Rava Laddu | Rava Ladoo

Rava Laddu is a delicious Indian Sweet made with suji or semolina.These melt in the mouth ladoo is popularly made during festivals like Ganesha Chaturthi and Krishnashtami. A must try recipe from the cuisine of South India.

Rava laddu is also called as rava ladoo or suji laddu. The rava laddu recipe I am sharing today is the South Indian style, where the rava or suji is dry roasted and mixed with coconut, powdered sugar, ghee, and nuts and formed into a ladoo.

This is a easy and fool proof recipe when compared to the Maharashtrian style of making rava laddu which requires one string consistency of the sugar syrup.

Another easy way of making rava laddu is with sweetened condensed milk, do check it out , this is one of the popular recipe in the blog.

Rava Laddu is such a simple recipe that you can make it for birthdays, gatherings or for festivals like holi, sankranthi, ugadi, diwali or shivratri.

Ingredients needed to make rava laddu-

Rava also called as suji or semolina
Fresh Coconut
Sugar
Ghee (clarified buter)
Cardamom
Cashews ( or nuts of your choice)

Few ladoo recipes from the blog –

Wheat flour & Nuts Ladoo
Dates Almond Ladoo
Coconut Ladoo
Urad dal Ladoo
Pista Cashew Balls
Poha Laddu

Rava Laddu with coconut (step by step pics)

1. Measure all the ingredients and set a side.

2) Freshly grate the coconut or grind in a mixer. Remove and measure half cup. Clean the blender with a paper towel and set a side to be used in few minutes.

3) In a large pan or kadai heat a table spoon of ghee and add the rava/suji.

4) Mix well and roast the rava for 8-10 minutes in low to medium flame. Mix often to avoid burning and roast it till nice aroma comes from rava. Remove to a plate and let cool slightly.

6) Wipe the pan and add a tea spoon of ghee and the coconut, fry the coconut for two to three minutes and turn off the stove.

7) In the blender add the sugar and cardamom and grind till fine powder. If you are using a Indian style blender, you will see some fumes coming out of it. Nothing to worry….

8) After grinding the sugar, donot open the lid for 2 to 3 minutes, if not the powdered sugar will be flying every where.

9) After three minutes open the lid, add the suji and coconut. Give a mix and pulse it for four to five times till you get a semi fine mixture. Donot over grind, if not you will have super smooth rava laddu. We prefer slightly grainy rava laddu.

9) Wipe the pan which was used to fry the coconut, now add 3 table spoons of ghee and cashew ( or nuts of your choice) . Fry till pale brown.

10) add the ground mixture to the fried cashew.

11) Now add warm milk, and mix it well. At this point the mixture will be wet and moist. If it is not wet add little more milk. Close the pan with a lid and set a side for 10 to 15 minutes.

12) Open the lid, mix and try to form a ladoo. If the mixture is falling apart add little more milk. But if the mixture is wet wait few more minutes before making the ladoo.

Store it in a air tight container. Stays fresh up to a week in the refrigerator.

Tips to make the perfect rava laddu-

• Rava,the most important ingredient in this recipe needs to be roasted well in a low-medium flame.
• since we will not be cooking the rava, its very important to roast the rava till you get a nice aroma, which takes about 10 minutes for a cup of rava to roast.
• Do not use very coarse rava in this recipe, bombay rava or fine rava works best.
• Use fresh grated coconut in the recipe.

Which rava to use for rava laddu?

Rava laddu can be made with regular rava or fine rava. The most commonly available rava is the Bombay rava/upma rava ( which is used to make upma and halwa). My mom has always done rava laddu with bombay rava and comes out very tasty.

But if you can find fine rava, by all means use it to get a smooth rava laddu. It is also called as chiroti rava.

Which coconut to use?

Use freshly grated coconut in the recipe. Dry or desiccated coconut can also be used, but you may need to add little more ghee to bind the laddu.

Can I use store bought powdered sugar?

Store bought powdered sugar has corn starch in it. So please avoid that. Powdered sugar can be made at home by blending regular sugar in the blender.

What is the shelf life of rava laddu?

Stays fresh for two days in room temperature and up to a week in the refrigerator.

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Rava Laddu Recipe-

This post was originally published in Aug 2013, it has been recently updated and republished again with new pictures.

Indian sweets made under 15 minutes