This recipe is a long time coming… you see Appam is my all-time fav food. I can eat it any time of the day. I can eat it when I'm happy/sad and everything in between.
At home, we always use rice powder and yeast to make appam. I never even bothered looking out for another recipe until some time ago!
However at Jose's place Mummy always make Appam without yeast and she always keeps trying out different recipes and proportions to get the perfect fluffy and soft appams without any raising agents. Finally, this recipe made the cut!

There is no yeast, there is no baking soda but you are not deprived of fluffy appams. Do give it a try for yourself and let me know what you think?
We had it with some spicy beef stew. You can have it with Chicken Stew, Mutton Stew,
Veg Stew, Chicken Mappas, Egg Stew
Here is the recipe…
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raw rice
- 3/4 cup Grated coconut
- 1/2 cup Poha (Flattened rice) (I used white variety)
- 1/2 cup Cooked rice (I used white rice)
- 1 cup Coconut water (refer notes)
- 2 tsp Sugar
- Salt – to taste
Instructions
- Wash the raw rice under running water until the water runs clear. Soak the washed rice in water for 4-6 hours. At the same time add 2 tsp of sugar to the coconut water and refrigerate.
- If using thick poha, wash it and soak for 2 hours. If using thin poha, no need to soak it.
- Drain the water from soaked rice and poha. Add soaked rice, poha, coconut and cooked rice to the grinder. Add 1/2 cup coconut water and grind everything to a smooth paste (refer notes).
- Transfer the batter to a medium -large size bowl.
- The batter should be pourable but thick. If the batter is too thick add the remaining coconut water and mix well. I used around 3/4 cup of coconut water.
- Cover the bowl and leave the batter to rise for 8 – 10 hours or overnight.
- Once the batter is ready, add salt. Do a taste test and add more salt/sugar to suit your requirements. Also, if the batter becomes too thick after rising, add little water to loosen it.
- Heat a nonstick pan and pour a ladleful of batter. Do not spread the batter since it will spread by itself. Cook on low-medium flame for two mins or until the edges are set. Flip the appam and cook the other side also. Serve hot with your fav side dish.
Does the cooked white rice aid in fermenting?
I think more than the fermenting, it helps with the texture of the appam.
Which mixer grinder (brand) do you use?
Hi Sherry,
I use Bosch mixer grinder.
Any substitute for coconut water? Instead Can I use the store bought coconut water/milk?
If you can get fresh coconut water that’s the best, if not store-bought coconut water can be used. However, I haven’t tried it yet with store-bought coconut water, so am not sure about the texture.