Paan Coconut Ladoo

Name: Paan Coconut Ladoo
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 15 min
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)

Posted on October 17, 2016October 20, 2018 by Manali

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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.