broken cashews in a tablespoon of ghee until gold and set them aside, leaving the perfumed ghee in the pan.
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Roast the rava
Add the remaining ghee and stir Sprouted Foxtail Millet Rava over low heat for eight minutes until it feels sandy and smells toasted.
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Dry the coconut
Push the rava aside and toast the grated coconut for two to three minutes to drive off its moisture. Wet coconut is what makes ladoo turn sour within a day.
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Melt, do not cook
Melt the jaggery with three tablespoons of water only until it dissolves, then stop. Take it to soft-ball and the mixture sets too firm to roll at all.
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Fold and dry out
Pour the jaggery over the rava and coconut off the heat, mix, then return to a low flame for three or four minutes until the mass comes cleanly away from the pan.
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Rest, then roll
Cool until you can hold it, add the cardamom and cashews, and press firmly between your palms. Wet your hands with warm milk if the mixture crumbles.
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Set and store
Leave the ladoo uncovered for thirty minutes to firm before boxing. Fresh coconut keeps them good for three days.
Why this works
This is the one jaggery sweet in the range where you deliberately stay below any syrup stage. A dissolved, uncooked jaggery holds enough water to keep the mixture pliable and rollable, and the fat from fresh coconut and ghee finishes the binding. Drying the coconut first is the difference between a ladoo that keeps and one that ferments.
Make it your own
- Fresh coconut → Desiccated coconut, rehydrated in warm milk Longer keeping; slightly less fragrant.
- Sprouted Foxtail Millet Rava → Sprouted Ragi Rava Darker, maltier ladoo with a deeper colour.
- Cashews → Roasted sesame seeds Nuttier and more rustic; also helps the ladoo hold.
