Neyappam Easy recipe - 'Neyyappam' is a traditional Indian snack and culinary treasure from the beautiful landscapes of Kerala, fondly known as 'God's own country'. This golden-brown delicacy, a sweet fritter made from rice and jaggery, tastes divine, flavorful, tempting, and every bite is pure indulgence!
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Neyyappams are made on special occasions, especially during the harvest festival 'Vishu'. Vishu falls in mid-April and is celebrated as the New Year for Keralites. This delicacy is kept as an offering to the Lord for 'Vishu Kani'. Along with Neyyappam, other items like fruits and vegetables from the harvest, gold, etc, are offered.
What is special about this recipe?
- This traditional sweet snack is like a sweet fritter, and the combined flavors of rice flour, jaggery, and nuts make it very delicious.
- They taste even better the next day after making them, as with any sweets made with jaggery like Ela Ada, Kerala unniyappam, and Kayappam.
- This is a great combination with delicious sadya items like InjiPuli, Aviyal, Olan, Payar Thoran, beetroot pachadi kerala recipe, and Cherupayar payasam.
Ingredients needed
- Rice or Rice flour - Use ready-made rice flour, or soak the rice and then dry, and powder it, or grind the soaked rice.
- Jaggery or Molasses - To get a nice brown color, use the dark variety of jaggery
- All-purpose flour - This helps the appams to bind together into a round shape during deep-frying.
- Ghee to roast the nuts like cashews, coconut bits, cumin, and black sesame seeds.
- Cardamom seeds are powdered for a nice aroma and flavor.
- A pinch of salt and baking soda.
How to make Neyyappam?
Neyyappams are prepared with four main ingredients jaggery, rice flour, maida (all-purpose flour) or wheat flour, and ghee (clarified butter). They are similar in taste to kayappam and unniappam, which also use jaggery in preparation, but with some slight differences.
Neyyappam is one such dish that even the experts can sometimes get wrong. However, that should not dampen your spirits from trying it. I make it every year during the festive season. They have improved a lot from when I first started making them, and they taste just like back home these days.
Neyyappam Easy Recipe - How to make the Batter?
There are three ways to make the Neyyappam batter.
- First is the traditional process of soaking the rice, drying and powdering it, and then mixing it with the jaggery solution, which is a bit tedious.
- The second method is to make it with unroasted rice powder that you can purchase from the grocery store and mix it with the jaggery solution. This will avoid the soaking, drying, and powdering of the rice process mentioned.
- Alternatively, the third way is directly grinding the soaked rice using the jaggery solution. I usually go with this, it is quite easy. But any of these options works perfectly.
(1)Start by washing and soaking the rice for about 3 to 4 hours. (2 -3) Fry the mix-ins in ghee. (4)Make the jaggery solution and cool it to a slightly warm temperature.
(5-6) Grind the soaked rice and jaggery to a semi-smooth paste. (7) Add Maida or All-purpose flour and grind it. (8) Add a little cooked rice and coconut (This is optional)
(9-10) Once the batter is ready, pour it into a container. Add fried coconut bits, cumin, chopped cashews, raisins, black sesame seeds in ghee (clarified butter) and powdered cardamom. Let the batter rest for 5 to 6 hours. (11-12) Heat a cast iron vessel with oil on medium flame and add a ladle full of batter when hot.
(13-14) The batter will cook and rise as it cooks, turn and cook on both sides until it gets a dark brown color. (15-16) Drain the oil and transfer to a container.
Useful tips
- To get the authentic taste, use a cast iron vessel with a round bottom (as shown in the picture).
- First, allow the cast iron to heat up, then add oil and let it heat up well, only then add the batter, as this order helps any batter from sticking to the frying vessel.
- Ensure a rough or coarse consistency of the batter is obtained to get the right texture of the neyyappams.
- The jaggery solution should be ready and slightly warm before mixing the rice powder or grinding with soaked rice. Do not mix or grind while it is still hot.
- Adding ghee to the batter is optional, but it gives a great taste.
- The batter can sit overnight or for at least 8 to 10 hours. It is important to rest the batter.
- The batter may get a little thicker on resting, and you may need to loosen it a bit by adding a little water and mixing well.
- Adding baking soda is optional; if adding, add it to the batter before frying it.
- Add a pinch of salt, it enhances the taste of jaggery-based sweets as always.
- Add fried nuts, coconut bits, and sesame seeds using ghee.
- Rice flour is the main ingredient; adding all-purpose flour or wheat will help to hold the batter together.
- Fry in a low to medium flame to avoid burning, so that the inner portion is cooked well.
Recipe FAQs
Neyyappams and Unniyappam have similar batter made with rice and jaggery, but the unniyappams usually have bananas in the ingredients and are made in small appe-pans, whereas Neyyappams are slightly bigger and deep-fried in a cast-iron vessel.
Neyyappams usually stay fresh for about 3-4 days at room temperature if the weather is not too humid and hot. They can stay fresh in the refrigerator for about a week.
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Neyyappam Easy Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups rice raw
- 2 - 21/2 cups jaggery (9 to 10 pieces)
- ½ cup all purpose flour or maida or wheat powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp black sesame seeds
- 2 tbsp coconut chopped into small bites
- 10 cashews chopped into tiny bits
- 10 raisins
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 7 - 8 cardamom powdered
- 2 tsp ghee
- 1 pinch salt
- ¼ cup cooked rice (optional)
- ¼ cup coconut grated (optional)
Instructions
- Soak the rice in water for about 3-4 hours .
- Melt jaggery with very little water and cool the solution to be slightly warm.
- Once soaked, grind the soaked rice with the warm jaggery solution prepared ahead.
- Add the all-purpose flour or wheat powder. Next, add the maida or all-purpose flour and grind again.
- Add cooked rice and coconut ( if using as they are optional ), and grind well.
- Adjust the water so that the consistency of the batter is as thick as that used for making idlis or pancakes.
- Heat a pan and add a teaspoon of ghee or clarified butter.
- Fry sesame seeds, chopped coconut pieces, cashews, raisins, cumin and sautée till it is lightly browned and keep aside.
- Add the above sautéed items to the batter along with a pinch of salt.
- Let the batter sit for about 5 to 6 hours or overnight. It will get thicker on resting and may need to be loosened with water to get the right consistency.
- Use a deep-bottomed pan to deep fry the neyyappam. Normally, it is fried in a cast iron vessel as seen in the pictures.
- Use a ladle to pour the batter and keep it at a low to medium flame to deep fry the neyyapam . It should get a dark brown colour .Using a high flame will leave the inner portion uncooked so it is better to fry with low or medium flame.
- The neyyapam , just like any other appams made with jaggery , tastes even better the next day and can be kept in an air tight container for about a week. Happy Cooking, Enjoy !
Video
Notes
-
- To get the authentic taste, use a cast iron vessel with a round bottom (as shown in the picture).
-
- First, allow the cast iron to heat up, then add oil and let it heat up well, only then add the batter, as this order helps any batter from sticking to the frying vessel.
-
- Ensure a rough or coarse consistency of the batter is obtained to get the right texture of the neyyappams.
-
- The jaggery solution should be ready and slightly warm before mixing the rice powder or grinding with soaked rice. Do not mix or grind while it is still hot.
-
- Adding ghee to the batter is optional, but it gives a great taste.
-
- The batter can sit overnight or for at least 8 to 10 hours. It is important to rest the batter.
- The batter may get a little thicker on resting, and you may need to loosen it a bit by adding a little water and mixing well.
-
- Adding baking soda is optional; if adding, add it to the batter before frying it.
-
- Add a pinch of salt, it enhances the taste of jaggery-based sweets as always.
-
- Add fried nuts, coconut bits, and sesame seeds using ghee.
-
- Rice flour is the main ingredient; adding all-purpose flour or wheat will help to hold the batter together.
-
- Fry in a low to medium flame to avoid burning, so that the inner portion is cooked well.
Neyyappam - one of my absolute favorite traditional snacks! 😍 Your recipe looks super easy to follow. Can't wait to recreate it at home. Thanks for sharing this delightful treat!
My daughter asked that I make Neyyappam, so I'm glad to have found this recipe. I have many of the ingredients on hand such as cashews, raisins and coconut and will be gathering the rest. I'm eager to make this, thanks for mapping out the process step-by-step.
This was a new recipe for me to try, but thanks to all of your helpful tips, it came out a huge success and my family all loved it.
Thanks for the tips on using cast iron - I will definitely stick to this!
Made this for my kids and they loved it. Everyone gave it two thumbs up!
I just made Neyyappam using this recipe, and it was a hit! I opted for the third method, grinding the soaked rice with the jaggery solution, and it worked like a charm. Thanks for sharing!
This looks divine but is that a little cast iron pot!!!! I have never seen one like that if it is.
I got it on one of my trips back home in India . Any other kind of pan can be used as well for deep frying .Thank you!