Coconut Rava Ladoo and Burfi - Coconut Semolina Cashew Sweet Balls. Vegan Recipe Glutenfree option

Happy Lohri everyone! Another year, another Indian harvest festival. Happy Sankranti, Uttarayan, Pongal and other variations as well. :) And another delicious veganized Ladoo. 

I dont know what fascination we have for round things. The Ladoos take ages to make. I'd rather make a large slab and cut it up.(Same goes for truffles versus bars:) Faster and equally delicious.

An Indian festival means a few more words about dairy. Because of the enormous demand for dairy in sweets, everyday food and increasing costs, the sweet shops in India these days use shampoo and oil concoctions and call it milk. Any dairy intense sweet bought during a festival, most likely highly polluted and carcinogenic.



Ghee(clarified butter) is an important element in a lot of Indian desserts and a lot of time people are surprised when I tell them it is not vegan. Ghee is made from butter, made from milk. Ghee is not Vegan. Nor is paneer, milk powder, malai, cheese and  pretty much every Indian sweet. Ghee is easily replaced by coconut oil or cocoa butter in most sweets.

In this Laddu, the fat is provided by the coconut flakes. You can add a bit more coconut oil for a softer, richer version. You can shape the dough into balls or press into a pan and cut up squares and call it a Burfi(bar). 
For Glutenfree version, use with brown rice flour. The burfi/balls wont be as crumbly as in the pictures, since brown rice flour has smaller granules than semolina, but it tastes just the same. 



For more Vegan Indian Dessert recipes see here. Each picture has the recipe post link in the album.

Step by step:

Roast Semolina.



Add cashew and coconut oil mix well and roast for a minute.



Add coconut flour and roast for another minute.



Add sugar syrup. Mix into a lumpy mixture. Sorry, no picture of the lumpy mix. The dough is like a soft cookie dough.
Cool the lumpy dough and make balls or squares.

Burfi.



Laddoo



Coconut Rava Ladoo and Burfi
Makes 8-10 balls. Easily doubled.
Allergy Information: Dairy, Egg, Corn, Soy, Yeast free, Vegan. Can be made nut, gluten free

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Semolina flour (or Brown rice flour for Glutenfree)
1/2 cup Coconut flakes(dried)
1 Tablespoon Coconut oil (optional. Omit to make Oilfree)
2 Tablespoons chopped cashew pieces (optional. Omit to make nutfree)
a pinch of salt

Sugar Syrup:
1/2 cup ground raw sugar (or use jaggery powder)
3 Tablespoons water
1/8-1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder(depends on how much you love cardamom:)

Method:
In a large pan, dry roast the semolina on medium-low heat for 6-8 minutes until the color changes and it gets fragrant.
Using a blender/processor, blend the coconut flakes to make coarse coconut flour.
Add coconut flour, coconut oil, salt and cashew pieces to the pan. Mix well and roast for 2 minutes.
(Coconut oil and cashew pieces can be left out to make nut free and oilfree)
Meanwhile, in another pan, make the sugar syrup.
Add all syrup ingredients and bring to a boil on medium heat. Continue to heat at medium low until one thread consistency.(few minutes)
Add the hot sugar syrup to the roasting dry ingredients and mix well to form a lumpy mixture.(Best results when both contents are hot)
Take off heat. Cool for 2-3 minutes and form balls - Ladoo.
Or Press immediately into parchment lined or greased baking pan to make Burfi. (I used an 8 by 4 inch pan.)
Cut into squares when still warm. The bars will harden as they cool.
Break into pieces when cool. Store in airtight container for upto a week.

You can make Coconut laddoo and burfi with just Coconut and no grain. Use 1 cup coconut flakes, grind them into coarse flour. Roast for 2-3 minutes with cashews and coconut oil. Add the sugar syrup and press onto parchment.

This Laddoo is being shared at Ricki's wellness weekend, slightly indulgent Tuesdays,



Meat is easily associated with a direct death, but dairy always slips out from under the kill radar. I am often told about the almost none dairy consumption everyone does in everyday life. Maybe a half a cup of milk. What we don't realize however, is the other forms in which we end up consuming a load of dairy..
Every tadka in ghee, every ghee filled sweet, every rich creamy paneer curry, every daal with makhan(butter/cream), every sandwich/pizza with cheese, every breakfast fried in butter, every buttercream layered cake, every tea/coffee with milk, and more.

Here is a video with mostly words about a life of a dairy cow. Please watch and share.