Appam Recipe Without Yeast | How to Prepare Appam Batter for Soft Appam – Appam is a bowl shaped thin pancake, originating from South India, made with fermented rice batter and coconut milk. It is eaten most frequently for breakfast or dinner.
Appam is an easy-to-make South Indian recipe that you can prepare anytime with just a little bit of planning. Appams are soft and fluffy with a hint of sweetness. They are Gluten-free and vegan. They are best paired with vegetable stew & coconut milk. But, you can also enjoy with any Stew, chicken or mutton curry, among other dishes.
Appam is my all time favorite dish. Appam with sweet coconut milk is something I can actually have it everyday. There is no addition of yeast in this Appam recipe. The appam batter ferments naturally. Traditionally appams are made in iron skillet called appa chatti. If you do not have appa chatti or appam pan, you can make it in any other non stick pan with lid.
Among many variations to make appam, here is how I make appam!!
Steps to follow for
Appam Recipe Without Yeast
Making Appam Batter:
- Add idli rice, raw rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds and sago(sabudana) to a bowl.
- Rinse a couple of times and soak together for at least 5 hours. I usually soak it in the morning around 10 am and grind around 5 pm and ferment it overnight.
- Drain and then add them to the grinder. Add required amount of water and grind all the ingredients to a smooth batter.
- Transfer the batter to a large bowl. Add salt and mix it well with your hands. Cover and keep aside for fermenting for 8 to 12 hours, depending on the temperature conditions where you live.
- The batter will rise and increase in volume the next day.
- Mix well and remove required batter for making appams to another bowl. Refrigerate the rest of the batter and you can use it for about 3 days.
- Just before making appams, add sugar, coconut milk, cooking soda and mix well. If the batter is too thick, adjust the consistency by adding a little water. Keep it aside for 10 minutes.
Let’s make Appam:
- After 10 minutes, appam batter can be used to make soft appams. Just make sure to add coconut milk & cooking soda only to the batter you are going to use immediately.
- Heat a deep kadai or an appam pan with handles. Smear some oil on the kadai if using an iron kadai. If using non stick kadai, then skip smearing the oil.
- Reduce the heat to low and pour a ladle full of the batter in the centre. Turn and tilt the pan so as to spread the batter. Holding both the handles of the pan, rotate the pan in such a way that the batter spreads all around in a circle. The remaining batter will come to the center (that is why the appam is thick in the center and lacy on the outside)
- Add a few drops of oil around the edges, cover the pan, simmer and let the appam cook for a min. The base would become nicely light golden. You can leave it a few seconds extra to brown a bit more and make it extra crisp (I like it this way). Once the appam is cooked and the edges start turning brown, remove the appam from the pan. Appam cooks only on one side. Appam is done when the sides are brown. Remove the appam slowly with the help of a spatula or the appam will even come off easily if you lift it with your hands.
- Make appams with rest of the batter this way.
- Serve the appam hot or warm with Vegetable Stew or Sweetened Coconut Milk or both.
Appam Recipe Without Yeast | How to Prepare Appam Batter
Appam is a bowl shaped thin pancake with Crispy edges & a Fluffy Center. It is made with fermented rice batter & coconut milk, a popular breakfast originating from South India.
Servings: 2
Ingredients
To Grind:
- 1 Cup Idli Rice
- 1 Cup Raw rice
- 1/4 Cup Urad dal whole urad dal without skin
- 1 tsp Fenugreek seeds
- 1 tbsp Sago/Sabudana
- Required Water to grind.
For One Third of Ground Batter:
- 1/2 tsp Sugar (1.5 tsp For full batter)
- 1/4 Cup Coconut milk (3/4 Cup For full batter)
- A Pinch of Cooking soda or Appam Soda (1/4 tsp For full batter)
- Oil to make Appam As needed
Instructions
Grinding Batter:
- Add idli rice, raw rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds and sago(sabudana) to a bowl.
- Rinse a couple of times and soak together for at least 5 hours. I usually soak it in the morning around 10 am and grind around 5 pm and ferment it overnight.
- Drain and then add them to the grinder. Add required amount of water and grind all the ingredients to a smooth batter.
- Transfer the batter to a large bowl. Add salt and mix it well with your hands. Cover and keep aside for fermenting for 8 to 12 hours, depending on the temperature conditions where you live.
- The batter will rise and increase in volume the next day.
- Mix well and remove required batter for making appams to another bowl. Refrigerate the rest of the batter and you can use it for about 3 days.
Making Appam:
- Just before making appams, add sugar, coconut milk, cooking soda and mix well. If the batter is too thick, adjust the consistency by adding a little water. Keep it aside for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, appam batter can be used to make soft appams. Just make sure to add coconut milk & cooking soda only to the batter you are going to use immediately.
- Heat a deep kadai or an appam pan with handles. Smear some oil on the kadai if using an iron kadai. If using non stick kadai, then skip smearing the oil.
- Pour a ladle full of the batter in the centre. Turn and tilt the pan so as to spread the batter.
- Add a few drops of oil around the edges, cover the pan, simmer and let the appam cook for 2 min. The base would become nicely light golden. You can leave it a few seconds extra to brown a bit more and make it extra crisp.
- Make all appams this way.
- Serve the appam hot or warm with Vegetable Stew or Sweetened Coconut Milk or both.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Yields about 15 medium sized appams approximately.
- If grinding the batter with fresh coconut then it can stay good for a day when refrigerated.
- Batter before adding cooking soda and coconut milk can stay good for 4 days in the refrigerator.
- If the holes are really big and wide and the batter is not sticking to the pan, the batter is very thin in consistency. So, add a little batter to adjust the consistency.
- If the appam is coming very heavy, then batter is very thick and needs to be diluted with some water.
- If the batter is not browning properly, it means the batter has not been fermented enough or very less sugar has been added.
- If the batter is too thick, it won't get cooked properly in the middle, so dilute with water/ coconut milk for a pouring consistency.
- If you added too much cooking/appam soda, appam will be light yellow and not white. Then, add more batter to adjust the soda.
- Add cooking soda carefully, don't add too much as it will lead to appam sticking to the pan! Cooking soda can be replaced with ENO salt.
- At times, if batter has fermented very well, you may even skip adding cooking soda. You can just make one appam to see if you get good holes as it gets cooked. If it comes fine, you can even skip adding cooking soda. But, if takes too long to cook, then you need to add cooking soda.
- Appam doesn’t need any flipping to cook on other side. Just cover & cook.
- Sugar is optional and can be added at the time of preparing the appam. Its mainly for adding little sweetness to the batter and get golden color sides.
- If you do not have idli rice, you can make it with raw rice itself. Sona masoori or ponni works well.
- You may add 2 tablespoon cooked rice / pre-soaked poha while grinding the batter for spongy appams.
- Allow the batter to ferment by keeping it in a warm place for about at least 8 hours. If you live in a cold place, it might take longer to ferment.
- Do not keep the batter for along time after adding coconut milk and soda, try to finish the batter soon making appams.
- For variations- Crack an egg in the centre of the batter while cooking to make egg appams. Or stuff the centre batter with any dry non-veg curries like dry chicken curry, mutton chukka or Kheema.
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Cheers!!
Padma.
