Karthigai Appam is a sweet, festive fritter made with rice flour, mashed banana, coconut bits, and fragrant cardamom, all bound together with strained jaggery syrup. Mix everything into a thick idli-like batter, then drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry on low heat until golden brown. For variations, you can swap rice flour with maida, wheat flour, or rawa, use sugar for a lighter-colored appam, or skip deep-frying by cooking the batter in a paniyaram pan like kuzhi paniyaram.
Traditionally the batter for this dish is prepared by soaking the rice with little urad dhal and grinding along with jaggery and coconut. It is a special dish for Karthigai Festival.
Karthigai Appam Recipe
Karthigai Appam
5
servings10
minutes20
minutesTraditionally the batter for this dish is prepared by soaking the rice with little urad dhal and grinding along with jaggery and coconut. It is a special dish for Karthigai Festival.
Ingredients
Rice flour – 1 Cup
Jaggery powdered – ½ to ¾ cup
Fully ripe banana – 1
Coconut cut into small pieces – 1 or 2 tablespoons
Cardamom Powder – ½ teaspoon
Oil for deep frying
Directions
- Add half cup water to jaggery and mix it well till it dissolved in water. Strain it.
- Mash the banana into fine paste and add it to the rice flour.
- Add coconut pieces and cardamom powder also in the rice flour and mix well.
- Add jaggery water and stir well and make a thick batter (like thick idli batter). If necessary add little water to get correct batter consistency.
- In a kadai pour the oil and when it is hot, reduce the heat.
- Take a tablespoon of batter and pour it in the hot oil. Fry till it become golden brown and remove.
- Tips:
- You can make Appam with Maida or wheat flour or Rawa also. Instead of jaggery, you can use sugar to get a white Appam.
- Instead of deep frying, you can use “Paniyaram Chatti” and make this appam like Kuzhi Paniyaram.
Its nice .. thanks for sharing..
Keep sharing
Thank you Vidyalakshmi.
Thanks Madam for the recipe.
One thing, Madam, how can you prepare Appam very soft without adding banana.
Could you kindly advise.
Hi, Welcome to my site. If you do not want to add banana, instead of using rice flour, you can soak rice with little urad dhal make a thick batter. Urad dhal make the appam soft.
Thanks so much kamala mam for sharing the appam recipe. Though urad dal makes the appam very soft, I strongly believe that the ripen banana adds a very special flavour to the dish. This time I am gonna try the traditional way of making appam by soaking. Thanks a Ton!
Hi Ananya Mahadevan
Thank you for visiting. Please post your feedback after trying this recipe.
kamala mam i m the new user of ur site.ur receipes r very nice.i did this appam fpor karthigai.it came very nice.thanks a lot.
Hi Latha,
Welcome to my site. Nice to hear that you tried this appam and came out well.
I tried this. nice n simple recipe. Thnx 🙂
Hi Sneha Sathiyam,
Nice to note that you tried this appam.
new recipe to me. looks yummy.. should try sometime.
hello kamala,
your recipes are great! i was just wondering if i can make this appam with over ripe raw bananas? i have two that turned completely yellow and i do not like the sweet taste they bring if i make the spicy curry…pl help! 🙂
Hi Shripriya,
Yes. You can make with this over riped banana. However, just take a small piece and taste it. Sometimes, the skin will be yellow, but the inner portion may be hard. In such a case, you can mash it throughy and make this appam.
Dear Kamala mam,
your recipes are excellent and the photagraphy is so catchy.. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Kavitha.
all these receipes are nice
Thank you Sivagami.
Maami Godhumai oora vachu pannalaamaamae.Adhukkum idhae ratio thaana?Alandhu poehaama irukka enna ratio?Godhumai and vellam 4;1 saria varuma.Please let guide me.Naan appa kaarai il thaan pannaraen.Thank you and love you maami.
Hi Meenakshi Rajeev,
Yes. You can prepare it with whole wheat. But it will take time to soak, grind and then take the milk and with that milk you have to add jaggery and prepare the appam. Instead you can use wheat flour and make. Normally 2:1 will do. However if you want less sweet 4:1 is fine.
Thank you so much maami.Indha karthihai annaikku try pannaraen.Advance karthihai namaskarams to you. With Love Meenakshi Rajeev.
Thank you Meenkashi Rajeev. Wishing you and your family a very Happy Karthigai Deepam.
tnxs for t lovely ,simple and easy to do recipe it came out very well
Thank you for the feed back Sheela.
Hi Kamala
When i soak 1 cup rice with 1tbs urad dal and made without banana my appam came very hard. I added 3/4 th cup of jaggery for that. Why it is not coming soft?
Hi Rajeswari,
Traditional appam is lightly hard only. Adding banana makes the appam soft.
Oh ok so by traditional method we cannot make appam soft like the other method(mixing different flours with banana). Tks
Appam is too taste ..chala bagundi naa favorite sweet 🙂
Thank you arunaaseshan.
Hi,
I tried this Appam. It crumbled in the oil. Did I do anything wrong? Please advise.
Thanks!
Hi,
If it crumble/break in the hot oil, then the binding is not eough and you can add a tablespoon of Maida or wheat flour to get it right.
I want to do this appam in traditional way. Mam kindly tell me the rice and urad dhal content.
Uma
For 1 cup just add a tablespoon of urad dhal.