Instant sweet appam is an Indian (to be precise, from south India) fried sweet dumpling/cake made using wheat flour, jaggery(unrefined sugar) and grated coconut, tinged with a flavor of cardamom!!! These are normally made in a special pan called appam pan or an ebilskiver pan.
WHAT ARE APPES/PANIYARAMS?
Traditional appes are both savory or sweet. The savory ones are either instant like these Instant Suji Appes or the more traditional one; using basic dosa or idli batter which needs some fermentation. My favorite is this sweet appe or appo as we like to call it, made with jaggery powder and wheat flour. Traditional sweet appos are made by blending soaked whole wheat grains with coconut and jaggery, but it is a cumbersome process. My favorite is this easy, instant, ready in 15 minutes Godu Appo or Sweet Appo!
SWEET APPOS:
Instant Sweet wheat appams/appe/appo/paniyarams/fried dumplings are traditionally made by grinding or blending whole wheat grains and coconut, then making a batter with jaggery; but as the process is long, I prefer to make this delicious sweet, the easy and lazy way; with whole wheat flour instead. These sweet south Indian delights are mostly made during religious festivals (especially Ganesh Chaturthi) and many a times just as a snack to be served with evening tea or coffee or when guests drop by.
Yesterday was Ganesh Chaturthi (a Hindu festival in India to celebrate the birth day of Lord Ganesha, the elephant God!!). It is considered auspicious to make and serve these delectable wheat dumplings to Lord Ganesha on that day to please him as they are considered to be his favorite food!! This recipe of Instant wheat appo was passed on to me by my mother-in-law. I loved it when she first made it and had immediately noted the recipe in my cookbook and ever since then, this is the only recipe I need to make these soft, porous and fluffy sweet appes. They come out so good and perfect, I have passed this recipe along to many of my family members all over the world who now use only this easy method and not the traditional method of using whole wheat grains.
HOW TO MAKE THESE DELECTABLE TREATS:
You need only very few ingredients and if you have the pan (my cast iron pan was passed on to me from my mother-in-law, so it is well seasoned!!), it takes only 30 minutes to make these; 10 minutes to make the batter and 20 to make the whole batch!! No grinding or blending!! Addition of nuts gives it a crunch but it is optional. Just mix the ingredients, heat the pan and fry them using ghee/clarified butter (you can even use just any oil you prefer to make it totally vegan); soft, fluffy sweet appes are ready in no time!! Updated April 2019….I made these instant sweet and delicious whole wheat appos again in my new appe pan and they came out without any sticking or burning, in a jiffy! Cannot wait to try more appos, manchurian dishes, bondas, pakodas etc. in this new pan for low-calorie guilt-free treats! Do check out these instant CHUTNEY STUFFED APPES/PANIYARAMS I made recently. They are bite-sized savory instant suji-oats appes, stuffed with fresh coconut-coriander chutney; heaven in a bite! No messy chutneys or sauces to dip in; perfect to make and share at any party, get together, with your evening chai/coffee! Now, let us see how to make these easy instant whole wheat appos!
Step-by-step-method to make Instant Sweet Appes:
To make sure the jaggery does not have any impurities, add some water to jaggery in a small saucepan, melt completely and strain to remove any stones, dirt or any other foreign particles.
Cook Time: 30 minutes
2 cups whole wheat flour ½ cup to ¾ cup grated coconut 1 cup grated jaggery/unrefined Indian sugar/brown sugar ¼ cup chopped cashew nuts 8 to 10 green cardamoms, powdered Pinch of salt ¼ teaspoon baking soda Ghee/clarified butter for frying
Instructions Notes You can substitute jaggery with sugar. But the flavor will be different. It is preferable to fry in ghee to get the best flavor, but you can use any oil you prefer. Make sure to fry on medium low; because of jaggery, frying on high heat will burn the dumplings on the outside and the inside will not get cooked.
Take all ingredients for the appe batter in a bowl and mix well.
Add about 1 to 1 ½ cups of water to mix to a smooth thick batter of pouring consistency.
Heat an appe pan/ebilskiver pan on high heat. Once hot, add about ½ to 1 teaspoon of ghee/clarified butter in each mould or cavity.
Pour small spoonfuls of batter into each cavity till three-fourths full.
Lower the heat to medium low and cook covered, till the bottom of the batter is cooked and brown. Slowly, flip each of the appes and cook the other side. If you want, you can add some more ghee again.
Close and cook again till it is fully cooked and golden brown (test with toothpick; if it comes out clean without any wet batter sticking, it is done). Remove from pan. The same procedure should be followed for the rest of the batter.
Serve hot along with evening tea or coffee.
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