Rava Appalu ~ Festive Sweet Fritters

Appalu are deep fried sweetened dough prepared as naivedyam (food offered to God) during festivals. Anything deep fried is definitely delicious :P, so are these.

These can be made of rice flour or semolina/suji/rava. Rava appalu are crusty outside and chewy inside. Traditionally, the recipe calls for cooking rava in water, but my MIL’s recipe includes milk which carries the taste to a divine level.

Ingredients
½ cup semolina
½ cup sugar
½ cup milk
½ cup water
1 tsp ghee
8-10 cashews, broken
a pinch of cardamom powder
oil for deep frying

Method

• Dry roast semolina for 2-3 min on a low flame.
• In a thick bottomed sauce pan, boil milk and water together.
• Reduce the flame, add roasted semolina slowly, stirring continuously without forming lumps.
• Add sugar, cardamom powder, broken cashews, ghee and mix well.
• Cook covered until the mixture thickens.
• Switch off the flame and let it sit for a while.
• Open the lid and allow it to cool.
• Once it reaches the room temperature, knead the dough until it forms a ball.
• Divide the dough into lime sized balls and flatten them between your palms.
• Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
• On a medium flame, deep fry the flattened dough until golden brown.

Note:
Grease your hands while making balls.
Do not over crowd the pan while deep frying.