Coconut rose ladoos
Ladoos (or laddus) are small, spherical sweets made from flour, sugar and butter. Saliha infuses coconut and rose petal jam into hers for a festive treat.
Ingredients
For the coconut rose ladoos
- 150²µ/5½´Ç³ú desiccated coconut
- 260g/9oz condensed milk
- 1 tsp butter
- 2 tbsp Turkish rose petal jam (or a few drops of rose extract)
- ¼ tsp ground cardamom
- drop pink food colouring
For the decorations
- 2 tbsp freeze-dried strawberry or raspberry powder
- 2 tbsp desiccated coconut
- 2 tbsp toasted pistachios, chopped
Method
Put the desiccated coconut, condensed milk and butter into a non-stick pan and stir together. Place over a medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4–5 minutes, making sure that the coconut does not catch at any point. The mixture will be ready when until it looks like a thick, slightly sticky mix that is coming away from the edge of the pan.
Add the rose petal jam and ground cardamom powder and stir vigorously to combine (it will stiffen up slightly as it cools).
Transfer half the ladoo mixture to a bowl. Add a drop of pink food colouring to the mixture left in the pan and stir well to give the mixture a lovely bright pink hue. Decant this pink coconut ladoo mixture into another bowl and set aside to cool. Once the ladoo mixture is cool enough to handle, use lightly oiled hands to shape the mixture into small bite-sized balls.
Now comes the exciting part: roll the white and pink coconut balls into either the freeze-dried strawberry powder, desiccated coconut, or toasted pistachios to create a selection of different coloured sweets.
Store in an airtight container for up to a week. Freeze if you have surplus.