Chocolate Coconut Ladoo - An SRC Bonus

Today was the posting day for another group within the Secret Recipe Club and there were a few posts missing, so I volunteered to help.

The hostess sent me over to Veg Nation, where "met" Veena, an amazing vegetarian food blogger who lives in India.  Now, I have been wanting to learn more about Indian food for quite some time. A really nice Indian food market opened up not far from me a year or so ago and every once in a while I go in and stroll the isle, wishing I knew what the heck to do with all of the delicious and exotic ingredients I was seeing.

So when perusing Veena's blog, I, of course, went to every heading that had an exotic sound to it, hoping to finally jump in.

The only problem was that I didn't have any of those exotic ingredients on hand. Today. Trust me - I will be making shopping lists from this blog and heading out to that market very soon.

But I saw a heading called "Ladoo Varieties." Never heard of ladoo, but under the heading, I saw a listing for Chocolate Coconut Ladoo.  While there seem to be many varieties, this one seems to be like a delicious chocolate-coconut truffle, so I thought it was the perfect way to dip a toe into the Indian-food waters.

I did make a couple of changes, though, based on what I had on hand, and due to little man's food allergies. The main ingredient in these chocolate balls is sweetened condensed milk. Something he can't have, due to his milk allergy. I had seen that you can make your own substitution using a can of coconut milk, so I decided why not go all out... so I tried it. And it worked! I'll do a whole separate post on that, I promise.

The ladoo are super easy to make - the condensed milk is mixed with some water and heated in the microwave to bring it to a boil.  It is then mixed with cocoa powder...

...and coconut...

...then, after cooling, the mixture is rolled into balls and rolled in more coconut.

That's it!

And they were super tasty. Rich little balls of chocolate-y coconut-y goodness that were just perfect for dessert tonight.

I can't wait to try more recipes from this blog!


Chocolate Coconut Ladoo
(only slightly adapted from Veg Nation)


1/2 cup sweetened-condensed milk (I used homemade sweetened-condensed coconut milk, making this dairy-free)
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cup dessicated coconut + 1/4 cup for rolling (I had flaked, so that's what I used)
2 tablespoons drinking chocolate (I omitted)
1 tablespoon cocoa powder (increased to 2 tablespoons due to omitting the drinking chocolate)

Mix the condensed milk and water in a microwave safe bowl. Heat it for 2 minutes on high. At this stage the condensed milk boils and starts to thicken.
Add the cocoa powder and mix well. Now add the coconut and mix everything thoroughly.
Cook for further 2 1/2 minutes to three minutes on high, mixing evenly every minute . Now you can see that the moisture has evaporated and the mixture has thickened.
Take it out and let it cool for 5 minutes.
Roll into small balls and roll it in the extra coconut.

Enjoy!

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