Vattayappam Recipe | Vattayeppam | Sweetened Steamed Rice Cake

Thursday, January 01, 2015

Vattayappam Recipe | Vattayeppam | Sweetened Steamed Rice Cake

Happy New Year 2015 to all my friends and their families. Hope everyone is having a wonderful time!!! To begin this year, I am presenting the traditional Kerala tea time snack, Vattayappam recipe. Vattayappam is a steamed round cake leavened with yeast, flavoured with cardamom, sweetened with sugar or jaggery and garnished with ghee fried cashews and raisins. Here, we go for the step-by-step preparation.

Ingredients:

To Grind:

Raw Rice - 1 Cup(Soaked 6 to 8 hours)

Grated Coconut - 3/4 Cup

Cooked Rice - 2 tbsp

Water - as required(To make the batter similar to Idly batter consistency)

To Proof Yeast:

Active dry yeast - 1/2 tsp

Sugar - 2 tsp

Warm water - 1/3 Cup

To make Rice Porridge:

Coarsely ground rice - 2 tbsp

Water - 1/3 Cup

To sweeten & flavour:

Sugar - 1/2 Cup

Cardamom 6 to 7

Cashews - a handful

Raisins - a handful

Ghee - t tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the rice for 6 to 8 hours. Drain the rice and grind in a blender with little water until coarse. Remove 2 tbsp of this coarse mixture and keep it aside for the porridge. Now grind the remaining mixture to a smooth paste.

2. Meanwhile proof the yeast. In warm water, add sugar and yeast. Keep the mixture in warm place for 15 to 20 mins until it foams up. Also make the rice porridge by heating the coarsely ground rice mixture with water. Cook it in low flame, until it is cooked and reach the gum like consistency. Allow it to cool completely.

3. Now grind the coconut and cooked rice along with the smoothly ground rice paste.

4. Add the porridge and yeast mixture. Allow it to ferment overnight. The batter almost doubles after fermentation. Now add required sugar and mix the ghee fried cashews and raisins. Reserve few raisins and cashews to garnish once the cake is halfcooked.

5. Grease the round pan with little oil and pour the batter. After it is cooked for 10 mins, garnish with remaining cashews and raisins. Steam cook for 15 to 20 mins totally. Remove it and cool completely. Run a knife on the sides of the pan and gently lift the vattayappam with the spatula or anything that is flat.

Slice it into wedges and serve. This can be served as a evening snack. Kids will enjoy it for breakfast as well.

Points to remember:

Adjust the sugar as per your preference.
If you don't have yeast, try it with fermented coconut water(Coconut water kept in fridge for 1 week). Grind the rice with this fermented coconut water. While steaming, you can add a pinch of Baking soda.

Warm Regards,
Happy's Cook - Divya