Coconut Ladoo/Nariyal ka Ladoo/Coconut Balls

Coconut ladoo is a south Indian sweet that brings the true flavors of coconut and tastes yumm. M likes coconut ladoo so made these today. The ingredients are the same for both burfi and ladoo but the time period, color and the texture (patham) slightly differs.

Ingredients:

Fresh Shredded Coconut-2 cups

Sugar-1 & ½ cups

Ghee-2 tsp+ for greasing

Dried Nuts-2 tbsp, roughly chopped

Elaichi/Green cardamom powder-1/2 tsp

Water-1/2 cup

How it Happened:

1. Heat ghee in a kadai, add the copped nuts, fry tem until golden brown then remove them to a plate and set aside.

2. In the same kadai, add sugar and water and keep the flame in medium.

3. When the sugar gets completely dissolved, simmer the flame and stir once.

4. Slowly when the sugar syrup gets sticky keep checking for the one string consistency. It should be thick string consistency ( getti kambi patham). The string will be strong.

5. Now add the coconut and mix well in medium flame. It will leach out some water. Let it cook for 10-15 minutes until the water evaporates.

6. When the water evaporates completely the mixture will start leaving the sides of the pan.

7. Add the powdered cardamom and mix once. Let it cook for 2 minutes.

8. Now the colour of the mixture would have slightly browned.

9. Switch off the flame transfer the mixture to a greased plate, level the surface and add the roasted nuts on the top.

10. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes. When the mixture is cool enough to handle, but they should be still warm enough so as to hold the shape.

11. Grease your hands with ghee and start rolling the mixture into balls of desired size.

Notes:

* While shredding the coconut see to that you don’t scrap the black inners shell parts as they will be hard while eating.

* Do not stir the sugar syrup continuously else they will crystallize.

* The one string should be strong or thick to hold for 5 seconds otherwise they won’t hold the shape.

*The black on the ladoo are the specks of elaichi/cardamom.

* You can also mix the nuts while adding cardamom powder but I like them studded on top of the ladoos.