Narkel naru recipe | How to make narkel naru (Bengali coconut ladoo with jaggery and sugar) step by step

Name: Narkel naru recipe | How to make narkel naru (Bengali coconut ladoo with jaggery and sugar) step by step
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Ingredients: 2 cups Freshly Grated coconut; 1 cup Akher Gur/ Sugarcane Jaggery; 4 pcs Cardamom pods (crushed/ powder); 1/4 tsp Ghee(for greasing plate); 3 cups Freshly Grated Coconut; 1.5 cups Sugar (Chini); 1/4 cup of Whole Milk (optional); 4 pcs Cardamom pods (crushed/ powder); 3/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp Ghee (for flavour + greasing the plate)

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Narkel naru is an old homemade Bengali sweet coconut balls (ladoo) recipe. Made with freshly grated coconut, Jaggery(gur) or sugar(chini), ghee and green cardamom powder. Being dry, this sweet is easy to store for a long time. My mother mainly prepare this naru for Durga pooja, Kali pooja, Lokkhi (Lakshmi) pooja, Saraswati pooja‘s prasad.

“Narkel” is coconut and “Naru” means a sweet shaped like a ball or ladoo. For making this lovely, grated coconut is cooked either with sugar cane jaggery or regular sugar in low heat. Cook the mixture until the water extracted from coconut, jaggery, or sugar evaporates and turns into a perfect sticky mixture that forms balls. Lastly, flavour the mixture with ghee and crushed green cardamom (you can remove the skin of the cardamom too). To shape all balls grease both palms with a little ghee or white oil, take small lemon-sized dough from the mixture and roll the dough by keeping it between your palms and naru will be ready.

Narkel naru does not need any introduction to a Bengali, whether a Bengali belongs to West Bengal or Bangladesh or any other part of India or even any corner of the world. Though narkel naru is commonly known as nariyal ladoo to all North Indian states and coconut ladoo to the rest of the Indian regions including South Indian Kitchen.

About Chinir Narkel Naru recipe (Narkel naru with sugar)

Chinir narkel naru is a sugar (chini in Bengali) coated Bengali coconut laddu flavoured with ghee and cardamom powder. This is a milky white sweet coconut ball named sada narkeler naru in our Bengali household. For making this sweet, freshly grated coconut is mixed with refined sugar, a little milk (or condensed milk or khoya kheer), crushed cardamom seeds, and ghee. This mixture is then kept on a slow heat of the oven and cooked with continuous stirring until makes a sticky substance. Then grease both palms with a little ghee or white oil. Take the small lemon-sized dough from the mixture and roll the dough by keeping it between your palms and chinir narkel naru will be ready.

You can use plain sugar granules or sugar cubes too, though powdered sugar (called boora or even tagar in hindi) helps you to get quick pak or sticky binding.

Though unrefined sugar (slight reddish), palm sugar, coconut sugar or organic sugar can be a healthier sugary substance than using refined sugar. However, make sure the sugar substance has a sticky nature to coat well with the grated coconut. Otherwise, the coconut-sugar substance mixture will be crumbly and could not able to make a perfect naru.

About Gurer Narkel Naru recipe (Narkel naru with jaggery)

Gurer narkel naru means coconut ladoo (in English) made with Gur or jaggery or, a traditional coconut sweet from Bengali cuisine. In Bengali households, gurer naru is prepared with freshly grated coconut, Akher gur (sugarcane jaggery), and crushed cardamom pods. It looks brown, due to the dark brown colour of akher gur (only available in West Bengal & Bangladesh). How the gur will be dark, naru will be dark and make it exotic as well.

However, I make my naru with a light brown coloured hard-shaped sugarcane jaggery (similar to veli gur found in West Bengal), as this gur is mostly available in local Bangalore shops. For me, that is the common option for making any gurer nadu. As this gur is too hard, so I either grate or grind it or make its liquid form first by boiling it with a little water. However, you can use a store-bought packet powdered jaggery too.

But If my user wants to make a healthy gurer naru containing a dark brown texture then must use organic jaggery. Organic jaggery is dark in texture and healthy as well. Organic jaggery is available in malls, supermarkets & any online grocery apps, available in cubes and powdered form. However, you can use any kind of palm jaggery (from date palm jaggery like patali gur or coconut palm jaggery), also a healthy option.

Pro Tips By Maa

My Maa says for making perfect narkel naru the first important condition is a perfect ratio of coconut-jaggery or coconut-sugar portion.
If using 2 cups (any cup size) of grated coconut, to make a perfect naru take the same 1 cup of Jaggery or sugar. This means here how many cups of coconut will be used, jaggery or sugar will be just half in quantity.
If the sweet substances (jaggery or sugar) are used in less amount, pak or binding would not be perfect and made the naru crumbly.
On the other hand, excess use of any sweet substance makes this sweet little hard.
Maa always suggest using a thick and heavy bottom pan for binding, otherwise, chances are high to get easily burnt from the bottom.
Even my Maa says time is very crucial to make perfect naru. More cooking can make the coconut mixture crumbly and the naru gets easily broken after forming the balls. Wherever less cooking time never helps to get a perfect sticking consistency and naru will be so soft with lots of moisture. Not helpful to store for a long time.
while making naru, continuous stirring is needed as the first coconut jaggery mixture or coconut sugar mixture will leave the water when kept in heat. Need to cook the mixture until that water gets evaporated and while the binding starts to get sticky.

Let’s check how easy to make this sweet at home with my Maa’s step-by-step detailed instructions and photos. If you have any queries about this recipe ask me in the comment section below this post.

Try some of my other Bengali sweet recipes for Durga puja

Channar Sandesh

Chandrapuli Sandesh (Coconut channa Sandesh)

Kacha golla Sandesh

Narkel naru recipe | How to make narkel naru (Bengali coconut ladoo with jaggery and sugar) step by step

Recipe by Moumita PaulCourse: Festival sweetCuisine: Bengali, IndianDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

servings

Prep time

minutes

Cooking time

minutes

Calories

300

kcal

Total time

minutes

A delicious sweet coconut ball made at Bengali homes with freshly grated coconut, jaggery or sugar, ghee and cardamom powder for pooja. No dry fruits are required to make these sweets.

Ingredients

For making Gurer narkel naru
2 cups Freshly Grated coconut
1 cup Akher Gur/ Sugarcane Jaggery
4 pcs Cardamom pods (crushed/ powder)
1/4 tsp Ghee(for greasing plate)
For making Chinir narkel naru
3 cups Freshly Grated Coconut
1.5 cups Sugar (Chini)
1/4 cup of Whole Milk (optional)
4 pcs Cardamom pods (crushed/ powder)
3/4 tsp + 1/4 tsp Ghee (for flavour + greasing the plate)

How to make Gurer Narkel naru recipe (coconut ladoo with jaggery) step by step

First, take a medium-sized coconut and grate it (or peel its skin, cut it into small pieces and blend it well ).
Keep the grated coconut in a thick heavy bottom pan, and mix it with gur or sugar cane jaggery (for each 1 cup coconut = 1/2 cup gur or jaggery).
Mix it well by hand or by using a spatula or the back side of a bowl.
Once the mixture is well combined. Then place the pan on low-medium heat of a gas stove. Stir it well.
First, coconut and gur will release water, which can be visible as bubbles on the sides of this mixture.
With continuous stirring and cooking, the water gradually dries up and binding (pak) will start.
Once the binding gets sticky and you can be able to make a ball, then turn off the heat.
Add crushed cardamom pods to this coconut-jaggery mixture and mix well. Cover the pan to make it airtight.
Then remove the pan from the gas stove and slightly cool it down hardly for 4-5 minutes.
To cool it down and easy to roll up mash the mixture with a spatula or the back side of a bowl.
Start rolling the naru when the mixture is still hot.
Grease your both hands (palms) with a little ghee or white oil for rolling the naru.
Then take small lemon size portions from the coconut-jaggery mixture in your hand, press it 4-5 times by keeping it in your feast, and then roll it with the help of two palms to make a ladoo.
When your hands are not able to tolerate the burning sensation of hot coconut mixture then take a little water in a bowl, and rub it on both hands.
When naru is ready, keep it on a ghee-greased plate (grease the plate with 1/4 tsp ghee).
Once all the gurer naru is done, completely cool them down and store them in an airtight container. Enjoy the naru throughout the whole festival.
How to make Chinir Narkel naru recipe (coconut ladoo With Sugar)
For making narkel naru with sugar (chinir narkel naru), also, take a medium-sized coconut, and grate it well to keep only the white part of the coconut meat, not the brown skin.
Keep it (grated coconut meat) in a thick heavy bottom pan, and mix it with sugar (for each 1 cup coconut = 1/2 cup sugar) and 1/4 cup whole milk (cow milk/ Buffalo milk).
Mix it well by hand or by using a spatula or the back side of a bowl.
Once the mixture is well combined, then place it on low-medium heat of the gas stove.
First, coconut and sugar will release water, which can be visible as bubbles on the sides of this mixture.
With continuous stirring and cooking, the water gradually dries up and binding (pak) will start.
Once the binding gets sticky and you can be able to make a ball, then turn off the heat.
Add 4 crushed cardamom pods and 3/4 tsp desi ghee to this coconut-sugar mixture and mix well. Cover the pan to make it airtight.
Then remove the pan from the gas stove and slightly cool it down (hardly for 4-5 minutes).
To cool it down and easy to roll up mash the mixture with a spatula or the back side of a bowl.
Start rolling the naru when the mixture is still hot.
Grease your both hands (palms) with a little ghee or white oil for rolling the naru.
Then take a teaspoon full of coconut-sugar mixture in your hand, press it 4-5 times by keeping it in your feast, and then roll it to make a lodoo.
When your hands are not able to tolerate the burning sensation of hot coconut mixture then take a little water in a bowl, and rub it on both hands.
When naru is ready, keep it on a ghee-greased plate (grease the plate with 1/4 tsp ghee).
Once all the chinir naru is done, completely cool them down, then store it in a airtight container. Enjoy the laddu throughout the whole festival.

Notes

1. Scrape the narkel with narkel kuruni (traditional coconut scrapper). Or you can scrape it with a hand coconut scrapper or in a blender as I directed in this recipe.
2. Start stirring from the beginning to avoid burning from the bottom.
3. Use crushed cardamom seeds and avoid using the cardamom skin, cardamom flavours will be also intact with seeds.
4. Milk or milk powder is used in chinir naru to make this naru more white, and delicious, and to get a quick sticky Pak (means (well binding of ingredients.)
5. If you are using big chunks of gur then before making the naru, first turn the gur in liquid by breaking it into pieces and boiling it with water until gur gets sticky.
6. You can use powdered jaggery too easily get in any online app store.