Sweet Appam | Banana Appam

Preparation

1. First chop the jaggery. You should be able to get ½ cup chopped jaggery. You can also use jaggery powder, instead of chopped jaggery.
2. Then add the jaggery in a bowl or pan containing 1.5 cups water.
3. Keep the bowl or pan on low to medium flame and let the solution heat through. Stir so that the jaggery melts.
4. You just need to melt the jaggery. When the jaggery melts, then filter the syrup and keep aside.
5. Now chop a small piece of coconut in small bits. You will need about ¼ cup chopped coconut. You can even use grated coconut or you can skip coconut altogether.

Making banana appam batter

1. Heat 2 teaspoons ghee in a pan. Then add the chopped coconut.
2. Stir often and saute them till they are light golden. Keep aside.
3. In a pan, peel and chop the bananas. Mash the bananas with a fork or masher very well.
4. There should be no chunks in the bananas. You can even puree the bananas in a blender.
5. Add green cardamom powder, ginger powder and cumin powder.
6. Mix very well. To the bowl containing the jaggery solution, add the rice flour.
7. Add black sesame seeds. You can also use white sesame seeds.
8. Begin to mix very well. Make a smooth batter without any lumps.
9. Add the pureed bananas to the rice flour mixture along with the coconut.
10. Add the baking soda. Baking soda makes the texture more porous and soft. If you want you can skip too.
11. Mix thoroughly.

Making sweet appam

1. Heat the appe pan and add ½ to 1 teaspoon ghee in each mould. Instead of ghee you can use coconut oil too.
2. With a spoon, pour the batter till ¾ᵗʰ or more than ¾ᵗʰ of the volume in each mould.
3. Keep the heat to low or medium and cook the sweet appams.
4. With a wooden/bamboo stick or skewer, turn over the banana appam which have become golden.
5. When the rest of the sweet appam are golden, turn them over too and cook all of them till crisp and golden.
6. Once done remove and place them in a casserole. In the casserole they stay warm for some time. Same way prepare the remaining ones. You can store them in an air tight box or container in the fridge.
7. Serve Sweet Appam hot or warm or at room temperature.