Rava laddu is south India’s common sweet made for festivals, weddings, gatherings, pujas. Laddu can be compared to bliss balls, truffles known to western world. To be more precise, no-bake, no chocolate bliss balls or no-bake, no chocolate truffles. Rava and coconut laddu is all-natural and high quality desert you can ever have. It is perishable. Will stay fresh for 3-4 weeks. Freshness can be extended by refrigerating. Dont settle down with store-bought low quality sweets. Making your own bliss ball is easier than you think. Satisfy your sweet tooth with home-made, natural, high quality sweets.

Coconut palm sugar is a sugar substitute that seems to be gaining popularity in the market. It is made from sap that is extracted from the coconut tree. The taste of pure coconut palm sugar is similar to brown sugar. For cooking purposes, it has a very low melt temperature and an extremely high burn temperature so it can be used baked products in place of sugar.

Manufacturers of coconut palm sugar boost its low glycemic index, claiming it is a better choice for people with diabetes than regular sugar. Glycemic index (GI) is a measure of how a food raises blood glucose (or blood sugar) compared to a reference food (usually glucose or white bread). In the United States, we do not do official GI testing. So, GI numbers for the same food can differ depending on your source.

GI can also vary from person to person. It will change depending on how food is cooked, and what the food is eaten with. In the case of coconut palm sugar, it is likely to be mixed or prepared with other ingredients that contain carbohydrates.

It is okay for people with diabetes to use coconut palm sugar as a sweetener, but they should not treat it any differently than regular sugar. It provides just as many calories and carbohydrates as regular sugar: about 15 calories and 4 grams of carbohydrate per teaspoon. So, you still need to account for it when planning meals.

See more at http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/making-healthy-food-choices/coconut-palm-sugar.html

Rava laddu with palm sugar

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

You can add ½ palm sugar and ½ brown sugar, if you are not sure of 100% palm sugar

Author: Ujwala Chintala

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

• 1 cup - Rava (Semolina/Sooji/Bombay Rava)
• 1 cup - fresh ground coconut
• 1 cup - grated palm sugar or brown sugar or grated jaggery
• ½ cup - fresh ghee
• ⅛ tsp - fresh ground cardamom
• 1 tbsp - cashews. Optionally add almonds
• 1tbsp - ice-cold milk

Instructions

1. In ¼th tsp ghee, fry cashews and diced almonds.
2. Roast Rava on medium heat for 5 minutes
3. Separately roast coconut for 5 minutes
4. Let them cool.
5. In a mixing bowl, combine roasted Rava, coconut, palm sugar or brown sugar or mix n match, cardamom, and cashews.
6. Slowly add melted ghee while mixing thoroughly. Make sure ghee is not hot. If it is hot, it will melt jaggery.
7. Once you think you can form laddu, don't add any more ghee. If you cannot form intact laddu after pouring all the ghee, take ice-cold milk, add few drops (3-4 drops) at a time, mix well and try to make laddu. Balls look fragile at this time. But after 15 mins or so after milk dries up and ghee solidifies, laddus will be intact. If you are not confident if you can make intact laddus, add little by little honey and mix well. To make it vegan, replace milk with nut milk or soy milk.
8. Make balls by pressing in your hand.
9. Serve immediately.
10. This procedure sounds complicated. But it works perfectly. Compared to white sugar, stickiness in brown sugar or jaggery helps in forming laddus with less ghee.
11. Eat while fresh. They stay fresh for 3-4 weeks. Adding less milk keeps them fresh for many days.
12. Refrigerate if you are storing for few days. Using fresh homemade ghee enhances aroma and taste significantly.

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