Murmura Ladoo / Pori Urandai / Puffed Rice Ladoo

                             

Murmura ladoo is a light, crisp and delicious snack made with puffed rice and melted jaggery syrup. With a very simple and easy to follow recipe, this gluten-free dessert can be made using just 2 ingredients and within few minutes to serve a healthy winter treat especially for kids or just to satisfy some sweet cravings. Puffed rice jaggery ladoo is a traditional Indian sweet and known as Pori Urandai in Tamil, Murmura ladoo in Hindi and Kurmuryache ladoo in Marathi language. It is a festive treat made for the Makar Sankranti and Karthigai Deepam festivals. Murmura ladoo has a good shelf life and hence serves as an ideal travel food as well for kids.

Before moving ahead with Today's post, let me wish all my viewers a very joyous and blessed Makar Sankranti / Lohri / Pongal / Uttarayan Festival. This harvest festival known and celebrated by various names throughout India is the first festival of the New Year and i just wish it brings with it lots of good fortune and prosperity to all of us. 

For the initiated, Makar Sankranti marks the transition of the Sun into the Zodiac sign Makar (capricorn) on its celestial path. The day is also believed to mark the arrival of Spring in India. In Maharashtra, Tilgul ladoos (sweet balls made from Sesame seed and jaggery) are exchanged among friends, neighbors and relatives along with multi colored halwa (Sugar granules coated in sugar syrup) as a token of good will.

What goes into the Murmura ladoo ? The Ingredients: 

Murmura ladoo is a very simple dessert and requires just 2 basic ingredients,

• Puffed rice or murmura : The key to getting crispy crunchy ladoos is to dry roast the murmura before adding it to the jaggery syrup.
• Jaggery. Try and use good quality jaggery without any impurities. Such jaggery can be crushed or grated and directly melted to get the syrup. In case, your jaggery has impurities, it has to be added with little water into a sauce pan. Once it melts, the syrup is strained and then the syrup is cooked further.
• Ghee : I have added very little ghee also which gives a lovely glaze and flavor to the ladoo. However, you may skip it for a vegan version. 

The jaggery syrup also has to be perfect, not too thin nor very thick and most important aspect in making perfect murmura ladoos is time factor. Once you add the puffed rice to the molten jaggery syrup, you have to be really very fast or else the mixture will solidify and you wont be shape into the ladoos. 

Variations : 

• Little cardamom powder and ginger powder also may be added to the jaggery syrup before adding puffed rice to it as a variation. I have kept it plain.
• In case you feel you wont be able to shape the mixture into ladoos, do not worry, add the entire mixture to a greased baking tray, spread it evenly and press it with some weight. You can cut into squares or rectangular shape on cooling and enjoy them as delicious sweet puffed rice bars instead.

Shelf Life: These murmura ladoos have a good shelf life of around 2-3 week when stored in an air-tight container at room temperature.

                       

Related Event: Sankranti Special @ FoodieMondayBlogHop

Makar Sankranti is just around the corner and hence the 280th theme on our Facebook gourmet group , Foodie Monday Blog Hop is Sankranti Special. This is a group of like-minded passionate food bloggers who share their food creations every Monday, depending upon a pre-determined theme. As per the theme, we could share all the festive recipes that are made in various parts of the country during this harvest festival, be it Lohri celebrated in Punjab and North Indian States, Makar Sankranti celebrated in Maharashtra , Uttarayan in Gujarat or Pongal in the South Indian states. This delicious Murmura ladoo is my humble contribution towards the theme. Jaggery provides warmth to the body and hence most of the sweets prepared during this festival use jaggery as a sweetener. Do check out my fellow blogger's post on this theme for delicious festive recipes.

Dietary Tips:

• Kid-Friendly
• Glten-Free
• Satvik
• Healthy dessert
• Festive treat
• Quick and easy 
• Good shelf Life
• Ideal Travel Food                        

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves: 12 - 14 ladoos

Ingredients: Measurements used 1 cup = 240 ml

• 3 cups Puffed Rice / Murmura  (70-80 grams)
• 1/2 cup jaggery ( 200 grams)
• 1-2 teaspoon ghee (optional)

Method:

1. Take a heavy bottom wok and dry-roast the puffed rice on low flame until it turns crisp for about 3-4 minutes while stirring to ensure the rice does not burn.          

                  

 2. Remove the roasted puffed rice in a bowl and keep aside. Now add 1 teaspoon ghee to the same pan and heat it. Add finely chopped or crushed jaggery to it and allow it to melt on low heat. Keep stirring continuously. Cook the jaggery until it turns bubbly. 

                               

3. Now to test the doneness of the jaggery syrup, drop few drops of the syrup into a bowl with cold water. If you are able to gather the drops and make a non-sticky ball out of it, the syrup is ready. Put off the flame if the syrup is ready or else cook for another few seconds and redo the water drop test. If you cook the jaggery syrup further the syrup will become hard and not coat the puffed rice evenly.

                    

4. Now add the puffed rice to the melted jaggery syrup all in one go and stir well so that the syrup coats the puffed rice evenly.

                            

5. Now, you have to proceed in making the ladoos very quickly. Take a fistful of portion from the mixture into your ghee greased palms and press it little to shape into a tight ball. Prepare all the ladoos similarly while the mixture is hot. Once the mixture cools down completely, you wont be able to shape the ladoos.

                               

6. Store the murmura ladoos in an air-tight container at room temperature and use as required. Serve the healthy and delicious Murmura ladoos as a after-school snack to your kids or enjoy it at anytime of the jay just to satisfy those sweet cravings. If making it for the festival, offer the ladoos to the deity first as Naivedhyam and later on distribute among the family and friends as prasadam. 

                          

Recipe Notes:

• Use good quality jaggery without any impurities for best results. Such jaggery can be crushed or grated and directly melted to get the syrup. In case, your jaggery has impurities, it has to be added with little water into a sauce pan. Once it melts, the syrup is strained and then the syrup is cooked further.
• The key to getting crispy crunchy Murmura ladoos is to dry roast the murmura before adding it to the jaggery syrup.
• The most important aspect in making perfect murmura ladoos is time factor. Once you add the puffed rice to the molten jaggery syrup, you have to be really very fast or else the mixture will solidify and you wont be shape into the ladoos. 
• Little cardamom powder and ginger powder also may be added to the jaggery syrup before adding puffed rice to it as a variation. I have kept it plain.
• In case you feel you wont be able to shape the mixture into ladoos, do not worry, add the entire mixture to a greased baking tray, spread it evenly and press it with some weight. You can cut into squares or rectangular shape on cooling and enjoy them as delicious sweet puffed rice bars instead.
• Addition of ghee is optional. For a vegan version you can skip it. I like the glaze and flavor ghee imparts to the ladoos. The recipe uses just about 1-2 teaspoon of ghee.
• The color of the ladoos depends upon the color of the jaggery. 

Would love to hear from You !

I hope you would love trying out this healthy and delicious Murmura Ladoo this festive season. If you do so, feel free to share your feedback with use in the form of likes and comments in the section below this post.

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See you soon with yet another healthy and delicious creation from my Kitchen. Until then stay safe and eat right !

Happy Cooking !

Happy Eating !

Regards 

Poonam Bachhav

For more festive recipes do check out the following links from this blog 

• Tilgul Ladoo                                

• Undhiyu                          

• Sakkarai Pongal                         

• Gur Papdi / Sukhdi

• Til Gud Cookies

• Gulachi Poli

• Bhogichi Bhaji