Pori-badam urundai (puffed rice and almond laddus)

Deepavali treats need not necessarily make you guilty of high calorie/fat laden indulgence. With a little bit effort and imagination you can make goodies
that are absolutely delicious and yet healthy. If you do not believe me, try these yummy laddus made all out of healthy ingredients. A lot of you might be familiar with puffed rice laddus (pori urundai), I've just given this a little variation plus thrown in a couple of extra ingredients.

Puffed rice (pori/murmure) - 2 cups
Raw almonds - 3/4 cup (ground to meal)
Jaggery (sharkkara) syrup - 1 cup
Cardamom - 4-5 Nos
White sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Saffron strands - 3 or 4 (optional)
Medicinal (raw) camphor (pachai karpooram) - two pinches (optional)

Powder the almonds in a coffee grinder/chutney jar of your mixie/food processor). Pour the jaggery syrup into a thick bottomed skillet and add the rest of the ingredients one by one. Keep stirring. You will find that the puffed rice absorbs the syrup and will reduce in size. Stir on low flame till everything is well incorporated and reaches a coarse halwa/jam like consistency. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes.
Pull out small sections and shape into small lemon sized balls. Grease your palms with a little odourless cooking oil like rice bran/canola/sunflower or use ghee (clarified butter) instead.

Refridgerate and these keep well for a week.

PS:

To make Jaggery syrup - In a seperate vessel boil about 150 ml water and dissolve an equal quantity of jaggery. Filter to remove scum. Pour this into a thick bottomed skillet and simmer till it reaches a thick,syrupy texture.

Sending these to the Diwali Sweets & Snacks event at Home Cook's Recipes.