Instant Sweet Appam | Wheat Banana appam

ABOUT

Instant sweet appam is made with wheat flour, rice flour, banana and country sugar/ jaggery , which tastes like heaven and is a quick replacement to traditional unni appam & Nei appam which is very famous in Kerala and Tamil Nadu respectively. The traditional recipe calls for soaking and grinding of rice but this makes it easier and can be made very quick with all simple ingredients.

This instant appam can be made as prasad in place of traditional Unni appam/Nei appam for festivals like Karthigai Deepam, Onam, Navarathri, Gokulashtami and many more. This recipe makes your work very easy which can be done without soaking & grinding ; Also we have replaced jaggery with country sugar. The flavors and tastes are very similar to the traditional appam.

TIPS AND NOTES

1. Adding ripened banana gives beautiful texture as well as natural sweetness to the appam. Try to use wholly ripened bananas (with black spots).
2. Do not grind the bananas instead use a fork to mash it which retains its natural texture and you could feel it while eating.
3. Adding rice flour gives a crispy crust as well as adds a glossiness. Too much of it can make your appam a little hard in the inner side
4. If you don’t eat rice during certain auspicious days , you can even replace it with sooji.
5. Jaggery might have stones / dust, so it is advisable to dissolve it in water , strain and use it.

INGREDIENTS

Wheat flour

The main ingredient of this recipe is wheat flour. This gives the gooey consistency and a proper shape to the appam because of the gluten present in wheat flour.

Rice flour

Rice flour is added in small quantity to give the crispness necessary for the appam. if you want to replace rice, sooji can be added. Since we don’t use soda, the rice flour makes the appam lighter as wheat flour alone makes the appam denser.

Banana

Banana gives softness to the entire recipe, but if you prefer to skip, slightly increase the sugar / jaggery quantity. Adding too much of it will make the appam super spongy and you may not achieve the required crispness as well as the appam becomes flat. Hence optimum usage is recommended.

STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS WITH PHOTOS

1. To a bowl, add the banana and mash it with a fork. Don’t grind the banana to paste as the banana chunks here and there adds lot of texture and taste to the recipe.
   
2. Now add, wheat flour and rice flour to the mashed banana
   
3. If you are using jaggery, use it after dissolving in water and straining. Here I have used country sugar which you can use it directly if it is of high quality else same procedure is to be followed like jaggery.
   
4. Add water to it gradually and mix it well without lumps. There will be some chunks of banana , don’t mind that. The flour has to be completely dissolved in water.
   
5. Now add the grated coconut and ghee to the batter. Coconut adds to the softness and adding ghee makes the entire batter so flavorful.
   
6. Mix the batter well and rest it for 10 minutes.
   
7. In an appam pan, add enough ghee. Once the ghee gets heated up, pour the batter.
   
8. Once it is cooked, turn it to the other side and cook till both sides are crispy. Make sure the flame is medium hot so that the appam cooks well from inside.
   
9. To know its doneness, poke a knife / fork into the appam. Once it’s crispy, take them out and serve hot. Happy eating !!
   
   

STORAGE

It can be stored in room temperature for up to a week. If stored in refrigerator, it can be kept up to 15 days.