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    Home » Recipes » Sweets

    Nei appam recipe - Karthigai deepam recipes

    November 23, 2012 by Raks Anand 52 Comments / Jump to Recipe

    Nei appam is made in several festivals like Gokulashtami, karthigai deepam etc. A special recipe made with rice and ghee as main ingredient.

    nei appam recipe

    Ghee is used in this nei appam preparation as the name indicates. This is the first time I am trying the Nei appam / Neyyappam. Mom always used to make appam with wheat flour and banana. Its a deep fried one. Or we make sweet paniyaram.

    Jump to:
    • Related posts
    • My notes
    • Recipe card
    • Stepwise photos

    This recipe for nei appam sounded interesting with only rice, jaggery and coconut. Thought this would be helpful for many of you as Karthigai deepam is nearing!

    I have beautiful memories about karthigai deepam. It is the most beautiful festivals according to me those days. Two eyes wont be enough to see all the lamps lit all over. Mom had a few collections of lamps with her.

    Few pithalai vilakku of different shapes, few special lamps made out of  ‘maa-kall’ and a lot other clay lamps. Every year, she buys few new lamps to add in the collections and its a must for her. My MIL also have similar collections and she lights tea light candles mostly to decorate.

    nei-appam-recipe

    Related posts

    • Wheat flour appam
    • Instant nei appam
    • Pori urundai

    I have only some with me now and I too use tea light candles to fill the spots. Me and my brother always save few crackers, flower pots and sparkles that dad buys for Diwali and light it on the day of karthigai deepam.

    So we will be excited. One of my aunt told and taught about a rare and unique karthigai fire works (Karthigai pori - Here pori means spark) especially done for this festival. Its made with the dried palm flowers. Its a bit dangerous but my bro once bravely did that.

    Not to forget the karthigai pori varieties and pori urundai made. I used to ignore it those days, but craving for those now 🙂 Now to the recipe, I got an idea about the recipe from Shanthi’s Thaligai. But adapted the recipe to suit my taste. Let's learn how to prepare nei appam, below are the step by step pictures and instructions.

    My notes

    I leave the sides of the mixer which has rava like batter stuck to it without wiping. I like the texture it gives to the paniyaram. Though we grind the batter smooth the rava like rice add a nice texture to the paniyarams.

    If you don't have paniyaram pan, heat about one or two inch of oil/ ghee in a kadai and use one laddle to spoon the batter. You can make only one at a time.

    Click here to read the recipe in tamil

    Recipe card

    nei-appam-recipe
    Print Pin
    4.88 from 8 votes

    Nei appam

    Nei appam is made in several festivals like Gokulashtami, karthigai deepam etc. A special recipe made with rice as main ingredient.
    Course Sweets
    Cuisine Indian
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 20 minutes
    Soaking + resting time 5 hours
    Servings 15
    Cup measurements

    Ingredients

    • 1 cup Raw rice
    • 1 cup Jaggery
    • 4 tablespoon Coconut grated
    • 1 cardamom Powdered
    • â…› teaspoon Cooking soda
    • â…› teaspoon Salt
    • Ghee - As needed
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • First soak rice for 3 hours.  Grind it with less water to a thick paste.
    • Melt the jaggery with very little water and strain to remove any impurities. (If it is pure, you can add as such to rice and mix or grind too).
    • Add it to the ground rice batter and mix well. Keep aside for couple of hours for best results.
    • At the time of preparing, add salt, powdered cardamom, cooking soda, coconut and mix well.
    • Heat a paniyaram pan and add 1 teaspoon of ghee to each partition and pour the mixed  batter to fill each one. Apparently one can deep fry too in ghee.
    • Cook covered for 1 – 2 minutes in low flame. Turn with the paniyaram skewer or a spoon and add more ghee if dry.
    • Cook for another minute or two in medium flame until golden brown and inside of the paniyaram gets cooked. Collect the paniyarams in the serving bowl.

    Notes

    • If you add more water while making jaggery syrup, then the batter may get watery, so be careful while melting the jaggery. In emergencies if your batter gets too watery, then add wheat flour to balance it.
    • You can also add the jaggery as such to the batter without melting, but make sure it has no impurities. 
    • Grated coconut also is an important ingredient to get a soft paniyaram. You can grind along the rice too. 
    • You can add a mashed banana in this to get pillow soft paniyarams, though nei appams are meant to be crispy and dense.
    • Cooking soda helps in cooking the inside of the paniyarams. 
    • Be generous in adding ghee otherwise it may not get even browned. If you are guilty in adding a lot of ghee, then you can mix sesame oil and use generously.
    • Use indolium or iron paniyaram pans for even and perfect browning. 
    • This needs no fermentation, still making the batter an hour or more prior is better.
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    Stepwise photos

    • First soak rice for 3 hours.  Grind it with less water to a thick paste.
    step 1
    • Melt the jaggery with very little water and strain to remove any impurities. (If it is pure, you can add as such to rice and mix or grind too). Add it to the ground rice batter and mix well. Keep aside.
    step 2
    • At the time of preparing, add salt, powdered elachi, cooking soda, coconut and mix well. Heat a paniyaram pan and add 1 teaspoon of ghee to each partition and pour the mixed  batter to fill each one. Apparently one can deep fry too in ghee.
    step 3
    • Cook covered for 1 – 2 minutes in low flame. Turn with the paniyaram skewer or a spoon and add more ghee if dry.
    step 4
    • Cook for another minute or two in medium flame until golden brown and inside of the paniyaram gets cooked. Collect the paniyarams in the serving bowl.
    step 5

    Crispy outside and soft inside nei appams. Enjoy!

    nei appam

    Other Sweets recipes

    • Sesame Gajak recipe | Diwali sweets
    • Thengai therattipal, thengai therattupal | Traditional Diwali sweets
    • Crispy & juicy Khaja recipe
    • Carrot Mysore pak recipe, Diwali sweets

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Nivedhanams Sowmya

      November 23, 2012 at 10:12 am

      very authentic and delicious!!! very festive too!
      Sowmya

      Ongoing Event - CWF - Whole Wheat Flour
      Ongoing Event - Let's Party - Eggless Bakes and Treats

      Reply
    2. Premalatha Aravindhan

      November 23, 2012 at 10:51 am

      Yummy nei apppam,luks perfect...

      Reply
    3. Veena Theagarajan

      November 23, 2012 at 10:52 am

      so yummy looking nei appam
      http://great-secret-of-life.blogspot.com

      Reply
    4. Pattu Raj

      November 23, 2012 at 11:03 am

      As usual, a very tasty recipe explained in easy steps.
      Thanks.

      Reply
    5. Faseela Noushad

      November 23, 2012 at 11:14 am

      yummy n tempting//.....

      Reply
    6. Sharmi

      November 23, 2012 at 11:30 am

      very nice recipe, can you also tell me the wheat flour method(ur mother's)!!

      Reply
    7. RAKS KITCHEN

      November 23, 2012 at 11:42 am

      Sharmi its already there. Hover over the words in the post and click on it. Anyways here it is http://www.rakskitchen.net/2008/10/wheat-flour-appam.html

      Reply
    8. Meenal Ramanathan

      November 23, 2012 at 11:45 am

      soft nei appams.
      without cooking soda will it be soft ?

      Reply
    9. Aruna Manikandan

      November 23, 2012 at 11:57 am

      wow...
      looks yummy and very tempting raji 🙂

      Reply
    10. jeyashrisuresh

      November 23, 2012 at 1:15 pm

      My mom makes a similar one but she deep fries that mostly which i can eat almost 5-6 at a time. I never tried this as i thought it has to be deep fried. Now i can make this guilt free one in paiyaram pan too. Nicely captured

      Reply
    11. Nagalakshmi V

      November 23, 2012 at 1:18 pm

      it's come out great raks. even i have beautiful memories around karthikai 🙂

      Reply
    12. RAKS KITCHEN

      November 23, 2012 at 1:47 pm

      Meenal, yes it will come out soft, but u have to add a mashed banana to the batter...

      Reply
    13. Sangeetha Priya

      November 23, 2012 at 1:54 pm

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Reply
    14. Happy Cook / Finla

      November 23, 2012 at 2:40 pm

      Mom used to make these too and we always loved it. These look so good.

      Reply
    15. Pavithra Elangovan

      November 23, 2012 at 3:18 pm

      We make similar ones sometimes with poha too 🙂 whatever it is this is absolutely tasty and yummy 🙂

      Reply
    16. Prathima Rao

      November 23, 2012 at 4:18 pm

      I have actually never tasted sweet appam..Looks so good that I want them this instant!!
      Prathima Rao
      Prats Corner

      Reply
    17. divya

      November 23, 2012 at 8:20 pm

      tempting and inviting dear

      Reply
    18. Priya

      November 23, 2012 at 10:57 pm

      Been ages i had these nei appams, tempting.

      Reply
    19. Unknown

      November 23, 2012 at 11:40 pm

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Reply
    20. Unknown

      November 23, 2012 at 11:40 pm

      Beautiful!

      Reply
    21. Unknown

      November 23, 2012 at 11:46 pm

      One point...You know what is special about your blog?? Even the step wise pictures are very neat and clean, almost inspiring me to do the same in my kitchen.. 🙂 I have actually seen old dented vessels, dirty stove tops, unclean fingernails, and spilled ingredients on other blogs !! :O

      I have been cooking for almost a decade now, and already know most of your recipes.. but still i visit your blog everyday just to enjoy the neatness and final presentation!! 🙂

      I click my food pics and send them to my friends/family alone, no patience to maintain a blog, but I wouldn't dare to click my stove or my kitchen counter !!

      Love your blog! 🙂

      Reply
    22. raaji

      November 24, 2012 at 10:12 pm

      tempting of course

      Reply
    23. Janani

      November 25, 2012 at 1:46 am

      Raks these are my favorite too but I always love to add bananas to them.They taste so yum.Lovely picture so bright and fresh.

      Reply
    24. Usha Shivshankar

      November 25, 2012 at 11:41 am

      Raji,ur nei appam looks perfect.
      I make this way . I am sharing my experience.
      1 cup raw rice-soaked for 3-4 hrs,1 cup powdered jaggery,1 banana,3 pods cardamom, 1/4 cup grated coconut.
      Grind soaked rice well add cocnut,cardamon,jaggery and banana.Grind smooth. Make appams as usual. i do not add soda.

      Reply
    25. Poornima Nair

      November 25, 2012 at 7:39 pm

      Raks, The appams look so good, lovely color! This is exactly how mom makes it.

      Reply
    26. Kavi Foodomania

      November 26, 2012 at 2:02 am

      Love the pics!! the nei appam looks amazing!

      Reply
    27. Priya R

      November 27, 2012 at 9:31 pm

      My husband saw this and said he wants some 🙂 they look super cute

      Reply
    28. Aruna

      November 29, 2012 at 5:53 am

      Looking really nice...im going to try it our today

      Reply
    29. Rita Bose

      November 29, 2012 at 12:31 pm

      I have heard a lot about appam. Loved the step-by step presentation. Will definitely try this at home!

      Reply
    30. Sharmilee! :)

      December 03, 2012 at 10:57 am

      Perfect nei appams.....looks very tempting!

      Reply
    31. Aruna

      December 04, 2012 at 6:01 am

      I tried this with banana and it comes out to be really nice...

      Reply
    32. Sandhya

      July 25, 2013 at 10:03 pm

      i tried this at home. it was too dry. i dunno wr i missed it. but i dint want to waste the batter. so i baked them in muffin tray greased with ghee. it tasted even better.

      Reply
    33. Raks anand

      July 25, 2013 at 10:07 pm

      Add more cooking soda and coconut, some time the variety of rice that matters. If still happens and run to trouble, you can trouble shoot by adding mashed ripe banana which makes it pillow soft...

      Reply
    34. Sandhya

      July 28, 2013 at 2:14 pm

      thats a good tip. Wil make a note .

      Reply
    35. kalyani

      August 28, 2013 at 2:42 pm

      raji, i have prepared the batter but today morning, but kept it in the fridge, bcoz i need to come to work, is that ok?

      Reply
    36. Raks anand

      August 28, 2013 at 2:44 pm

      Yes keep it outside for sometime before making. If possible for an hour or half hour.

      Reply
    37. kalyani

      August 28, 2013 at 3:36 pm

      oh cool 🙂

      Reply
    38. Swetha Srini

      September 08, 2013 at 8:13 am

      can we add banana's to the batter ??? and thanks for the great recipe ....

      Reply
    39. Raks anand

      September 08, 2013 at 8:15 am

      yes, i have already mentioned this in the post under notes section...

      Reply
    40. akshaya

      August 17, 2014 at 6:05 am

      can i add instant rice flour instead of raw rice mixture into the jaggery mixture? pls reply asap as i need to make this eve.

      Reply
    41. Raks anand

      August 17, 2014 at 6:06 am

      Yeah try and see. Add 1/2 banana and a tsp of maida for soft texture. Give some standing time.

      Reply
    42. Prabha Sivaram

      December 07, 2014 at 3:52 am

      Followed your recipe only doubled the quantity. Came out perfect thanks.

      Reply
    43. Unknown

      March 24, 2016 at 8:23 am

      No fermentation required/ will it be soft?

      Reply
    44. Raks anand

      March 24, 2016 at 8:34 am

      If you want you can ferment for 2 or 3 hrs. Otherwise taste will vary. If you want softness, you can add mashed banana.

      Reply
    45. Shanthakumar

      August 13, 2016 at 3:25 am

      While making this, one side of the paniyaram was not cooked well. even keeping it in a low flame for 2 minutes didnt help.. Any idea why?

      Reply
    46. Raks anand

      August 13, 2016 at 2:36 pm

      Do you mean it is not briwned the otherside or the batter remained raw?

      Reply
    47. Shanthakumar

      August 14, 2016 at 10:08 am

      it didnt get browned.. Also the batter kinda remained raw... not full raw.. but it was half cooked.

      Reply
    48. Raks anand

      August 14, 2016 at 10:10 am

      Little more cooking soda will help.

      Reply
    49. Kavitha Krishnan

      March 21, 2017 at 4:01 pm

      Hi,
      What rice can we use? I have basmathi rice with me. will that work?

      Reply
    50. Raks anand

      March 21, 2017 at 4:06 pm

      Sona masoori works, basmati also you can try.

      Reply
    51. SUMATHY SUBRAMANIAN

      November 17, 2020 at 7:34 am

      My nei appam just stuck to the pan. What could have been the problem? I made it very low heat, and it didnt make at all & kept sticking to the pan. Why?

      Reply
      • Raks Anand

        November 17, 2020 at 4:11 pm

        Is it problem with the pan? First batch please add more oil or ghee. Make sure to pour only when the pan is hot not heat the pan along the batter

        Reply

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    Raks anand

    Hi, I'm Rajeswari Vijayanand! I am the person behind Rakskitchen, sharing recipes with pictures & videos.

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