Oats- Almond Ladoo (Jaggery Based)

Oats- Almond Ladoo is a healthy jaggery based recipe. It had been ages since I bought Oats, jaggery and sesame seeds. Hence wanted to use them in some way. I took some inspiration from my favorite ladoo- Laaye pitta Undo and came up with this recipe. The end result was really good. I was totally happy, not only for using up those ingredients but also for the success of my ladoo.

This ladoo doesn't demand lot of ghee and most of the ingredients used are healthy. Its a guilt free ladoo to satisfy one's sweet tooth :-)

Ingredients:

• Almond/ Badam- 1/3 cup
• Quick Cooking Oats- 1 cup+ 2-3 Tbsp
• Dark Jaggery/ Antu Bella- 3/4 cup
• White Sesame seeds- 1/4 cup
• Cardamom Powder- 1/2 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tsp+ extra for greasing 

Procedure:

Take the almonds.

Now start dry roasting it on a medium heat, for 2-3 minutes.

Then transfer it to a plate, for cooling. Then cut them into slices.

Now in the same pan, dry roast the sesame seeds, for 1-2 minutes and then transfer it to a plate.

Now, in the same pan dry roast the oats for 2-3 minutes and allow it to cool.

Then make a coarse powder of the oats.

Next step is to melt the jaggery. The jaggery I used looked like this (This jaggery is very soft and is specially used to make ladoos, burfi, chikkis. This jaggery gives good binding and has a distinct taste).

Now start heating the jaggery on a medium flame along with 4-5 Tbsp of water. The jaggery begins to melt and starts to boil.

Continue heating till the end point. To know the end point, add 1-2 drops of melted jaggery in a small bowl containing water, for every 2-3 minutes. The jaggery should form a firm drop and it should turn little hard. Once this consistency is reached, turn off the heat immediately. Then add the roasted chopped almonds, sesame seeds, cardamom powder, ghee and mix quickly.

Then add the coarse powder of oats and give a good mix until everything comes together. Allow the mixture to cool (until you can handle the heat). Remember that the mixture hardens as it cools. So it has to be formed into ladoos as soon as possible.

Once it is ready to handle, take a small amount of the ladoo mixture in your greased hands and make a ladoo. Repeat the same for the rest of the mixture. I made a total of 13 ladoos.
Oats- Almond Ladoo is ready!!

Store them in an air tight container. It stays good for more than a week.