Ragi Paalappam (With and Without Yeast) | Finger Millet Appam ~ 2 Methods

How many of you love paalappams?? Paalappams is a family favorite here and I make it once a week for breakfast. I rarely use yeast to make appams and use coconut water instead or make kallu out of it and use. I mostly make ragi paalappam with coconut water but I have shared both methods of making this appams incase you use yeast to make appams. Am not very fond of using yeast for all inds of appams. I generally store the coconut water from 1 or 2 coconuts in fridge and I keep out the water at room temperature on the day of grinding the batter. I have already posted the recipe of kallappam which is a popular post too in my space, please check if interested to make soft appams without yeast.  

I have been trying out ragi(finger millet) recipes to reduce the glycemic load or to reduce the carbs intake. The tried tested and succesful recipes using ragi are listed below at the end of this post.  Except the color there is no obvious change in taste or texture of ragi appams. They have been a delicious breakfast item here and so we have reduced making the rice paalappam or traditional paalappam on select occasions only. Do give these appams a try if you haven't tried appams with ragi.

Also, try these out too- Traditional paalappam, Wholewheat appams, Kallappam. 

Preparation time ~ 20 minutes

Cooking time ~20 minutes

Author ~ Julie

Ingredients

METHOD 1

ragi flour 1/3 cup

*appam batter 2/3 cup

granulated sugar 1 tsp

salt to taste

METHOD 2

ragi flour 1/2 cup

rice flour 1 tbsp

grated coconut 1/3 cup

instant yeast 1/4 tsp

granulated sugar 1 tsp

salt to taste

Method 1

Take ragi flour in a bowl and add little water to make a lump free thick paste. To this add 2/3 cup appam batter. Mix well and ferment overnight or 5-6 hours. 

To the fermented batter, add salt and mix well. Heat the appachatti and pour ladleful of batter in the center. Swirl the pan holding the handles to make thin laces around. Cover and cook on low flame for another minute. Remove lid and give another 30 secs to cook and transfer to a casserole or plate.

Serves 8-10 appams

                      

Method 2

Add 1/3 cup ragi flour to a bowl, add 2-3 tbsp water to make a thick paste. 

Mix 3 tbsp coconut water with a tsp of sugar and keep aside at room temperature for 5-6 hours.(Omit this step if using yeast). If using yeast add 1/4 tsp yeast for this measure of ragi flour when grinding.

Grind 1/3 cup grated coconut in a mixer jar with fermented 3 tbsp coconut water  or yeast (whichever you are using) to a smooth paste.

In another pan, mix 1 tbsp of rice flour to 3 tbsp of water. Place the pan on heat and cook the mix until the mixture thickens slightly, may take 3 minutes. Switch off flame and cool. This is called 'pav kachiyathu' in Kerala (You can grind 1 tbsp of cooked rice with grated coconut instead of pav kachiyathu too but I feel adding cooked rice over ferments the batter so I prefer pav kachiyathu inn summers. In winters, you can add cooked rice too).

Mix the ground coconut, ragi mix and thickened cooked rice porridge(pav kachiyathu). Combine well and leave to ferment 6 hours or overnight.

                            

To the fermented batter, add salt mix well without deflating the air much. Heat an appachatti and pour ladleful of batter in the center. Swirl the pan holding the handles to make thin laces around. Cover and cook on low flame for another minute. Remove lid and give another 30 secs to cook and transfer to a casserole or plate. Repeat this step till you finish making all appams.

Serves ~ 4 -5 appams.

                                                        

NOTES

* If you want the measure of appam batter for this measure of ragi flour in method 1 then use rice 1/3 cup and grated coconut 1/3 cup. OR follow this link here to add appam batter or use store brought appam batter too.

* If you wish to try using whole ragi then use 1/3 cup for this measure of ragi flour (1/2 cup).

* I don't generally use yeast for making the traditional appams or ragi appams. I just preserve the coconut water in refrigerator until use. On the day of grinding the batter, keep the coconut water outside at room temperature for around 5-6 hours before grinding. When keeping out, add a tsp or 2 tsp of sugar and leave to ferment. Then pour this coconut water and grind the batter(the coconut water may not taste fermented at this point but once you grind and keep for another 8 hours it will ferment nicely). Summers this works perfectly but in winters you may need to give more time to ferment using this method.

Check out more ragi (finger millet/ panjipullu) recipes-
Ragi Peechappam
Ragi Ela Ada
Ragi Idiyappam
Ragi Poori
Ragi Dosa(Instant)
Multi Grain Laddus