Appam for Dussehra ~ Nethi Bellam Appalu as Naivedyam

Ayigiri nandini nanditamedini viswa vinodini nadinuthe
Giri vara vindhya shirodinivasini vishnu vilasini jisshnunithe
Bhagavati hesithi kanta kutumbini bhoori kutumbuni bhoori krute
jaya jaya he mahishasura mardhini ramyaka pardhini sailasuthe!!

Kanaka Durgamma( Goddess Durga ) in Vijayawada,
Courtesy, Kanaka durga tenple

Happy Dussehra everyone. Dasara is a festival , celebrating the victory of good over evil. In India, this is the longest celebrated festival, 10 days, ( Dus means 10 ) and a very important and celebrated pomp and grand. Durga maa( Goddess ) is worshipped in different avatars every day during Dasara ( Vijaya dasami, Dussehra ) like, Bala tripura sundari, Mahuishasura mardini, Annapoorna, Kali, Raja Rajeswari, Kanaka Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati and Gayatri devi.


The Durga maa temple in Vijayawada( Kanakadurga temple / Indra keeladri ), is very famous for Dasara and lakhs of people visit this temple during these ten days. I myself believe her a lot and have been to this temple numerous times. I have been making prasadam/naivedyam( offering to god ) these days, and here are Bellam Neyyi Appam/Appalu made with Whole wheat flour, Clarified butter and Jaggery(gur ). They say Durga ma likes this a lot.


This is my first time making these for the goddess as naivedyam, so i haven't measured anything exactly. I just eyeballed everything and you need to adjust according to your taste and requirement.

Ingredients for Appam( Appalu ):

• Jaggery/Bellam/Gur
• Whole wheat flour / Atta / Goduma pindi
• Ghee / Neyyi (Nei)/ Clarified butter for frying
• Whole Cardamom or Elaichi
• Water

How to make Nethi bellam appam:

• Grate gur/bellam or just shave using a knife and then add it to say a glass of water.
• Gur should completely dissolve into water, to speed up the process you can even boil the mixture until the gur is completely dissolved
• Heat ghee in kadai under medium flame
• Once dissolved add crushed cardamom/elaichi and then mix in atta/whole wheat flour. The batter should be thicker than pancake batter.
• Once the ghee is heated enough, with a spoon drop in the batter, and once they are golden brown remove from the pan, and dry them on paper towels.

Appams are very nutritious food for kids too, its made with whole wheat, jaggery and fresh ghee. Since i made as naivedyam, i deep fried in ghee, and when cooking these as snacks of course you can go light on the ghee( butter ) by using paniyaram pan.

My whole wheat butter and jageery fritters / appams are on its way to:

• Dussehra, Dhanteras and Deepavali by Shanti
• Festive treat event
• Cooking For Kids event started by Sharmi
• CFK:Wheat hosted by Sireesha