Preparation:

• Make jaggery into powder.
• For making this kozhukattai, any good fresh rice flour you can use. I used fresh store bought rice flour today.
• Rice flour for kozhukattai can be made in home also.

To make rice flour(kozhukattai flour):

• If you are making in home, prepare this the previous day itself. Wash and soak raw rice for two hours.
• After two hours, drain the rice and dry it in a plain white cotton cloth under fan. When it is completely dry then grind it into fine flour in machine or mixer. Cool it down, sieve and store tight in a container for future use.
• First prepare stuffings before making kozhukattai.

Recipe to make sweet kozhukattai:

Preparing ellu poornam(sesame stuffing):

• If your sesame seeds are clean skip this step. Otherwise for safe sake first wash and drain ellu seeds, dry in a clean cloth for two hours.
• In a pan, dry roast sesame seeds continuously in medium flame for five minutes. Ellu seeds popping sound will come while roasting, that is the stage to switch off. Please be careful not to burnt them.
• Let it cool down for few minutes.
• Now add plain roasted peanuts into the jar and powder with ellu seeds into coarse powder.
• Add mentioned quantity of powdered jaggery into the jar and grind again for two minutes.
• Transfer it to a plate, add cardamom powder.
• Add ghee and mix with the poornam. Sesame stuffing is ready. Keep it ready.

Preparing coconut poornam:

• Heat a pan with a tbsp of ghee.
• Add grated coconut and fry in ghee.
• Mix nicely until nice aroma arises.
• Add a cup of jaggery and mix with coconut.
• Let the jaggery melt and mix with coconut. Switch off.
• Let it cool down and you can make equal sized balls, keep aside.

How to make kozhukattai dough :

• In a non-stick kadai, pour 11/4 cups of water. For one cup rice flour usually 1.25 cups of water is enough. Some rice flour may take 11/2 cups of water. So the better strategy I recommend here is to heat water and add flour little by little. Some do the other way of adding hot water gradually into flour, which may also be followed.
• Add salt and 1 tsp gingelly oil. Let the water boil.
• When water starts roll-boiling, keep the flame to very low temperature. Add rice flour gradually and mix with hot water quickly.
• The whole process of mixing flour into hot water takes just five minutes. Mix continuously, rice flour will be half-cooked by this time and gets a shiny texture without lumps as a whole mass.
• If you are adding hot water into flour, then add water gradually carefully and mix until you get a whole mass.
• Transfer this hot dough to a mixing bowl. When it is warm enough to touch, knead the dough with oiled hands again and close with damp cloth to avoid drying.

Making kozhukattai stuffings:

• Apply oil in palms, take a lemon sized ball and flatten it.
• Slightly press it and rotate simultaneously to make a cup like shape. Be careful not to crack it.
• Now fill the stuffing and close the side corners as shown. Do not over stuff as it may come out of dumplings while cooking.
• Press the corners firmly to avoid any leak.
• To make like north Indian modak type, after filling the ellu poornam or coconut poornam just bring all the sides together and press the top like a flower as shown. You can remove extra dough.
• Prepare all the kozhukattais with different stuffing and shapes, keep them ready.

Cooking sweet kozhukattai:

• In the meantime, heat water in a idli steamer.
• When water boils, grease idli plates and keep ready.
• Stack the stuffed kozhukattais one by one in the idli plates and cook for 7-8 minutes.
• After 8 minutes, switch off the idli cooker. Take out the plates; let them cool down for two mins.
• When it is cooled enough to touch, remove and serve the sweet kozhukattai or offer to god as prasadam.