Chakka Appam/ Steamed Jackfruit Rice Cake

Chakka appam /Steamed jackfruit rice cake wrapped in Banana leaves, is a delicious south Indian traditional steamed rice cake made with ripe jack fruit and jaggery( raw sugar) and rice. Fat free dessert

If you looking for some simple fat free dessert then try this Chakkappam made with ripe jackfruit puree, jaggery, rice flour and best  part of this rice cake is it is steamed. 

Some fruits tempt me to buy them a lot; they are plantain, mango and jackfruit. Yes these fruits remind me of my childhood days. So always I try to grab them when it is possible. Last week I went to Hong Kong Market for get some ingredients for my Thai recipe. Yes I am little crazy about Thai dishes. When I saw huge jackfruit, I immediately put it into the shopping cart.

I didn’t even blink an eye towards my hubby as he may have any other opinion. After coming home, I realized it was ripe, so we need to eat it as fast as possible, and as I was not possible to finish it in a couple of days, made this chakka appam/  Steamed Jackfruit rice cake wrapped in banana leaves.

I have already made jackfruit preserve, sweet pudding with jackfruit, in fact two versions or it, one with preserve and other with fresh fruit. Also made Ela ada/ rice wrappers with jackfruit preserve as filling with ripe jackfruit. Yes ripe jackfruit is delicious especially this variety called varikka and then there is another variety Koozha.

Even in varikka there are following different types 1. Varikka Chakka 2. Koozha Chakka 3. Chembarathi Chakka 4. Sada Varikkka Chakka 5. Then Varikka . I think I bought varikka from Hong Kong Market. In my home, usually my grandma checks the ripeness of jackfruit. I don’t remember how she did it?

Last time when we visited Hong Kong Market, we asked a Vietnamese couple for help to select the jackfruit, and they told us to looks for equal sized prickly eyes on jackfruit, if they are equal size means they are ripe. Now I learned how to select them.

I have tried most of the traditional recipes using ripe jackfruit, even though a few like Chakka appam remains in the list. Chakka appam is a traditional tea time snack made with ripe jackfruit, jaggery, coconut and homemade rice flour.

I am very particular about the traditional recipes, so soaked rice and pounded it into homemade rice flour. You can feel free to use store bought rice flour. First grind the ripe jack fruit and then thicken the puree with jaggery. To this add rice flour and coconut and steam it in a banana leaves.

I am happy to use banana leaves from my garden. Cooking with banana leaves imparts great aromatic flavor which nothing can replace it. I did it just like my grandma used to make. It is delicious, give it a try if you are little adventurous. For me some this recipe rekindles their childhood memories. Here comes the recipe.

First make jackfruit puree 

Jackfruit puree 

Melt the jaggery  with water 

Strain the jaggery for impurities 

Mix in both jaggery and jackfruit puree

Cook both jackfruit puree and jaggery into a thick paste

Rice flour 

Mix in rice flour into jackfruit-jaggery mixture 

Banana leaves 

Rice-Jackfruit-jaggery mixture

Place them into banana leaves like this 

Fold the banana leaves and tie them from all sides 

Steam the jackfruit-rice mixture in banana leaves 

After 15 minutes of cooking 

Print Recipe

5 from 4 votes

Chakka appam/ Steamed Jackfruit Rice Cake

Delicious steamed jack fruit rice cake wrapped in banana leaves .Goes well with coffee or tea.

Total Time1 hour hr 20 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: Chakkappam, Jackfruit recipes

Servings: 12

Calories: 421kcal

Equipment

• Steamer

Ingredients

• 20 Jack fruit you will get 1 ¼ cup jack fruit puree
• 1 cup Jaggery Raw Indian sugar
• 2 cup roasted rice flour
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup fresh grated coconut
• 5 cardamom pods seeded
• Ghee for brushing banana leaves

Instructions

• Soak 1 ¼ cup raw rice for 5 hours and then pound it into fine rice powder.
• Sieve to get fine. Then roast ground rice powder in medium flame until entire moisture is removed.
• You will be able draw a line clearly with rice powder if it is dried well. If you want you can pulse them once more to get uniform texture. I skipped that part.
• In blender puree the jack fruit and set aside.
• In a small bowl add jaggery and ¼ cup water until it melted completely.
• Then strain for impurities.
• Bring back to heat and add the jackfruit puree and cook until it thickened about 35-40 minutes.
• To this a roasted rice powder and coconut and cardamom powder.
• Mix everything into dough.
• Cut banana leaf into small squares, and slightly wilt them in open flame, that way it will be easy pliable.
• Then brush the banana leaves with ghee
• and place small round dough in the center
• and spread it into in ½ inch circle.
• Fold it into two then fold once again to form a wrap.
• Place it in a steamer and cook for 15-20minutes
• or until banana leafs color changes.
• Once it is cool enough to touch remove the wrapper and enjoy with hot tea.

Nutrition

Calories: 421kcal | Carbohydrates: 98g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 1169mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 65g | Vitamin A: 277IU | Vitamin C: 35mg | Calcium: 73mg | Iron: 1mg

Tried this recipe?Mention @nidhinikhil or tag #zestysouthindiankitchenrecipes!

Swathi

This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.  All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.