Photo: Gaurav Dhwaj Khadka · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Kerala · Dessert

Achappam

Traditional 44. Achappam recipe

🧺 Ingredients

• 60g (½ cup) all-purpose flour (maida)
• 30g (¼ cup) rice flour
• 3 tbsp fine sugar
• 120ml coconut milk
• 120ml water
• 1 tsp coconut oil (plus more in batter)
• ¼ tsp cardamom powder
• ½ tsp black sesame seeds (ellu)
• ½ tsp cumin seeds (optional, traditional)
• 2 pinches baking powder
• 1 pinch salt
• 350ml coconut oil for deep frying
• 1 rose cookie iron mould (achappam mould)

👩‍🍳 How to make Achappam

1. Make batter (5 mins): Whisk maida, rice flour, sugar, cardamom, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl. Add sesame seeds and cumin seeds. Stir in 1 tsp coconut oil. Gradually pour in coconut milk and water, whisking continuously until you have a completely smooth batter with the consistency of thin crepe batter — fluid enough to drip off the mould cleanly but thick enough to coat it.
2. Heat oil and mould (5 mins, medium heat): Pour coconut oil into a small, deep kadai. Heat to 170°C — a drop of batter should bubble and rise within 2 seconds. Place the rose cookie mould into the hot oil and heat for 1–1½ minutes until it is thoroughly hot.
3. Coat and fry first batch (5 mins, medium heat): Lift the hot mould from oil. Dip it into the batter so batter covers the mould sides up to three-quarters of its height — do not submerge the top, or the cookie will not release. Immediately return the coated mould to hot oil. After 5–8 seconds, gently shake the mould — the cookie will begin to release and float free. Once it floats, remove the mould.
4. Finish frying (3 mins per batch): Fry the floating cookie until bubbles slow, turning it once, until pale golden and crisp all over — about 2–3 minutes total. Remove with a slotted spoon onto kitchen paper. The cookie should shatter slightly when snapped.
5. Repeat (15 mins): Return the mould to oil and reheat for 15–20 seconds before each cookie. Stir batter gently before each dip. Adjust heat if cookies darken too fast.

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