Easy Unniappam

Unni appam is a small round sweet rice cake made from rice, Jaggery, plantain,Ghee and other ingredients. It is a popular snack in Kerala and is a main offering to Lord Ganapathi. In Malayalam, unni means small and 'appam means rice cake.



Ingredients :

1 cup Maida / All purpose flour
1 cup very fine semolina
1 cup grated jaggery (gur)
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup chopped fresh coconut
1/2 cup black sesame seeds
1 tbsp ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom (elaichi) powder
4 tbsp Jack fruit jam (optional)
coconut oil or Ghee for deep-frying

Method:
1. Melt the jaggery with little water and then strain it.
2. Blend the Maida, semolina, banana and melted jaggery with jack fruit jam
(optional) in a mixer to form a thick paste using a little water if required .
3.Heat the ghee in a kadhai, add coconut and sauté till it turns light brown in
colour, while stirring continuously.
4.Add coconut pieces, sesame seeds and cardamom powder to the Maida and
jaggery paste and mix well to make a smooth batter.

5.Keep it aside in a warm place for 4 to 5 hours .
6. Heat the oil/Ghee in a Unniappam/Paniyaram Non stick pan, drop a spoonful
of the batter in each of the pits in the appam mould and deep fry on a medium flame till they turn golden brown in colour .
7.Repeat with the remaining batter to make unni appams.
8. If you dont have a uniappam non stick pan , heat oil/ghee in a kadai and drop a spoonfull of batter into a kadai and fry till golden brown.

Tips:

1.You can dip a toothpick into the unni appam to check for stickiness. If the batter sticks to the tooth pick, it is not ready to be turned yet