Healthy Ladoo (paushtik ladoo)

Thinking of an afternoon snack for my kid which is healthy and yet yummy was kind of challenging. I usually try to avoid feeding him nuggets and fried snacks. Of course, chips and junk food is always the easy way out, but who wants that crap in your body, right? Then, my mom suggested this recipe with wheat and millet flour. It has a variety of nuts and is made of jaggery instead of sugar.

It does require home made ghee, but ghee is a healthier option than oil and jagggery better than processed sugar. Clarified butter or ghee is rich in Vitamins A, D, E, and K. Ghee is rich in the healthy fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K, which are critical to bone, brain, heart, and immune system function.

You will need:

1 katori whole wheat atta

¼  katori millet flour

2 tbsp poppy seeds

¼ katori dessicated coconut

¼ katori chopped almonds

¼ katori chopped walnuts

6 dates

1/2 katori powdered jaggery

I started roasting the wheat atta in a pan with little clarified butter. Roast till you see the change in color. It should turn slightly pink. Keep it aside. In the same pan, roast the millet flour till it changes color. Keep it aside too. Now, comes the poppy seeds and dessicated coconut. It is very important to roast everything properly. The roasted coconut and poppy seed mixture then goes in the blender along with the dates. After it is turned to a fine powder, mix the poppy seed and coconut mix in the roasted atta and flour combo. 

Mix the jaggery powder to the atta and flour combo and now put the poppy seeds and coconut, date powder all together in one pan and let it cool. You can also add the chopped almonds, walnus and any other nuts of your choice to this pan.

After it is cooled, melt the clarified butter in a small pan and then pour the hot ghee in the atta mix. You will notice that it becomes wet and comes together so that you can bind it into a ladoo form. Start binding it and this mix will make about 10/11 ladoos.