Coconut Laddoo

 It is festival season for the next 3 months, as much as it is enjoyable it does comes with its own share of cooking. Such huge variety of sweets and savories that need to be whipped up almost every other week.

Am I complaining? No ..

Why should I when there are so many quick and easy recipes that come handy for such demands. Coconut Laddoo with condensed milk is one such recipe.

Any recipe with coconut and I go GAGA .. something is so eternally mesmerising about coconut.

Laddoos plays a very important role in our festivals and the varieties are endless from motichoor to dry fruits laddoo to chocolate laddoo. There is something for everyone and for me it is Coconut laddoo. The fresh coconut scrapings combined with cardamom and ginger gives a very unique refreshing flavour.

This recipe is so simple with very few ingredients and the laddoo gets ready in about 30 minutes time. They taste great on the day of making but you can store the laddoos in the fridge for upto a week. just microwave for 5 seconds before serving.

For making around 16 - 20 coconut laddoos you need
Fresh coconut scrapings : 2 cups
Condensed milk : 1 and 1/3 cups
Cardamom powder : 1/2 tsp
Ginger powder : 1/2 tsp
Ghee : 2 tbsp

For rolling and decorating the coconut laddoos
Desiccated coconut : 2-3 tbsp
Powdered sugar : 1 tbsp
Almond slivers : a few

How to make coconut laddoos

1.Heat a heavy bottom pan on medium flame. Add ghee and coconut scrapings. Stir the coconut scrapings until all the ghee is incorporated and the mixture dries up a bit. This will approximately take 5 minutes.

2.Add the condensed milk, salt, cardamom and ginger powder. Mix thoroughly. Frist the mixture wil becomes a bit watery but will gradually start coming together.

3.Keep stirring until the mixture thickens and starts to leave the sides of the pan. Remove from flame and transfer into a bowl.

4.Let it cool a bit. Meanwhile mix the desiccated coconut and powdered sugar. Spread the mix on a plate.

5.Take a small amounts of the warm coconut mix and roll them into laddoos. Roll the laddoos in the desiccated coconut sugar mix. Decorate with almond slivers.

Notes
Buy juicy coconuts for the laddoos not the mature ones as they give a oily taste to the sweet.

U can also add khoya when making the laddoos for more volume and texture. Fro 1/2 cup of khoya add 1/2 cup of condensed milk.

For variations, try adding nuts [cashews, pistachio and chirongi] when making the laddoos.

Instead of almonds , you can use various pistachio and cashews for decorating.