The recipe I bring to you today is an ode to childhood memories. A time when there was no junk food available and no restrictions on home made sweets either. One such childhood favourite dosa recipe is the Vella Dosai or the Instant Wheat Flour Jaggery Sweet Pancakes.
I made this after ages and let me tell you, enjoyed every bite of this delicious thick pancake with our evening cup of tea. In fact, my husband even remarked that this should be made often at home.
About Vella Dosai
- Vellam in Tamil refers to Jaggery and Dosas are South Indian Pancakes.
- These sweet pancakes can be made with few ingredients easily available at home.
- They are best to satisfy the immediate sweet cravings, especially for kids.
- When served during winters, jaggery is quite warming to the body and provides instant energy to the otherwise tired and busy young minds.
- Made with ghee or clarified butter but can also be made with oil. Ghee is another ingredient, apart from Jaggery, whose consumption increases during winters.
Did I tell you that these dosas taste very similar to Neyyappam or Kerala Sweet Appams? Well, they do!
Ingredients for the Jaggery Sweet Pancakes
- Whole Wheat Flour (Since it is an instant recipe, no soaking or grinding is involved)
- Rice Flour (to add slight crispiness around edges)
- Jaggery (to be grated, melted and added with the flours)
- Cardamom Powder or Eliachi powder for the flavour and aroma.
- Coconut slices - I cannot imagine Vella Dosai without coconut slices. You can, however, add grated coconut too to the batter.
- Ghee - Cook the dosa with ghee instead of oil, especially in winters for best results.
Vella Dosai is ideal after school snack when kids demand "something sweet". Instead of handing them sweets loaded with refined flour and sugar, you can adopt traditional recipes to ensure good nutrition and taste.
Vella Dosai tastes best when served piping hot. As such, they don't need any fancy accompaniments. For kids, a glass of milk is sufficient or you can serve it with a dollop of white butter.
Vella Dosai Recipe with Step by Step Pics
- Grate Jaggery, measure and keep aside. Sift Whole Wheat Flour and Rice Flour in a bowl.
- Melt Jaggery in a steel vessel with 2 tblsp water on low flame, until the jaggery is liquid consistency. No one string consistency to be achieved here so ensure the flame is low.
- Strain the jaggery.
- Mix the flour and jaggery until it has formed a thick paste. Add water and achieve pouring consistency.
- Now add fine slices of coconut along with cardamom powder. Mix well and rest for 5 minutes.
- Heat a griddle or tawa, add few drops of ghee.
- Carefully pour a ladle of this dosa batter and try to spread. The batter tends to stick a bit so be careful.
- Drizzle ghee to the sides of the pancake, cover and cook for few minutes over low heat.
- Remove cover, flip and cook until done.
- Serve the dosas piping hot.
Important Tips
- Since the Dosa or pancake is sweet, choose good quality Jaggery. I have used an organic variety.
- Every Jaggery variety is different, so ensure you taste and adjust quantity.
- The colour of the pancakes would also depend on the variety of jaggery used.
- For this recipe, we have to just melt the jaggery. No one-string consistency needs to be achieved here. Do not overcook the jaggery or thicken it. It should just dissolve so that batter can be mixed easily.
- I have used water to adjust the consistency of the batter, you can add milk too. I find the latter too heavy, so I avoid.
- Instead of chopped pieces of coconut, you can add grated coconut too.
As I have mentioned earlier, these are instant pancakes so it can be made under 30 minutes.
The Recipe is not Gluten Free but can be easily substituted with Almond Flour. For a Vegan Recipe version, add oil instead of ghee.
The batter consistency can be adjusted according to preferences. I love the thick pancakes as opposed to flat dosa and hence prefer the batter thick.
The recipe yields around 7 mini pancakes.
Vella Dosai / Instant Wheat Flour Jaggery Sweet Pancakes
Equipment
- Tawa or Griddle
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour !/2 cup is 125 ml measurement
- 1/2 cup Rice Flour
- 1 cup Jaggery (Grated or roughly chopped) 1 cup is 200 ml measurement
- 1/4 tsp Cardamom Powder or Eliachi powder
- 1 tbsp Sliced Coconut Pieces
- Water as required to achieve batter consistency See Notes below
- Ghee or Clarified butter to cook the dosa
Instructions
- Grate Jaggery, measure and keep aside. Sift Whole Wheat Flour and Rice Flour in a bowl.
- Melt Jaggery in a steel vessel with 2 tblsp water on low flame, until the jaggery is liquid consistency. No one string consistency to be achieved here so ensure the flame is low.
- Strain the jaggery.
- Mix the flour and jaggery until it has formed a thick paste. Add water and achieve pouring consistency.
- Now add fine slices of coconut along with cardamom powder. Mix well and rest for 5 minutes.
- Heat a griddle or tawa, add few drops of ghee.
- Carefully pour a ladle of this dosa batter and try to spread. The batter tends to stick a bit so be careful.
- Drizzle ghee to the sides of the pancake, cover and cook for few minutes over low heat.
- Remove cover, flip and cook until done.
- Serve the dosas piping hot.
Notes
- Since the Dosa or pancake is sweet, choose good quality Jaggery. I have used an organic variety.
- Every Jaggery variety is different, so ensure you taste and adjust quantity.
- The colour of the pancakes would also depend on the variety of jaggery used.
- For this recipe, we have to just melt the jaggery. No one-string consistency needs to be achieved here. Do not overcook the jaggery or thicken it. It should just dissolve so that batter can be mixed easily.
- I have used water to adjust the consistency of the batter, you can add milk too. I find the latter too heavy, so I avoid.
- Water quantity was close to 1 cup (250 ml) that was used for adjusting batter consistency. It largely depends on the flour too. Organic Wheat Flour absorbs more water. Adjust and add accordingly.
- Instead of chopped pieces of coconut, you can add grated coconut too.
- The Recipe is not Gluten Free but can be easily substituted with Almond Flour. For a Vegan Recipe version, add oil instead of ghee.
Some Kid Friendly Snack Recipes
- Gur Makhana or Palm Jaggery Coated Fox Nuts - Tastes just like Caramel Popcorn, your kids will love it and request you to make it for them often.
- Veggies and Paneer Loaded Grilled Sandwich - Keeps them full until dinner, ensures a good dose of mixed vegetables, leafy greens and paneer. Can be packed in their tiffin box as well with ketchup or hung curd dip.
- Ammini Kozhukattai - Made in a jiffy, kids love these rice flour balls as snack. The recipe covers 3 flavors.
Taking this recipe to the A to Z challenge this month wherein we choose to cook with key ingredients Alphabetically. This month it was time for Alphabet ‘J’ and I chose my key ingredient ‘Jaggery’ to make a childhood favourite Dosa Recipe called Vella Dosai
Do give us a shout out or tag us when you post a recipe on any of our social media handles – INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, FACEBOOK PAGE AND PINTEREST.
You can also subscribe to our website to receive all the delicious recipes in your mail box.
Would be really happy to receive your feedback.
Thank you for visiting
Vidya Narayan