Puttu Recipe – How to make the best, softest Rice Flour Puttu
Puttu – A breakfast item made by steaming rice flour and coconut into a cylindrical/log shape. Served with curries or banana.
It’s very simple, yet it still takes a special hand to make a good, soft light and fluffy puttu! It’s like hot snow in your hands! A common breakfast item in Southern India as well as Srilanka. There are different versions in other Asian Countries as well. The trick is to make the puttu feel light and fluffy without lumpy chunks and with just the right amount of moisture.
Rice Flour Puttu is great with numerous curries, the most popular being Black Bengal Gram Curry ( Simple Kadala Curry Recipe).
Scroll down for THE Puttu Recipe Video. Also check out Video on how to make Puttu in the Microwave. (Note that Microwave Puttu must be served immediately as it tends to be vey dry if not served quickly.)
I also love it with Egg Curry. (Egg Curry Recipe).
Puttu Recipe – How to make the best, softest Rice Flour Puttu
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Recipe Type: Breakfast
Author: Recipes ‘R’ Simple
Prep time: 5
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
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Bur Puttu Steamer Now:
Ingredients: This recipe yields enough Puttu for 2 adults. Simply double the recipe as needed for more people.
- 1 ¼ cup slightly course rice flour. (See notes)
- salt to taste ( slightly less than ½ tsp) If you are using a Puttu Flour (flour made specially for Puttu), remember that it might already contain salt.
- ²⁄3 cup fresh grated coconut (+ a little extra for the bottom of the steaming vessel)
- ¾ cup hot boiled water
- You will need a Puttu Steamer. If you do not have a puttu steamer (See notes)
Method:
- Add the measured flour to a large bowl. Do not sift.
- Boil water for adding to the flour as well as for pouring into the steamer pot. (I use my electric kettle).
- Pour the hot boiled water (¾ cup) into the rice flour whilst stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Once all the water is added. Stir semi – vigorously till all the water has been absorbed evenly by the flour. (there should be no patches of loose dry flour in the bowl)
- Add the grated coconut and stir to incorporate. (If using frozen fresh coconut – thaw first)
- Now comes the important part, while the mixture remains warm mix the flour with your fingers, breaking all lumps. use a light action of your fingers.
- To see if the flour is moist enough, follow this tip: squeeze gently a small portion of the moistened flour. It should clump together easily. That’s just to check if the texture is of the right consistency. DO NOT squeeze the flour. Use gently crumbling action of the fingers to break all small lumps and get a feathery light puttu mixture.
- To get especially fine, light ‘n’ fluffy puttu: After breaking most lumps in the flour by hand, transfer portions of the flour to a small food processor. DO THIS IN SMALL BATCHES.
- Process for a mere 2-3 seconds and pour out the mixture into another bowl. Repeat till all the flour from the first bowl is finished.
- (If you try to do this in one go : adding all flour to the processor, the flour will clump together again from the bottom of the processor, hence use only small portions at a time).
- You will now have a soft, moist, light flour mixture.
- Boil water in the bottom pot of the puttu steamer. (Place this on an appropriate sized Burner on your stove)
- Place the perforated steel disc on the bottom of the steamer cylinder.
- Add a small sprinkling of fresh grated coconut over the disk, to cover the holes.(about a Tbsp or two depending on the size of your puttu steamer. Mine is small: I need only 1 ½ rounded Tbsp.)
- Now sprinkle the prepared flour lightly with hands or a spoon into the cylinder, till it reaches the top. End with another light sprinkling of coconut on the very top.
- Place the cylinder on top of the pot of boiling water. Place securely but lightly to ensure it comes off later with ease.
- Place the lid on top. Lightly as well.
- Steam for exactly 5 minutes for standard puttu makers. If you are using other types of steaming vessels, this may vary.
- Remove the cylinder from the pot. (Careful not to touch the steel sides of the cylinder.)
- Use the pick that comes with the steamer (or a chopstick) to gently ease out the ‘log of steamed puttu’ onto a flat plate.
- Repeat this process for the remaining flour. ( Yields two logs for the amount of flour speciafied in this recipe)
- Serve the puttu warm/hot with curry of your choice or Banana for a sweet breakfast!
Puttu Recipe – How to make the best, softest puttu with rice flour
Try it and let us know – Puttu Recipe – How to make the best, softest puttu with rice flour.
Notes:
- Puttu is made with a rice flour that is not too fine. Using a super fine rice flour will not produce a good quality puttu, because it is not optimum for the steaming process and would result in the Puttu becoming too dense and perhaps undercooked as well.
- Special Puttu Flour is available in most Indian Stores. Puttu flour can be made of Brown Rice flour in the same method.
- Use a rice flour that IF you sift a tiny amount of flour, it leaves tiny grains in the sieve. This is just to check if the texture is right : Do NOT SIFT THE RICE FLOUR FOR PUTTU.
- A Puttu steamer ‘Puttu kudam’ comes in the shape of a hollow cylinder shaped vessel that is open on both ends. This is placed securely on a pot with a small opening. A perforated steel disc in placed on the bottom end of the cylinder. And a lid is placed on top. As water boils in the pot below. The Puttu flour is filled into the cylinder , with a thin layer of coconut over the disc to provide even distribution of steam. coconut can also be sprinkled between sections of Puttu if you are using a larger Puttu steamer.
- There are also Puttu Steamers that come with some pressure cookers, that can be fitted over the steam vent.
- Traditionally Puttu was and is still made in sections of bamboo, which makes for a natural, aromatic cooking cylinder. Commercial ones are made of stainless steel.
- Traditional Puttu can also be made in the coconut shell halves.
- If you do not have any of the above, use any steamer ( a pot with boiling water with a perforated rack placed OVER the boiling water and place the Puttu mixture in a small bowl on top of this rack. Cover the steamer with a lid and steam till done. The timing however, may vary in this process.
- The sprinkling of coconut over the perforated disc ensures that the flour at the very bottom of the cylinder doesn’t cook too densely which in turn will cause the upper portions of the puttu the remain undercooked. We need an even distribution. Grated coconut in the mixture, using semi course rice flour and sprinkling the coconut on the bottom ensures this.
To make Puttu in the Microwave, check out this Video. It does not provide perfect results like the Stove top version, but it’s pretty quick and easy. Great if you miss Puttu and dont have a steamer.
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that is wonderful! also try the ‘steamed puttu flour’ which is available.. we love tyhe texture of that. you add more water and wait a while… in this case theres no need to add coconut to the flour either.
I usually buy grated fresh coconut. When I do get a coconut from the Indian stores, my husband usually takes on that job. I am not good at it. If I do get the coconut open, i use the attachment on my wet-grinder to grate it.