Paal Kozhukattai Recipe With Jaggery & Coconut Milk | Undralla Payasam | Chettinad Paal Kozhukattai (Kolukattai Payasam)

Paal Kozhukattai Recipe | | Undralla Payasam, a delicious and one of the easiest dessert to make for Lord Ganesha. Cute little sphere shaped rice flour dumplings are dunked & cooked in a delicious cardamom-coconut stew.

Food always plays a key role in Indian festivals and we make modak and kozhukattai to celebrate Ganesh chaturthi festival. Vinayaka Chaturthi is a festival celebrated in India for lord Ganesha’s birthday. This year we are celebrating on 22nd August.  Every region in India have their own specialities.

Paal Kozhukatai, a very popular Chettinad sweet made with jaggery, cardamom and coconut milk. We can make Pal kozhukattai with sugar or jaggery. This is the version with jaggery and coconut milk. Always jaggery with coconut milk goes very well and the taste is so good that we will be tempted to have more. Also the rice flour based kozhukattai balls are initially cooked in thin coconut milk and then combined with jaggery and finally garnished with thick coconut milk. The key is to keep the kozhukattai balls soft!! There are many ways to make this Paal Kozhukattai aka Undralla Payasam. What I’m sharing today is my favourite way to make this yummy dessert!!

A similar traditional dessert from the Telugu Cuisine known as PALATHALIKALU is offered to Lord Ganesha!! But, this is prepared with normal milk and has no coconut milk. They are completely different in their own way, but, both of them taste great!!

Without further ado, let’s get started!! Paal Kozhukattai Recipe

Steps to follow for

Paal Kozhukattai Recipe

Let’s make the Dough:

You can also check THIS method to make the kozhukattai Maavu (Rice ball dough).

If you want to make Rice Flour at home, click HERE.

• To a bowl, add in the rice flour/idiyappam flour. To this add coconut and sugar and give it a nice mix.
• In a sauce pan, boil water with salt and ghee/oil. Once it starts boiling, turn off the heat.
• Add hot water little by little to the rice flour mixture and mix well with a spatula to make a smooth dough. Cover and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Once cooled, knead again. Grease your palm with ghee/oil and pinch a tiny portion of the dough and roll into marble sized balls. Repeat this for rest of the dough. Keep the rolled kozhukattai covered with damp cloth to prevent it from drying.
• Dissolve a little paste (say 3 to 4 balls) in 1/4 cup water and keep it aside for later use. In the mean time prepare the jaggery syrup.

Let’s prepare the Jaggery Syrup:

• In a pan add jaggery and add a little water just enough to cover the jaggery in the pan. Bring it to boil for about 2 minutes (no need of any string consistency) and turn off the heat. Strain to remove any impurities in jaggery and set aside to cool down.

Let’s make Kolukattai Payasam:

• In another pan, add equal quantities of regular milk, thin coconut milk (2nd Milk…Click HERE to see How to make Coconut Milk) & water (Make sure that in total you want to have at least 3 cups liquid, you can adjust ratio to your liking…I have used 1:1:1 ratio).
• Bring the liquid to a boil. Add the prepared kozhukattai balls into the boiling milk. Let it cook for 1 to 2 minutes before stirring.
• Now, very gently stir to prevent the balls from sticking to the bottom. Once kozhukattai is cooked, it will float on top. Check for doneness.
• Add in the dissolved paste liquid. This will give a good consistency to the payasam. Let it boil for 2 minutes, you will see that it starts to thicken.
• Now add filtered jaggery syrup (room temperature) and give a gentle stir again. Cover and boil for another 2 minutes.
• Add in thick coconut milk and give it a mix. Wait for just a minute and turn off heat. Do not roll boil the milk once coconut milk is added. If you boil after adding coconut milk, the milk will curdle.
• Sprinkle some cardamom powder and mix well. Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving.

Serving Suggestion:

• Rest for at least 30 minutes before serving. This will thicken the payasam and also all the flavours will infuse into the balls and taste good.
• You can serve Paal Kozhukattai warm or cold. Offer to God as Prasadam or just enjoy it as a dessert.
• Serve the paal kozhukattai with some snacks like thattai, murukku or pakodas.

Print Recipe

Paal Kozhukattai Recipe | Undralla Payasam

Easy to make dessert for Ganesh Chaturthi. Sphere shaped rice flour dumplings are dunked & cooked in a delicious cardamom-coconut stew.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Course: Festive Sweet / Dessert, Prasadam / Festive offering

Cuisine: Indian (South Indian/Chettinad)

Keyword: paal kozhukattai, undralla payasam, kolukattai payasam, chettinad paal kozhukattai

Servings: 6

Author: Padma Veeranki

Ingredients

For Rice Dumplings:

• 1/2 Cup Idiyappam flour or Rice Flour
• 1 tbsp Grated Coconut
• 1 tbsp Sugar
• 1 to 1 1/4 Cup Water Add as needed
• 1 tsp Ghee or Oil
• 1/4 tsp Salt

For Jaggery Liquid:

• 3/4 Cup powdered jaggery Adjust to taste
• 3/4 to 1 Cup Water

For Sweet Coconut Stew

• 1 Cup Milk
• 1 Cup Thin Coconut Milk
• 1 Cup Water
• 1/2 cup Thick coconut milk
• 1 tsp Cardamom Powder

Instructions

Dough For Dumplings:

• To a bowl, add in the rice flour/idiyappam flour. To this add coconut and sugar and give it a nice mix.
• In a sauce pan, boil water with salt and ghee/oil. Once it starts boiling, turn off the heat and add little by little to the rice flour mixture and mix well with a spatula to make a smooth dough.
• Cover and let it rest for 20 minutes.
• Once cooled, knead again. Grease your palm with ghee and pinch a tiny portion of the rice paste and roll into balls.
• Repeat this for rest of the dough. Dissolve a little paste (say 3 to 4 balls) in 1/4 cup water and keep it aside for later use.
• Keep the rolled kozhukattai balls covered with damp cloth to prevent from drying out.
• In the mean time prepare the jaggery syrup.

For Jaggery Syrup:

• In a pan add jaggery and add a water, enough to cover the jaggery in the pan.
• Bring it to boil for about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool a little. Filter to remove any impurities in jaggery. Set aside to cool down.

Making Paal Kozhukattai:

• In another pan, add equal quantities of normal milk, thin coconut milk & water. Bring it to a boil. Add the prepared kozhukattai balls into the boiling milk. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes before stirring.
• Now, very gently stir to prevent the balls from sticking to the bottom. Once kozhukattai is cooked, it will float on top. Check for doneness.
• Add in the dissolved paste liquid. This will give a good consistency to the payasam. Let it boil for 2 minutes, you will see that it starts to thicken.
• Now add filtered jaggery syrup (room temperature) and give a gentle stir again. Cover and boil for another 2 minutes.
• Add in thick coconut milk and give it a mix. Wait for just a minute and turn off heat. Do not roll boil the milk once coconut milk is added, otherwise it will curdle.
• Sprinkle some cardamom powder and mix well. Let it rest for 30 minutes before serving.
• Serve it warm or cold.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Adding oil in the water helps to cook the dough non-sticky and soft.
• To get a crack free smooth kozhukattai balls, kneading to a soft dough is the important step.
• You can replace the jaggery syrup with the sugar.
• You can adjust jaggery as per your preference. But, always filter jaggery syrup to remove the impurities.
• Optionally, you can steam cook the kozhukattai separately and then add it. But, I prefer to cook completely in the liquid.
• Also, roll the balls very small, so that they get cooked easily in the milk sauce and absorb the flavours. If you make them too big, the balls will taste bland. You can make the rice balls in oblong, cylindrical shape too.
• Always cover the dough with a damp wet cloth to avoid drying. Grease your hands with ghee to make crack free balls and it adds flavour too. 
• You can replace coconut milk with almond milk, oat milk or cashew milk. But, the authentic recipe calls for coconut milk.
• Add the rice balls to the roll boiling milk only, at first the balls sink to the bottom, once it cooked it starts floating on the top automatically. 
• Kozhukattai will break and dissolve in liquid if you add without boiling. Liquid  should roll boil well.
• For the perfectly cooked kozhukattai, cook it on a medium heat until the balls float on top.
• Cooling the jaggery syrup to room temperature and adding is an important step. Otherwise, milk may curdle.
• Instead of cardamom powder you can use any other essence for flavouring like saffron. Even 1 pinch of edible camphor can be added at last for that divine flavour.
• The sauce tends to get thicker, once it starts to cool down, so switch off the heat while the sauce is in running consistency.
• If you feel the sauce is too thick later, then dilute it with little milk or water & reheat.

Check out a similar traditional dessert from the Telugu Cuisine known as PALATHALIKALU, offered to Lord Ganesha!!

Check out other similar categories from blog:

• DIWALI SWEET RECIPES
• DIWALI SNACK RECIPES
• FESTIVAL RECIPES
• DESSERT RECIPES

And many more to come!!…..Stay Tuned!!

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Happy Cooking 

Cheers!!

Padma.