Coconut Khoya Laddoo

Deliciously decadent and melt-in-your mouth kind of fudge is this Coconut Khoya Laddoo. Impress your guests this Diwali by making this really quick and easy laddoo.

The festival season is here for those in India or are of Indian origin living elsewhere in the world. There is practically nothing much going on for the first ⅔rds of a year and then boom! comes September and we are off to a start to the festival season that does not finish till sometime mid November. Festivals is the common word used in India as an equivalent of the term holidays, here. First is Ganesh Chaturti and Onam, for those of us in the state of Kerala in Southern India. Then comes Navarathri or Dussera, which takes up 10 days of celebration exhaustion sometime in October. And then finally comes Diwali anywhere between mid October to Mid November. And that’s that. The variation in the dates for different years is because these festivals are celebrated based on dates in the lunar calendar which does not coincide with the dates in the regular calendar.

Now that we are bang in the middle of festival season here with the 10 days Navrathri festival being celebrated right now. Us in the USofA are also in the middle of all the pumpkin patch-ing and halloween celebrations as well. I have to be honest though, some years, like this one, gets a little overwhelming and exhausting during these few months. But still, it is the time of the year I most look forward to.

This is a very simple and delicious laddoo that you can make pretty quickly this time of the year. The recipe calls for equal parts of grated fresh coconut, grated khoya and sugar. Khoya is nothing but condensed milk solids that is easily available in Indian stores. I did a quick search to see if it is available to buy online, but I didn’t see any. I was also researching to see how we can make this at home. It is quite a long process and kinda takes away from the easiness of this recipe. However, I did read in many places about making khoya from ricotta cheese, but I will have to make this myself to validate that. Hopefully soon enough and I will then post it here.

Coconut Khoya Laddoo – The Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups grated fresh coconut, frozen grated coconut thawed to room temperature is fine. I will not recommend desiccated coconut for this.
• 1 ½ cups grated khoya / mawa
• 1 ½ cups regular cane sugar
• 1 tsp ground cardamom
• ½ – 1 cup desiccated coconut, optional

Method

• If the thawed coconut is still a little cold, microwave it for 30 secs or so.
• In a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat, roast the coconut. Roast is continuously till it releases oil and turns slight pink. This stage is right before it starts browning and we don’t want browned coconut.
• Add the khoya to this and keep mixing it until it starts to loosen up a little and mixes in with the coconut.
• Now add the sugar and cardamom. Mix well until the sugar melts and starts to bind with the coconut khoya mixture and they all form a dough like mixture. It will really start to thicken and you will feel that you need more muscle power to mix them. That is about the right time to stop.
• Remove from heat and let it cool down a little.
• Wet your hands and take a little of the mixture and form key lime sized balls. Roll into the desiccated coconut (optional).
• Store in an airtight container for a day. If storing for more than a day and upto 3-4 days, keep refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before serving.