Nei Appam is a one of the common sweet made for the Thirukarthigai festival. The appam dough is made using rice flour and jaggery mix which is further cooked on the ghee. Let's learn how to make nei appam with step by step pictures and a video
Appam is one of the important neivedhyam dish for Krishna Jayanthi festival. On the auspicious occasion of Krishna Jayanthi, especially in the evening when we plan to invite Lord Krishna home, we have to fry the sweet appam. Nei Appam is one of the famous dish in Kerala. We usually make nei appam for many occasions like Avani Avittam, Karthigai Deepam and many auspicious occasions. Even we can prepare this as an evening snack and serve this as an after school snack for the kids!
The main 2 ingredients in appam is Rice and jaggery. First, the rice batter should be thickly ground then jaggery juice should be added to make appam batter. If the appam batter is very thin in consistency we can adjust the consistency by adding little wheat flour. We can also make appam with only wheat flour and jaggery without adding rice flour. Nei Appam is a very easy to make neivedhyam (offering) for any festivals or auspicious occasions.
Nei Appam is a one of the common sweet made for the Thirukarthigai festival. The appam dough is made using rice flour and jaggery mix which is further cooked on the ghee. Let's learn how to make nei appam with step by step pictures and a video
Rinse the rice twice and Soak the raw rice in water for an hour. After 1 hour, drain the water and add it to the mixer
Grind it in mixer to a fine paste without adding water. Now add grated coconut, banana, cardamom powder to the mixer
Grind it to a fine paste. Finally add jaggery and give a pulse or two. If you grind it more, the jaggery will dilute the appam batter. Now our appam batter is ready.
Now a days we have appakarai(Non stick Appam pan) which makes our job easier. Keep the nonstick appam pan in the flame and add little ghee to each kuzhi. When the pan is hot, take a small ladle and fill 3/4th of each hole with the batter.
Let the Appam cook for a while and then when it turns golden brown color, remove the appam from the oil, and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the flour
The yummy Appam is ready for neivedhyam and for serving
Video
Notes
Cooking soda helps in making appam softer and fluffy. We can also alternate with eno salt or we can also ignore this as this is only optional.
If the appam starts to break in the oil, add 2 teaspoon of wheat flour or rice flour to the ground appam flour and then try again
We used to get good quality jaggery few years back which do not need any straining of sand or stones. But nowadays most of the jaggery has stones or sand in it. So instead of grinding jaggery with the rice flour, we can add jaggery to pan and add just a teaspoon of water and allow it to dissolve and when the jaggery gets dissolved, we can strain the jaggery and add it to the rice batter and mix well. This way we can get rid of the stones.
Always first add ghee before pouring appam batter in each mould. that way the batter will not stick to bottom and after it gets cooked, it will automatically float so we can flip and cook on other side
Nutritional Info
Nutrition Facts
Nei Appam | Ghee Appam
Amount Per Serving (1 piece)
Calories 100Calories from Fat 90
% Daily Value*
Fat 10g15%
Sodium 1mg0%
Carbohydrates 10g3%
Fiber 1.1g5%
Protein 0.7g1%
Vitamin A 1420IU28%
Vitamin C 0.3mg0%
Calcium 60mg6%
Iron 0.1mg1%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Method with step by step pictures :
Rinse the rice twice and Soak the raw rice in water for an hour. After 1 hour, drain the water and add it to the mixer
Grind it in mixer to a fine paste without adding water. Now add grated coconut, banana, cardamom powder to the mixer
Grind it to a fine paste. Finally add jaggery and give a pulse or two. If you grind it more, the jaggery will dilute the appam batter. Now our appam batter is ready.
Now a days we have appakarai(Non stick Appam pan) which makes our job easier. Keep the nonstick appam pan in the flame and add little ghee to each kuzhi. When the pan is hot, take a small ladle and fill 3/4th of each hole with the batter. Let the Appam fry for a while and then when it turns golden brown color, remove the appam from the oil, and place it in a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat the above steps for the rest of the flour
The yummy Appam is ready for neivedhyam and for serving
Appam
Note: If the appam starts to break in the oil, add 2 teaspoon of wheat flour or rice flour to the ground appam flour and then try again
Thanks aunty for this wonderful receipe.I have tried it from net several times since this was my favorite sweet, but never worked.But yours turned out excellent – color,shape,sweetness,softness+crisp on outer side.Thx a ton.
I make it the same way as my mother and mother in law taught me.. I have also seen some Chakai pazham (jackfruit pieces)added to the batter before grinding instead of Banana..
I have enjoyed your recipes and after a long time made the Kalli.. All the best!!!
Hi subbu mami I use the same proportion. I also add a table spoon or two of coconut pieces finely chopped. I some times add fine chopped Chakka too whenever available. Since I am a palaghati I use the appakaral to make appam. My mom usually makes it nei appam and more appam together.
The appams did not break, and they puffed up like pooris in the kadai. which i assume is a good thing because, they tasted really good!
I have 2 concerns though… 1. The jaggery quite often contains little pieces of stones.. Usually when I make Chakkara Pongal, I dissolve the jaggery in water and drain the jaggery water till the stones are left in the end. Here, since we are grinding the jaggery as such is there any way to prevent the stones from spoiling the recipe? 2. The appams came out perfect but they seemed a bit too oily.. Is that normal or should I add something to reduce the oiliness?
Thanks again for this awesome recipe.. I'm a beginner for sweets and this recipe is just too perfect 😀
Hi Devapriya, thanks for your message. We used to get good quality jaggery few years back which do not need any straining of sand or stones. But nowadays most of the jaggery has stones or sand in it. So instead of grinding jaggery with the rice flour, we can add jaggery to pan and add just a teaspoon of water and allow it to dissolve and when the jaggery gets dissolved, we can strain the jaggery and add it to the rice batter and mix well. This way we can get rid of the stones. 2. If you have an appakarai (Paniyaram Mould), then pls use that so that the appam would not be too oily. You can also use a pinch of cooking soda that makes the appam soft and fluffy too
Made appam for janmashtami today. Came put great! Actually very simple recipe and loved the idea of grinding vellam instead of making paagu. Thanks so much!
Always first add ghee before pouring appam batter in each mould. that way the batter will not stick to bottom and after it gets cooked, it will automatically float so we can flip and cook on other side
Hi. The most important thing about your recipes are that you tell us that secret ingredient or method that gives the authentic taste . Thanks so much. The appam I madr became very crispy at the out and didn’t taste cooked inside. Any idea what did do wrong?
Thank you Meena, Did you try adding mashed banana? banana gives soft texture. Also add little more baking soda that will surely make the appam soft. Next time please ensure that you cook them in the medium flame. Once the oil is hot, reduce the fame to medium so that the appam gets cooked uniform. Please try and see if you are getting soft appam.
appam colour was awesome but it turned out hard. Did not use soda as I dont prefer using it. Used everything else per your recipe. Any suggestion why it was hard please? Thanks
You can soak some urad dal along with rice and that will help to get softer appam. also try adding ripe banana. Deep frying Rice flour or rice batter based snacks will always be crispy so we need to add urad dal or banana to make it softer if we don’t want to add baking soda
of late my appam comes out well, but turns hard when cold, I use 1 cup rice, 1 cup jaggery, 1 banana and 2 tbs coconut gratings. pls. help. This hasbeen happening of late, I have tried different methofs
Hi Jayanthi. Are you adding baking soda? baking soda helps to keep it soft. Also you can try adding 1-2 tbsp of urad dal soaked with rice. That will also help appam to retain its softness.
Thanks aunty for this wonderful receipe.I have tried it from net several times since this was my favorite sweet, but never worked.But yours turned out excellent – color,shape,sweetness,softness+crisp on outer side.Thx a ton.
Hello Mrs Subbalakshmi
I make it the same way as my mother and mother in law taught me.. I have also seen some Chakai pazham (jackfruit pieces)added to the batter before grinding instead of Banana..
I have enjoyed your recipes and after a long time made the Kalli..
All the best!!!
Subhalakshmi 🙂
I have also found that if you grind it a day before the Nei Appam comes out a lot better.. 🙂
Hi subbu mami
I use the same proportion. I also add a table spoon or two of coconut pieces finely chopped. I some times add fine chopped Chakka too whenever available. Since I am a palaghati I use the appakaral to make appam. My mom usually makes it nei appam and more appam together.
Thanks for this wonderful recipe!
The appams did not break, and they puffed up like pooris in the kadai. which i assume is a good thing because, they tasted really good!
I have 2 concerns though…
1. The jaggery quite often contains little pieces of stones.. Usually when I make Chakkara Pongal, I dissolve the jaggery in water and drain the jaggery water till the stones are left in the end. Here, since we are grinding the jaggery as such is there any way to prevent the stones from spoiling the recipe?
2. The appams came out perfect but they seemed a bit too oily.. Is that normal or should I add something to reduce the oiliness?
Thanks again for this awesome recipe.. I'm a beginner for sweets and this recipe is just too perfect 😀
Hi Devapriya, thanks for your message. We used to get good quality jaggery few years back which do not need any straining of sand or stones. But nowadays most of the jaggery has stones or sand in it. So instead of grinding jaggery with the rice flour, we can add jaggery to pan and add just a teaspoon of water and allow it to dissolve and when the jaggery gets dissolved, we can strain the jaggery and add it to the rice batter and mix well. This way we can get rid of the stones.
2. If you have an appakarai (Paniyaram Mould), then pls use that so that the appam would not be too oily. You can also use a pinch of cooking soda that makes the appam soft and fluffy too
Thank you for your immensely useful blog of recipes. Can I use rice flour if I can't grind raw rice? Will it have a similar comparable taste?
It was so yummy and thanks for the recipe.
Made appam for janmashtami today. Came put great! Actually very simple recipe and loved the idea of grinding vellam instead of making paagu. Thanks so much!
Hellos,
I going to try this recepie, but wanted to check if we can use basmati rice??? I live in Australia and we mainly find basmati rice.
yes surely we can use. I mostly use basmati only
Thank.you!
You are welcome
I want to make appam for tomorrow morning. I can soak in afternoon grind in evening and use next day morning
yes. Sorry for late response. Was not well for few days
I used to make appam but it stick to the bottom why it s so? please tell me.e
Always first add ghee before pouring appam batter in each mould. that way the batter will not stick to bottom and after it gets cooked, it will automatically float so we can flip and cook on other side
Hi. The most important thing about your recipes are that you tell us that secret ingredient or method that gives the authentic taste . Thanks so much. The appam I madr became very crispy at the out and didn’t taste cooked inside. Any idea what did do wrong?
Thank you Meena, Did you try adding mashed banana? banana gives soft texture. Also add little more baking soda that will surely make the appam soft. Next time please ensure that you cook them in the medium flame. Once the oil is hot, reduce the fame to medium so that the appam gets cooked uniform. Please try and see if you are getting soft appam.
Yes. I did. Ok. will do as suggested. Thanks a ton.
Can I use rice flour instead of soaking rice?
Honestly rice flour will not be good option. Try with wheat flour + rice flour combination. That will work
What’s the ratio of rice flour to wheat flour?
For 1 cup wheat flour add 2 tablespoon of rice flour
Thanks
Made it today .. came out perfect! Thank you.
So happy to hear Beena. Thank you
Hi Sowmya, What would be the shelf life of prepared Appam?
Hi, Nei Appam will be good for 3 days.
appam colour was awesome but it turned out hard. Did not use soda as I dont prefer using it. Used everything else per your recipe. Any suggestion why it was hard please? Thanks
You can soak some urad dal along with rice and that will help to get softer appam. also try adding ripe banana. Deep frying Rice flour or rice batter based snacks will always be crispy so we need to add urad dal or banana to make it softer if we don’t want to add baking soda
I tried it yesterday for Janmashtami it was very easy to follow and came out very well Thank you
So glad to know. Thank you so much Raj
The appams came out really well. Thank you so much for sharing the recipe
So glad to know Swetha. Thank you so much
of late my appam comes out well, but turns hard when cold, I use 1 cup rice, 1 cup jaggery, 1 banana and 2 tbs coconut gratings. pls. help. This hasbeen happening of late, I have tried different methofs
Hi Jayanthi. Are you adding baking soda? baking soda helps to keep it soft. Also you can try adding 1-2 tbsp of urad dal soaked with rice. That will also help appam to retain its softness.