Appam

Pillowy, Soft center, Crispy lacy sides- The Best Appam Recipe EVER- The only Appam/ Hopper recipe you will EVER need! Serve with your favorite curry!

Course Breakfast

Cuisine Indian

Keyword appam

Cook Time 5

Soaking & Fermenting Time 4

Servings

Calories 47kcal

Author Chhavi

Equipment

Ingredients

1.5 Cups Rice Soaked
¼ Cup Cooked Rice
2 tablespoon Milk Warm
1.5 Tablespoon Sugar plus 1 teaspoon for later
½ Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
1 Cup Coconut Milk
1 Cup Water
1 teaspoon Salt
2 tablespoon Oil for frying.

Instructions

Soak the Rice

Wash and soak the rice in drinking water for about 2-3 hours.

Make Batter

Add the sugar and yeast to warm milk. Let it sit till you get everything else together. The yeast should start to swell and froth.
Drain the soaked rice. Add it to the blender.
Add the frothy yeasted milk, coconut milk and salt. Blend it all.
Add 1 cup of water. Mix well. The batter is thinner than dosa batter.

Ferment The Batter(Choose your method)

Counter Top- Cover the batter and let it double in size. This should take 5-6 hours or overnight
Instant Pot - Add a trivet and 1 cup water to the steel insert. Place the bowl with batter inside. Select YOGURT setting on LOW for 2 hours. The batter will become double its size.
Oven & Warm Bath - Heat the oven in the lowest setting for 10 minutes. Place the bowl of batter in a tray with hot water(not boiling, just hot enough to touch).Put the whole thing in the oven. This should take 3-4 hours.

Cook the Appam

Once the appam batter is ready, add 1 teaspoon of sugar to it.
Heat the appam wok/Chatti on medium heat. Add a few drops of oil on a kitchen paper. Rub the wok with the oiled kitchen paper or use a brush to lightly coat the pan.
Add about ¼ cup of batter in the middle of the hot wok.
Swirl it around in circles twice(See video)
Add a few drops of oil on the side. Cover the pan
Cook for 2-3 more minutes till the middle is soft and spongy.
Using a spoon, separate the sides from the wok.
Remove using tongs or offset spatula.Serve hot.

Video

Notes

Troubleshooting Appam Batter

Here are some common issues and how to overcome them

Batter Not Fermenting

This could be due to

Old Yeast- if the yeast doesn't froth, then its old and useless. You will need to use an alternate packet
Weather is too cold - In cold weather, over the counter fermentation will not work. You will have to ferment in the oven or instant pot.
No food for yeast- Add a little more sugar to make the yeast work faster

Batter is too thin

If the batter is too thin, it wont stick on the sides of the appam pan.

To help with this, add a few tablespoons of rice flour(1 tablespoon at a time) and thicken the batter.

Batter is too thick

This one is simple. Simple add more water.

You want the batter to be flowy, somewhere between dosa and rava dosa batter or Pan cake and crepe batter.

Appam is not sticking to the Appam Pan

This happens when the pan has been oiled too much or the pan is not hot.

You only want a very fine thin film of oil on the appam. So make sure to wipe the excess off.

Secondly, the pan has to be hot enough to rapidly start cooking the batter.

Thin Appam

If you dont like the thick idli like bottom, you can make a lacy thin appam too.

You do this by using lesser appam batter and swirling 3-4 times till there is very little batter left in the center to steam.

Egg Appam

Once you have added the batter and swirled it around, oil the sides.

After that, crack and drop a whole egg in the middle. On Low heat, cook it covered till the whites are set and the yolk is jammy.

Nutrition