Vattayappam

Vattayappam is a Kerala sweet made by fermenting a rice and coconut batter and steaming it in a round mold. Its white cut surface is full of fine air bubbles, and it is mildly sweet with a light texture in the mouth.

In one home example, raw rice is soaked and drained, then ground together with cooked rice, grated coconut and sugar. Yeast is added and the mixture is left in a warm place, and the risen batter is poured into an oiled mold. It is scattered with cashew nuts and raisins and cooked with steam.

The bubbles that form during fermentation become small holes in the steamed batter. In methods that add cooked rice, the batter takes on a different stickiness from one made only with soaked raw rice. If the batter is not mixed too vigorously before steaming, the bubbles created by fermentation are more likely to remain.

In Kerala it is cut into pieces and eaten at teatime, and it is also known as a celebratory sweet for Christians at Easter and Christmas. It differs from kinnathappam, which also uses rice and coconut, in the rise that comes from fermentation.

One cook remembers it as a steamed sweet that their maternal grandmother used to make. Their mother sweetened it with jaggery, while the cook says they use sugar. Leftover rice batter from palappam is also sometimes combined with coconut and flavorings and steamed into vattayappam.

There is also a family memory of a mother making this sweet on Maundy Thursday, while waiting for Easter. Around Thiruvananthapuram, examples have also been described of white vattayappam made with a fermented sweet palm liquid and served alongside Easter meat dishes. It is not only eaten as a teatime sweet; it is sometimes served alongside a meal as well.

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