Vattayappam (വട്ടയപ്പം) is very common traditional appam (cake) recipe from Kerala Christian cuisine. It’s another fermented Steamed Rice Cake preparation generally sweeter than Appam. This spongy semi sweat bread is served as a snack and even as a main course dish with curry.
Ingredients
- Idli rice : 2 Cup
- Coconut milk : 2 Cup
- Sugar : 1 Cup
- Grated coconut : 1 Cup
- Yeast : ½ T- Sp
- Milk : 2 Tbl- Sp
- Jeera : a pinch
- Cardamom : 4
For kappi:-
- Ground batter ½ Cup
- Water 1 Cup
Method
- Wash and soak the rice for about 2.5- 3 hours.
- Grind the rice along with grated coconut, sugar, jeera, cardamom, yeast and coconut milk into a smooth batter. Add coconut milk a little at a time.
- From the above batter mix, take ½ cup of batter and dilute with 1 cup of water in a cooking pan. Cook it in a low flame, stir it continuously to avoid forming lumps. (This step is called Kappi kachal-കപ്പി കാച്ചൽ ). It should be thick and smooth texture.
- Wait for it to cool completely and then add the same it to the batter and mix it without any lumps.
- Keep it for fermentation in a warm place, I kept the batter in my oven (preheated to low temperature & took me about 2.5 hours to ferment – time varies with temperature). Once it got fermented, can see the batter volume is increased and bubbles formed.
- Mix it well, if the batter is too thick, may mix well with 1-2 Tbl- Sp of milk.
- Check the sweetness, if you want more sugar, add it and mix well.
- Steam enough water in a steamer (I used idli pot) and grease a steal plate/ oven safe dish and keep it in the steamer.
- Once the steam starts coming out, add the batter into the greased plate. Make sure to fill the batter in half of the plate, as it will increase the volume.
- Cook it until done( ~ 12 minutes, May check it with a toothpick. Insert a tooth pick in the center of vattayppm, if it comes clean once cooked).
- Take it out and let it cool completely and gently move it to another plate.
