Madura Palaharangal

UNNI APPAM

Unni appam, is the special sweet made in Kerala and it is also called Karolappam. It is made from rice powder or wet grinded rice, wheat flour, jaggery, banana, small coconut pieces, ghee, and cardamom powder fried in oil. Ingredients Rice flour - 2 cups Wheat Flour - 1 cup Jaggery - 250-300gms(1 Ripe banana - 2-3 (Kerala banana named as Poovan pazham) Coconut bits (thengakothu) - ½ cup(Fry until become golden brown) Baking soda - ½ - 1 tsp(Not mandatory) Ghee - 1 tbsp Oil - for deep frying (I used coconut oil) Instructions Melt jaggery by adding one cupt of water. Strain the jaggery syrup and let it cool very well. Fry the coconut bits in ghee till it turns golden brown. Smash the bananas first, add 2 tbsp of melted jaggery to the ground banana and mix again till you get a smooth paste. Mix together rice flour, wheat flour,ground banana and jaggery syrup. Add water little by little till you get the consistency of idli batter,slight thick not very loose. You may need around 1-1.5 cups of water. Add fried coconut bits and and, baking soda to the batter. MIx well and Keep aside the batter for half an hour or more. If the batter turns too thick after resting, add extra water to make it slightly loose and stir well. Heat oil in appachatti (Kaarol), when the oil is really hot, reduce the flame to low-medium. Drop tablespoons of batter to the Kaarol to see whether the oil is ready to pour the batter. Keep turning the unniyappams in between, till you get a golden-dark brown colour on both sides. Drain excess oil on tissue paper.