Pori Urundai | Sweet Puffed Rice Balls

Karthigai Deepam / Thirukarthigai is a festival of lights celebrated in South India and falls on the Tamil month of Karthigai. There are many interesting stories behind observing this festival. In the evening of the festival day, oil lamps are lit up in houses and streets. The lighting of lamps is considered very auspicious and brings in prosperity and happiness in the home.

On karthigai festival, we put kolams, decorate the whole house with oil lamps and make neivedhyam (sweets). Pori urundai is a traditional sweet made during Karthigai festival. It can be made with nel pori or aval pori. As I don’t get nel pori here, I made with arisi pori (puffed rice). These sweet puffed rice balls also make a healthy after-school snack for kids. 

Pori Urundai

Sweet puffed balls with jaggery, coconut, dry ginger and cardamom powder
Servings 12
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes

Ingredients

  • ½ cup grated jaggery
  • ¼ cup water
  • 2 tsp ghee
  • 4 cups puffed rice / pori
  • ¼ cup thin coconut slivers
  • ¼ tsp dry ginger powder
  • ½ tsp cardamom powder
  • Rice flour to dust hands

Instructions

  • In a small pan, heat ½ tsp ghee and fry the coconut slivers for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
  • Heat a kadai and add jaggery and water. Melt the jaggery completely and strain it to remove any impurities.
  • Wash the kadai and add the strained jaggery syrup to it. Cook the syrup over medium flame until it becomes frothy and thick.
  • Add few drops of the syrup in a plate of water. The syrup should not dissolve and if we collect the syrup together, it should form a soft ball.
  • This is the required consistency of the jaggery syrup. Remove from heat and add remaining ghee, coconut slivers, dry ginger powder, cardamom powder and puffed rice.
  • Quickly combine everything until the puffed rice is well coated with syrup. When the mixture is warm, grease hands with oil/ghee and roll tightly into balls.

Notes

  • Use dark colored jaggery (paagu vellam) for making these balls.
  • The soft-ball consistency stage is very important for this recipe. If removed in the wrong stage, you will not be able to form the balls or the balls will become very hard.
  • If the puffed rice mixture completely cools down, it will be difficult to form balls. In this case, heat the mixture lightly to melt the syrup and make balls.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Indian

Did you make this recipe?

Leave a comment below to let me know how it turned out for you! Or snap a photo and tag @spillthespices on Instagram and Facebook with the hashtag #spillthespices.

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  1. looks perfect.. one of my fav sweet

  2. Me too clicked today,you have made it perfectly…

  3. You have made it perfectly and beautiful clicks too..

  4. wow!! looks so yummy, perfectly made and lovely clicks 🙂

  5. I loved the second shoot, lovely capture.

  6. i cant say how much i love these
    beautiful one 🙂 Will try this once 🙂 Nice pics 🙂

  7. Brought back childhood memories.. I used to eat them when I was a kid.. never tried making them.

  8. You have made it perfectly.. lovely pics.

  9. looks really so good… I have some pori in my pantry, feeling so badly tempted…

  10. Lovely presentation Sona and you have them perfectly.

  11. Looks perfect & Delicious…

  12. m jus loving the coconut bites every time i miss it.. but nor tis time. sopperrr

  13. Perfectly made pori urundai's dear.. Awesome pics too.

  14. Beautiful clicks Sona.. You made them perfectly..

  15. A favorite among kids! Lovely!

  16. Love to munch those crisp balls at any time. As always lovely photography.

  17. Perfectly made,looks so yummy

  18. very delicious looking puffed rice balls. I like that you have added ginger powder.

  19. Ohh wow.. I used to love this as a kid.
    Yummy yummy

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