Sakkarai pongal recipe (Sweet pongal recipe)

Updated on December 25, 2025 by Raks Anand 76 Comments

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Sakkarai pongal is a traditional South Indian sweet dish prepared during festivals like Pongal, made by cooking rice, moong dal with jaggery, ghee and flavourful ingredients. I have shared my mom's special temple style sweet pongal, easy for beginners to follow with step by step pictures.

Sweet pongal is offered in temples, made at home for festivals like pongal festival, Ganesh chaturthi, Varalakshmi vratham, Fridays in the Aadi month, housewarmings and other auspicious days.

You can also check my easy aval sakkarai pongal recipe in my website for a quick version. Don't forget to check my kovil puliyodharai to go with this.

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Why I love this?
Sakkarai Pongal Ingredients
Step by step photos
Top tip
My notes
Shelf life
FAQ
Recipe card

This is one of my favorite mom's signature recipe next to her sweet boondi. I made this few times now and got appreciation too from everyone. Recently like when I made it for our home Gruhapravesam at our home in Kumbakonam.

So from then I wanted to post it here in my blog. I already have a sakkarai pongal recipe in my ulundu vadai post. But its plain and simple without all those special ingredients.

I have made this in pressure cooker, but can be made in the traditional way by boiling rice and dal and adding jaggery to it too (like I have updated in the video).

Before marriage, me, my mom and our neighbor used to do this pongal in pot in a temple (Kottai mariyamman koil) in Salem.

Every month we used to carry the ingredients and make pongal back of the temple, offer it to god and after that we distribute all the pongal there itself in the temple.

We just take a ladle full for ourselves. Other than that we distribute everything there. The vengala panai (Bronze pot) gets empty in no time. We come back home with heart full of satisfaction.

Why I love this?

This turns out very close to the sacred temple offerings, tasty and flavorful. One of the top recipes tried and tasted by many of my follower friends with positive feedbacks. Do give it a try and you will agree with me.

Sakkarai Pongal Ingredients

Here are the ingredients needed to make sweet pongal.

Rice - Raw rice (Pacharisi) - New harvest works best as it gives soft results, gets cooked quickly.
Moong dal - Yellow split mung bean (Pasi paruppu) - Gives creamy texture and richness to pongal, as well as flavour.
Jaggery - For sweetening, use paagu vellam for best colour & flavour.
Ghee - Adds richness and flavour
Cardamom - Main flavouring ingredient
Edible camphor - (Pachai karpooram) For temple-style flavour
Clove - Along with pachai karpooram, this gives divine flavour
Nutmeg powder - Gives a rich flavour
Salt - To avoid flat taste
Cashews & Raisins - For garnishing

Sakkarai pongal for pot method Ingredients (vengala panai)

Step by step photos

1. Firstly, take all the ingredients needed, ready. Take pressure cooker, add ¼ teaspoon ghee and roast the moong dal until fragrant.

2. Then, add 2 & ½ cups water, washed rice,a pinch of salt and pressure cook for 4 whistles in medium flame. Mash it once done.

3. Meanwhile, powder jaggery, heat it with water just to immerse it and bring to boil. Let the jaggery completely dissolve. Then filter it through a metal strainer and add to the mashed rice in the cooker.

4. In a separate pan, heat a teaspoon of ghee and roast cashews to golden. After that add raisins to it. Once it fluffs up, transfer it and keep aside.

In the same pan, add cloves and switch off the stove. Add nutmeg powder, give a quick stir.

Add powdered cardamom, edible camphor, cloves along with nutmeg powder to the pongal.

5. Mix well and cook in medium flame for 5 minutes. Add ¼ cup water or milk if it gets dry while cooking. Drizzle ghee little by little while cooking. Lastly add the fried cashews and raisins.

To know your pongal is done perfectly, it will have a shine from the jaggery coating the rice. So keep cooking until it bubbles well.

Divine smelling + tasting pongal is what you have now! The whole house smell divinely.

Top tip

You can choose to boil the syrup until half string consistency and add to pongal for a shiny sakkarai pongal.

If you feel something is missing in taste, it will definitely be the sweet taste. So add more jaggery or if you are okay, one or 2 tablespoon of sugar for a quick fix.

The measurements given will be perfect, but some jaggery are less sweet or more sweet depending on it's quality. So you can add up to 1 cup jaggery for this sweet pongal recipe.

If you want watery texture instead of firm texture, use upto 4 cups water while cooking the rice, give extra 2 whistles for the excess water to get incorporated.

You can reduce ghee and just top some melted ghee over while serving. Adding lots of ghee also spoils the taste, especially when sweet pongal cools down.

So I also suggest to heat it up and serve hot for both taste as well as texture.

My notes

Some people do not like edible camphor, if you are one of them, you can skip adding it.

The trick is to add just the right amount, if you add more, it will be overpowering. So add very very little to get the best flavour.

Edible camphor is food-grade, not the one sold for pooja.

Roasting moong dal (payatham paruppu) is optional. It gives flavour, also doesn't get mashed too much in the pongal. You can skip the step and choose to wash the dal and cook along rice.

For open pot boiling method, use 6 cups water for 1 cup rice.

Use a little milk for a creamy texture.

Shelf life

Stays good for 12 hours, if you want to store longer, cool down and refrigerate for couple of days. Reheat with a splash of water or a drizzle of ghee.

FAQ

Why my sakkarai pongal is not creamy?

Make sure to cook rice properly before adding jaggery. Once you add jaggery, the rice stops cooking.

Why sweet pongal hardens after cooling down?

When we cook with more water and mash the rice and dal, it is natural to thicken as it cools down. Reheat to loosen up and add a splash of water or milk while reheating to regain the texture.

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5 from 19 votes