You can make vattayappam, a popular Keralite tea-time snack, right in your instant pot! This sweet cake is naturally gluten-free and vegan. It’s perfect for breakfast, brunch, as a snack or for dessert. You can even make it savory and serve it with curries!
Think of this Keralite snack as a thick sweet steamed pancake! Vattayappam is made with a naturally gluten-free and vegan batter and then speckled with cashews and raisins and spiced with cardamom.
It’s so perfect with a cup of chai. In fact, if you are thinking about having friends over for chai and snacks, this would be the perfect thing to make.
What is Vattayappam?
Vattayappam is made up of a rice and coconut based batter and is pretty unique in that the batter is first fermented and then steamed. This process results in a perfectly soft and slightly spongy cake.
This sweet rice cake is a pretty popular snack in the Keralite Christian community, but anyone can make and enjoy this of course. My husband who is Keralite grew up eating this cake but out of the two of us, I love it more. That seems to be the case with all Keralite recipes though – I think I must have been Keralite in another life.
About the Ingredients:
The main ingredients in this cake are rice and coconut.
I tried using shortcuts like making this with rice flour and canned coconut milk but ultimately I found that the best way to make this in an instant pot is to grind the rice and coconut yourself. I suggest using frozen grated coconut (easily found at any Indian grocery store) and basmati rice because it’s also easy to find. I typically use organic basmati rice from Trader Joe’s to make this dessert but any basmati rice will work. I know some people like to use different types of rice (like sona masoori or by adding a bit of cooked matta rice) and if you’re familiar with this dessert, go right ahead. I can only vouch for the recipe as written though.
Once you blend the rice and coconut, you’ll add bloomed yeast to it which will help ferment the batter. Then you’ll pour the batter into an oven safe bowl and place it on a trivet in the instant pot. Press the “yogurt” button and after two hours, you’ll see that the batter has doubled in size! Then it’s time to make the cake: mix in sugar, cardamom and pour the batter into a cake pan. Sprinkle cashews and raisins on top, cover with foil and steam. I know it sounds like a long process but once you make it you’ll see how simple it really is.
And the result? A thick, pillow-like sweet rice cake.
Prefer Savory to Sweet? Reduce the Sugar and Serve this with Curry!
You can reduce the sugar in this recipe (omit the ¼ cup of sugar at the end) and enjoy this as a savory cake/bread! Serve it with any Keralite curry (like this chicken stew, ground beef stew or this coconut egg curry).
Let me know how you enjoy this cake and what you think of it! I suggest making and eating this on the same day as that’s when it tastes the best.
Instant Pot Vattayappam (Steamed Rice Cake)
Instant Pot Vattayappam (Steamed Rice Cake)
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice soak for 4-5 hours
- 3 tablespoons warm water
- ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¾ cup cold water
- ½ cup grated coconut*
- Coconut oil for greasing cake pan
Add Later
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 tablespoon raisins fried in ghee
- 1 tablespoon cashews fried in ghee
Instructions
- Soak the rice in cold water for 4-5 hours. Drain, rinse and set aside.
- To prepare the cake batter, you will first need to bloom the yeast. To do this, place the 3 tablespoons of warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl (the water must be warm - it cannot be cold or too hot). Allow it to rest for a few minutes or until it blooms and becomes frothy. This step is important. If the yeast doesn’t froth at the top, then it’s likely dead and you will need to buy new yeast.
- While you wait for the yeast to bloom, prepare the pressure cooker by adding 2 cups of water to the steel pot. Place the wire rack that came with your pressure cooker into the pot.
- Add the drained rice and ¾ cup cold water to a blender and blend until mostly smooth (coarsely ground rice is also fine). Add the grated coconut and the bowl of frothy yeast into the blender and blend again until well combined.
- Pour this batter into an oven-safe bowl and set the bowl on top of the trivet inside the steel inner pot.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve, press the yogurt button and set the time for 2 hours. When the time is up, remove the lid and you should see that the batter has fermented and has doubled in size.
- Remove the bowl of batter, add an additional 1 cup of water into the inner pot then place an empty well-greased 7.5 inch cake pan on top of the trivet. Press the sauté button to heat up the water and the empty pan.
- Add ¼ cup sugar and cardamom to the batter and mix until well combined.
- Pour the batter into the now hot cake pan that is sitting in the steel inner pot. Sprinkle cashews and raisins on top of the batter. Lightly cover the cake pan with a piece of foil.
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve, press the steam button and set the time for 30 minutes at high pressure.
- Naturally release pressure. Remove the hot cake pan out of the pot and place it on a wire rack to cool.
Notes
- *Freshly grated coconut isn’t always practical. I suggest buying frozen unsweetened grated coconut at your local Indian grocery store. I thaw the coconut before measuring it.
- To make this vegan, you can sauté the cashews and raisins in coconut oil or leave them out.
- I recommend making and eating this on the same day as that’s when it tastes the best.
- You can also leave the ¼ cup of sugar out of this recipe and make a steamed savory cake that you can serve with any Keralite curry.
Judy says
Yay!! I tried this a long time back and couldn’t get this right and have been dreading trying it again but I used instant yeast this time and placed it on top of a warming oven and finally got it to rise! Woo hoo!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Judy, I’m so glad you tried it again and got it to work this time! 🙂
Anne says
I have an older version of the instapot….. So I don’t have the yogurt setting to ferment the batter. Does anyone know what other setting can be used for this? Thanks!
Pradhish Karemshendani says
might help to know which settings your pot DOES have first. Or is it a temperature wheel?
Susan Poruthur says
Thank you for this simple and easy vattayappam recipe.
This is my second time making it, both times, the vattayappam was hard (still sweet and tasty) but not soft.
Any ideas what I did wrong? 🙂
BMath says
What type of bowl do you use that it’s oven safe for the batter on yogurt setting? I’m worried about using non instapot accessories inside of it and making it burn or something. Also would love a video! I tried a different recipe with the flour and it didn’t turn out well so I want to try out your recipe!
SGeorge says
Thank you for the recipe. I made a few modifications…
1) cut sugar to half the amount. Was still sweet enough.
2) steamed in idli pot instead of insta pot. It came out fluffier.
My Heart Beets says
Thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
A says
Hello, is there a way to substitute fresh or frozen coconut (which I cannot find here) with dry coconut flakes?
Thank you!
Ann says
Do you think it’ll turn out good if I use rice flour instead ? I have seen many online recipes where they make the batter out of rice flour which makes it easier ,eliminating the whole soaking and grinding rice bit, but I’m worrie dit wont taste as good. :-/
My Heart Beets says
Hi Ann, I actually tried several times to make this using rice flour and for some reason it didn’t work for me… it actually took me over a dozen tries to perfect this recipe so I wouldn’t suggest straying from the recipe.
Jensy says
Hi how long should the natural release take?
Alban says
Great recipe, thank you Ashley!
My Instant Pot has three Yogurt settings: Less, Normal and More. For those who are wondering, the one to use for this recipe is Less.
Jenita says
I am yet to try this.. but I am so happy you have this on here….. what I wouldn’t give for my mom’s or grandma’s vattayappams!! will try it soon and post a review..
My Heart Beets says
Jenita, I can’t wait to hear what you think!!
JS says
I made it by following your instructions to a tee, and it came out very well indeed! Not too sweet and perfect with tea. Such a great vegan recipe, thanks!
My Heart Beets says
I’m so happy to hear that you made it and that it came out so well!! Thank you for letting me know how it turned out for you 🙂
Judy says
Ashley can you please post a video on this one. I had a couple problems.. I didn’t know what the yeast was supposed to look like or if I was supposed to mix it at all. I did 3 different tries and just picked the “most frothy” although none of them really looked like anything.
After I cooked it on the yogurt mode I wasn’t left with a batter but a thick cake like consistency although it tasted spot on.
Thanks!
My Heart Beets says
Hi Judy, it sounds like your yeast didn’t bloom properly – did you use warm water with the yeast? It must be warm in order to activate the yeast (too cold won’t work and hot could kill it). Did the batter double in size after fermenting? I’ll add this to my video list – thanks for the feedback!
JS says
I really want to make this since it looks delicious, but am intimidated since I’ve never heard of it. I need an instant pot video demo, but can’t find any online.
Dalia says
OMG Ashley! Thank you so much for posting this recipe. When I was a child, my neighbor used to make this for Christmas. I can still taste the slightly sweet, puffy vattayapam! Will make it this weekend. Thanks so much!
My Heart Beets says
Dalia, I’m so happy to hear that!! Please let me know what you think of it when you make it! 🙂
Dalia Chetty says
I made it yesterday! It was soooo delicious! I forgot to add sugar to the batter before steaming so I gave the kids a piece and poured a little maple syrup on top. They loved it!
Looking forward to making more vattayapams in the future. Thank you so much for the recipe!
My Heart Beets says
Dalia, I’m so happy to hear that!! Great idea about topping it with maple syrup 🙂 Thank you for reporting back and letting me know how it turned out!!
Pradhish Karemshendani says
Do you believe this would taste decent with Rooh Afza or mango preserves? I’d like to add another tropical flavor to enhance the sweetness and “take me home” so to speak.