Millet Laddoo

Ingredients

• 1 cup ragi Flour
• 4 tsp coconut oil/ghee
• ¼ cup almonds substitute with cashews if you prefer
• ¼ cup dessicated coconut if using fresh, roast well and use
• ½ cup roasted peanuts i buy roasted, peeled peanuts – if not, roast raw peanuts and remove the peels.
• ⅓ cup powdered jaggery or substitute with naatu sakkarai
• 2 cardamom pods

Instructions

1. To a pan on low heat, add the ghee and ragi flour. Keep mixing until the flour gets roasted. It will slowly change colour and have an aroma. Takes 3-4 minutes on a low flame.
2. In the same pan, add almonds and roast for a minute.
3. If using roasted peanuts like I did – skip this step. Otherwise; roast peanuts and remove skin and keep aside
4. If using fresh coconut, roast on a low flame until the moisture is drawn out ( about 2 minutes) and keep aside.
5. To a plate, add the roasted ragi flour, almonds, peanuts, desiccated coconut, cardamom and keep ready.
6. In a mixie jar, add the nuts + coconut + cardamom and pulse to a powder.
7. Then add jaggery and ragi flour and grind again. At this stage, the mix will come together easily to make ladoos because of the fat from nuts and ghee. If required, you can add another tsp of ghee to roll into ladoos.
8. Make ladoos. I kept a roasted peanut on top of each of them. These stay well for upto a week in room temperature (and much longer in fridge). They tend to firm up a bit on cooling but are still soft ladoos.