Achappam or rose cookies is a snack Keralites, especially Christians in Kerala are heavily attached to. Amazingly crunchy, these are usually made in December during the festive season.
Now I must admit, though I am a big fan of my mom’s achappams, I had never really bothered to watch her making these. I was more interested in polishing off these beauties the same day they were made. And my mom used to make tonnes!
I was petrified yet excited when my mom gifted me a non stick achappam mould last Christmas. I put off trying my hand at them for a couple of months thinking the actual process required a skill set that comes from years of experience in the kitchen. But by then the demand for home made achappams from my daughter’s had reached a crescendo. So one fine day, I finally decided to take the plunge! And hey presto, it was not as difficult as I thought. After a couple of unsuccessful trials, I finally got the hang of it and made a tinful. And that’s another item ticked off from my “To do list”!
Ingredients
1/2kg finely sifted rice flour
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups coconut milk (first extract)
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
A pinch of Salt
Oil for deep frying
How To
Mix the flour and coconut milk to make a dippable semi thick batter. Beat the eggs separately, add to the batter and mix well. Lastly add the cumin seeds, salt and sugar combine well. Keep aside for half an hour.
Heat the oil in a deep bottomed vessel. Dip the achappam mould in the hot oil. When the mould has heated up, remove it, shake off the excess oil and dip 3/4th of the mould in the batter. Ensure to dip only 3/4th of the mould in the batter, otherwise, the achappam cannot be unmoulded properly. Now take the mould from the batter and dip it in hot oil. When the batter is cooked, it will start detaching itself from the mould. If you have problems in unmoulding, use a fork to gently unmould. Flip the achappam in the oil to ensure even cooking. Take out the achappam as soon as it becomes golden and crispy. Drain and keep aside. Repeat the process for the rest of the batter. Store these achappams in an airtight container after they cool down.
Source: Mom!
Notes: Most recipes use a couple of teaspoons of black sesame seeds in the batter. Since my mom used to skip this step often, I am used to achappams without these black sesame seeds. Hence, I haven’t mentioned the same in the recipe.
