An easy peasy method to make Rava Laddu for Diwali or any festival. This Rava Ladoo also known as Suji ke Laddu are sweet balls made with rava (sooji or semolina), coconut, powdered sugar, dry fruits, nuts and ghee.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 25 minutes
  • Total time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 12 · 12 Rava Ladoo
  • Category: Desserts, Sweets
  • Cuisine: Indian, Maharashtrian

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon ghee ((clarified butter))
  • 1 cup rava (heaped, finer quality (sooji or semolina) - 185 grams)
  • 6 tablespoons fresh grated coconut (or desiccated coconut, optional)
  • ½ cup sugar (- 120 grams or add as per taste)
  • 3 tablespoons ghee ((clarified butter))
  • 3 tablespoons chopped nuts (like cashews, almonds, pistachios)
  • 1 tablespoon golden raisins
  • ½ teaspoon cardamom powder (- or 5 to 6 green cardamoms seeds crushed to a powder in a mortar-pestle)

Method

Roasting rava

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon ghee in a heavy pan or kadai. Keep the heat to medium and let the ghee melt.
  2. Once the ghee has melted, lower the heat and add 1 heaped cup fine rava. use the fine variety of rava.
  3. Mix rava very well with the ghee. stir often and begin to roast rava on a low heat.
  4. Continue to roast rava till the rava become fragrant and changes its color. No need to brown the rava. The texture will also appear crumbly, loose and light. Roasting rava takes about 10 to 12 minutes on a low heat.
  5. Once the rava becomes hot, then you have to stir non-stop so that the rava does not get browned or burnt.
  6. Once the rava is roasted well, then add 6 tablespoons grated fresh coconut. You can also add desiccated coconut instead of fresh coconut.
  7. Stir and roast for about one to two minutes on a low heat.
  8. Now keep the pan on the kitchen counter and let the laddu mixture cool at room temperature.

Blending Rava Mixture

  1. When the laddu mixture had cooled, take ½ cup sugar in a grinder jar.
  2. Grind the sugar to a fine powder. Now do not open the lid. Wait for a few minutes. If you open the lid immediately after grinding, you will some of the sugar powder drifting in the air.
  3. To the powdered sugar in the jar, add the rava+coconut mixture.
  4. Grind to a semi-fine or fine texture but do not make to a floury texture. Keep the grinder jar aside.

Frying Dry Fruits

  1. In the same pan, in which rava was roasted heat 3 tablespoons ghee on a low to medium-low heat.
  2. Add 3 tablespoons chopped nuts. You can add almonds, pistachios, cashews or any nuts you like.
  3. Fry the nuts in the ghee till they start to become golden.
  4. Then add 1 tablespoon raisins. stirring often fry the raisins till they plump and swell in size.
  5. Turn off heat and keep the pan on the kitchen counter.

Making Rava Laddu

  1. Add the ground rava+coconut+sugar mixture directly from the grinder jar. the ghee should be hot when you add the powdered rava mixture.
  2. Mix very well with a spoon or spatula.
  3. Add ½ teaspoon cardamom powder.
  4. Mix again very well and then wait for the laddu mixture to become lightly warm or completely cooled at room temperature. If unable to form ladoo, then add 2 to 3 teaspoons of melted ghee. In case ladoo don’t hold shape and flatten, then keep the mixture in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes and then shape in rava ladoo.
  5. Then take some portion of the mixture in your palms and shape into round balls which we call as ladoo.
  6. Make rava laddu with the entire mixture. Keep them in an air-tight steel jar.
  7. Serve rava laddu as a festive sweet or as an evening sweet snack. Store them in the fridge in air tight container.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.