Vattayappam – a sweet Rice bread

Vattayappam is simply a tea-time snack in Christian homes in Kerala. I first tasted this when my friend in Kerala brought on the Christmas Eve and now also I get it every year on the same day. I learned to prepare Vattayappam since it is an all time favourite of my husband. My mother used to make some kind of Vattayappam with the leftover appam batter but it was always hard and I didn’t  like to have it. After repeated trial and error, I started getting the perfect spongy Vattayappam.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice – 1 cup
• Coconut scraped – 3/4 cup (use Pacha Thenga since it has lot of milk content)
• Sugar – 3 tbsp (adjust to your requirement)
• Salt –1/2 tsp
• Dried Yeast – 1/4 tsp
• Cardamom – 8, use only the seeds
• Cooked rice – 1/2 cup (i used cooked mutta/ chemba rice)

For Garnishing:

• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Cashew nuts – as required
• Raisins – as required

Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews and raisins

Method of Preparation:

• Wash and soak rice in enough water for 6-7 hrs
• Grind it coarsely with coconut, cardamom seeds, yeast, sugar, and salt with enough water (or you can use coconut water itself)
• Add cooked rice and grind again to  a smooth batter and its consistency should be that of an idly batter
• Cover and keep aside in a warm place for about 7-8 hrs to ferment it
• When it is fermented, grease a round pan or Idly mould and spoon in the fermented batter on the top
• Place the mould inside a steamer and steam cook for 5 mins over medium heat
• When it is half done, remove the lid and press the fried cashews and raisins onto it and cover and cook again until it is done well
• After 10-15 mins of cooking, insert a tooth pick into it and if the tooth pick comes out clean, your vattayappam is done well
• Remove from the steamer and let it cool in the pan itself.

When it is cooled, remove it from the pan using a knife and cut into wedges and serve it with your evening tea.