Appam
Preparation Time
12 minutes
Cooking Time
38 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Breakfast
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Sona masoori rice
About This Recipe
Appam is a breakfast hopper: a bowl-shaped pancake with a thick, spongy centre and a thin, frilled rim that shatters at the edges. The batter is raw rice and fresh coconut ground to a thin paste and left to ferment overnight; it is ready when it has risen and turned bubbly with a mildly sour smell.
Any everyday raw rice works here; rinse it well before soaking. Sona masoori is a medium-grain rice and grinds to a smooth paste easily. The grated coconut goes into the same grind as the rice, and the teaspoon of sugar is ground in with them.
The pan is swirled, not spread. One ladle goes into the centre, the pan tilts in a circle, and the batter climbs the sides while the rest pools back in the middle; that pool steams under a lid into the soft centre while the rim crisps. Rice is the whole of the batter, so the grain matters; our guide to chawal (rice) covers it.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Batter
- Sona masoori rice — 2 cups
- Fresh coconut, grated — 1 cup
- White sugar — 1 tsp
- Salt — 1 tsp
- Water, for grinding and thinning — 1 1/2 cups
Skip The Store !
Get all you need for the recipe in just a few clicks
Serving Suggestions
Serve appams hot with vegetable stew, kadala (black chickpea) curry, or coconut milk sweetened with a little sugar; they mop up curry the way bread does. Leftover appams keep up to two days in the fridge; steam them for a minute to soften them again. Idiyappam with the same coconut curry is the other classic pair.
Tips for Cooking Appam
The batter should be thin, like milk, before it ferments; it thickens overnight, so thin it with water again before you cook. A well-seasoned appachatti or non-stick kadai needs no oil, but the pan must be properly hot or the appam will not release. Swirl firmly and only once. Cover the pan so the centre steams, and lift the appam from the rim inward.
Chef’s Note
The swirl is the whole skill: a timid tilt leaves the sides bare and the batter pools into a thick disc. A serving of three appams comes to about 357 kcal and 7.9 g of protein from the rice alone, roughly 119 kcal each; the grated coconut is not counted, so the true numbers sit a little higher.
Per serving (approx.): 357 kcal, protein 7.9 g, carbs 78 g, fat 0.5 g, fibre 2.8 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Apr 21, 2026
Recipes You’ll Love
More everyday cooking with COWBERRY organics, from the same kitchen.
Preparation Time
16 Min
Cooking Time
20 Min
Difficulty Level
easy
Preparation Time
13 Min
Cooking Time
42 Min
Difficulty Level
moderate
Preparation Time
5 Min
Cooking Time
35 Min
Difficulty Level
easy