Instant Paan Coconut Ladoo filled with gulkand – a special little treat to enjoy this Diwali!
I am so excited to be finally be able to share some Diwali recipes with you guys. Yes! My favorite festival and most definitely my favorite time of the year. This year Diwali falls on 30th October, quite early actually. But for me literally Diwali festivities started in July/August! As you guys know, I had to work way in advance because of mom’s treatment this year [and that’s so unlike me, I mean I have always said – I am not a planner, I suck at these things! but this time, I had no choice.] So anyway I was making Diwali sweets in like July and there was one person who was very happy about this. Yes you guessed it was my husband! He would come back home and get to eat these sweets everyday and too in July. And then he would say seriously there are way too many perks of being a husband of a food blogger, one of them being that you get to eat Diwali sweets 3 months in advance! I think I agree with him! ?
These Paan Coconut Ladoo are my absolute favorite. Super easy to make and taste delicious. For those who don’t know paan is the hindi name for betel leaves. In India people fill these leaves with tobacco and eat it but there’s also another use – it has a very refreshing taste so it’s often used with few other things like rose petal preserve, fennel seeds to make what is called “meetha paan” or sweet paan. It’s eaten as a mouth freshener after meals. I absolutely love meetha paan and have shared 2 recipes before using the same flavors. In these Paan Coconut Ladoo, I have combined the flavors of meetha paan and coconut and they turned out absolutely amazing.
Coconut ladoo using condensed milk are the easiest Diwali sweet that you can make. I have a recipe for this 2 ingredient coconut ladoo on my blog but this year I wanted to do something special with coconut ladoo and adding paan flavor seemed like a great idea. We make them in the same way as instant coconut ladoo but we grind some paan leaves with the condensed milk before adding it to the pan with the desiccated coconut. Also these coconut ladoos are filled with gulkand (rose petal preserve) which makes them really flavorful. You can also add some chopped nuts too in the center. Just chop them fine and mix with the gulkand and stuff the ladoos with the mixture.
I hope you guys enjoy these easy Paan Coconut Ladoo on Diwali this year and it finds a place on your Diwali menu! I will be sharing more Diwali recipes in the coming weeks, so watch this space!
Method
To a food processor, add chopped paan leaves and condensed milk.
Pulse till well both are well combined. Set aside.
Heat ghee in a pan on medium heat.
Once ghee is hot, add desiccated coconut and roast for 2-3 minutes on medium-low heat.
Add the condensed milk – paan mixture and stir to combine. You may add few drops of green food color at this point.
Cook for another 2 minutes on low heat, mixture will thicken. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool down a bit.
Grease your hands with little ghee, take small portion from the coconut mixture, flatten it and add 1/2-1 teaspoon of gulkand in the center.
Bring the edges together and roll to form a ladoo.
Roll the prepared ladoo in desiccated coconut. Repeat the same process with the remaining ladoos.
Store these Paan Coconut Ladoo in the refrigerator and enjoy!
* Using green food color is optional.
* You can also add chopped nuts with gulkand in the filling.
Paan Coconut Ladoo
Ingredients
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons desiccated coconut, unsweetened
- 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
- 4 paan leaves, also known as betel leaves
- 4-5 teaspoons gulkand, also know as rose petal preserve
- 1 teaspoon ghee, also known as clarified butter
- green food color, optional
- more desiccated coconut, for rolling
Instructions
- To a food processor, add chopped paan leaves and condensed milk. Pulse till well both are well combined. Set aside.
- Heat ghee in a pan on medium heat. Once ghee is hot, add desiccated coconut and roast for 2-3 minutes on medium-low heat.
- Add the condensed milk - paan mixture and stir to combine. You may add few drops of green food color at this point.
- Cook for another 2 minutes on low heat, mixture will thicken. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool down a bit.
- Grease your hands with little ghee, take small portion from the coconut mixture, flatten it and add 1/2-1 teaspoon of gulkand in the center.
- Bring the edges together and roll to form a ladoo.
- Roll the prepared ladoo in desiccated coconut. Repeat the same process with the remaining ladoos.
- Keep the paan coconut ladoo refrigerated.
Paan Coconut Ladoo
Manali,
I want to use them has mouhfreshner in the party
Should I reduce coconut & add more paan leaves would it work . Make them smaller suize
Hi,
The recipe turned out great, but I have a question. Did you use dry, grated coconut or fresh/ frozen one? I used the later and the mixture was very wet before I formed the ladoos. I had to add 1 or more cups of dry milk powder to be able to form them. That helped and they taste really good. I’ll use the dry coconut next time. Thanks!
Hi Vibha, yes it is dry desiccated coconut, nowhere have I mentioned using fresh coconut. If using fresh coconut, always dry roast it first to get rid of the moisture. Hope this helps!
Amazing recipe!! Thanks a lot for sharing !
Can I add Calcutta meeta paan along with gulkhand as a filling? Does it taste good?
What is calcutta meetha paan Raji? you mean paan leaves? they are already mixed the condensed milk in the recipe. You can add nuts to the filling if you like along with gulkand.
Hi Manali, thx for great recipe, laddoo turned out very well n very easy recipe n ingredients to follow… Absolute hit at my place … Thx once again..
Mam if i wana make 28-30 ladoos what will be the quantity of ingredients?
triple the ingredients, should work!
My friend suggested me these laddoo, I made them n they turned out really good..They r super hit with my family n friends… All of them loved it.. thankyou for Easy Recipe…
I am so glad to hear that Vaishaly! 🙂
Manali, do you suggest sweet or unsweetened dry coconut?
Manali, this recipe looks great! I had the same question – would it be sweetened or unsweetened desiccated coconut ?
it is unsweetened coconut..this is what is used in the recipe–> https://www.amazon.com/Udupi-Desiccated-Coconut-Powder-14/dp/B00KDLSYTA
it is unsweetened coconut..this is what is used in the recipe–> https://www.amazon.com/Udupi-Desiccated-Coconut-Powder-14/dp/B00KDLSYTA
This is very simple and quick recipe (and delicious), however, we should consider time to make the balls as it took quite a good amount of time(I made around 50 laddus in two batches) to form the balls with filling.
Glad you liked it Hema.. if you make 50 then obviously it will take little time 🙂
Wanted to know the shelf life? can I store it in refrigerator and then travel for a day and again store it in refrigerator, can these last a week as per above mentioned condition?
a week in the refrigerator should be okay, I have never tried it though personally
Saw your post on ED and tried them today, they came out very good.. thank you for the recipe.
Welcome Harika! Glad it worked 🙂
Hi Manali!
Thank you for this awesome recipe! I’ve been making these paan laddus for Diwali 3 years in a row, and everyone loves it! I’ve had to increase the quantity from 40 to 200! It’s the most popular requested sweet every year!
wow 400!That’s awesome Kavita! so glad you all enjoy it!