Unni appam is a traditional, tasty and popular snack of Kerala (south India). Unni means small and appam means rice cake. Unni appam is prepared from rice,jaggery, banana, cardamom powder, ghee and coconut pieces.
I had some dark chocolate while making unniappam I just stuffed it into it and it really tasted superb. Wow a new innovation , a fusion it really worked out well and I take credit to innovate a very old dish.
For making unni appam you need special vessel/ebelskiver/ paniyaram moulds. Bananas and cardamom powder with small bits of cashew pieces fried in ghee brings out a unique taste and flavour. Stuffed with chocolate it tasted better. It is our favourite snack and my whole family loved the new twist given to this snack, especially my son.
INGREDIENT
Boil rice 1 1/2 teacup
Bananas(small) 3
Jaggery 1 teacup
Cardamom 2-3
Cashew 2 tbsp
Any dark chocolate cut in small blocks
Ghee
METHOD
Rinse and soak rice overnight in water.
Drain the water from the rice. In a blender add the rice, powdered jaggery, bananas and cardamom pods and blend into fine paste.
Fry the cashews in ghee till golden brown in colour and add to the batter.
Let it rest for 2-3 hours.
Heat ghee(clarified butter) in a paniyaram pan/ unni appam pan, almost half the mould should be covered in oil.
When the pan becomes hot, lower the fire to low heat and add a tablespoon of batter, it should cover 3/4 th of the mould. When it is 1/4 cooked insert a small block of chocolate into each appam.
When the unni appam becomes golden brown, turn the unni appam with a spoon or wooden stick and cook the other side to a golden brown.
Once cooked remove and drain in a kitchen towel.
Add oil in the mould and again repeat the same process with the rest of the batter.
Tasty chocolate unni appam are ready and can be served as evening snacks.