Rava Ladoo / Laddu

Rava Ladoo is a sweet made with semolina , coconut, nuts and raisins. This is a famous sweet made during festivals in India. It is easy and quick to make and fool proof recipe. Mom makes rava ladoo for festivals and she uses lot of ghee and little milk to bind it. However , this version of ladoos use more milk and less ghee. We are using ghee just to roast all the ingredients and milk will be a binder to shape the mixture in the form of ladoos.

 

 



 

 

A close up of the rava ladoo to show the texture

 



 

Ingredients

 

                                    

 

• 1 Cup fine Rava / Sooji / Semolina
• 2 Tablespoon Ghee
• 1/4 Cup Cashew nuts
• 1/4 Cup Black Raisins
• 1/2 Cup Fresh Coconut slices
• 1 Teaspoon Cardamom Powder
• 2/3 Cup Granulated White sugar
• 1/3 Cup Warm Milk

Directions :

Preparation :

1. Chop raisins into small pieces. I chopped each raisin into 3 tiny pieces. If you have whole cashew nuts, chop them into tiny pieces

2. In a spice grinder , add coconut slices and cardamom powder and Pulse it for 5 to 6 times or grind it until the coconut resembles finely grated pieces


                                 

3. Powder the sugar in the mixer Jar and set aside

4. Microwave 1/3 Cup of milk in microwave safe coffee mug for just 30 seconds and set aside. You can do this step while you are roasting rava / sooji

Making Ladoos : 

 

1. In a pan over lowest heat setting, heat 2 tablespoon Ghee

2. Add cashew nuts pieces and fry until they are light golden

3. Add raisins and fry until they start to plump up

4. Add the coconut we prepared at step number two of preparation and fry for 2 minutes

                                   


5. Add Sooji / Rava and roast it for 2 minutes. Do not brown the rava


                                    


6. Add powdered sugar and mix everything together and roast on lowest flame until the rava changes color to light golden. Do not brown the rava

7. Please keep stirring frequently so that the rava gets roasted on all sides evenly

8. Once the rava is roasted and starts changing color, you can smell nice aroma of ghee and rava. At this stage swtich off the flame. It took 9 minutes for me to notice rava changing color

9. Add the warm milk we prepared  (at step number 4 of the preparation)  to the hot rava mixture in slow steady stream and keep stirring the mixture while you are adding milk. Please add milk only after switching off the flame


                                     


10. Using a spoon mix everything together

11. Let the mixture cool for about 5 minutes or until you can handle the mixture with your hand


                                     


12. Pinch about lemon sized mixture from the pan and roll them in to balls using your hand

13. I used a spoon to scoop out mixture just to ensure that my ladoos are approximately the same size ( for the photographs :) )

14. Serve when they are cool completely. Since we add milk in making these ladoos , these needs to be consumed within a day or two