Sweet, inviting, and made for sharing, Sweet Paniyaram (Bellam Ponganalu) is a vegetarian South Indian breakfast, snack made with simple everyday ingredients in about 20 minutes. The recipe lays out the ingredients and each cooking step clearly, so you can adjust seasoning, texture, and serving size for your own kitchen.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 15 minutes
  • Total time: 20 minutes
  • Yield: 24
  • Category: Breakfast, Snack
  • Cuisine: South Indian

Ingredients

  • 2 cups idli batter (thick / dosa batter)
  • ¼ cup jaggery (grated or powdered, / brown sugar/ palm jaggery(can use 2 tbsp more))
  • ¼ cup coconut (grated, fresh)
  • 2 pinches elaichi (or green cardamom powder)
  • 2 to 4 tbsp rice flour ((use only if needed, refer step by step instructions))
  • Ghee (or oil as needed (tastes best with ghee))

Method

  1. Prep up: Make sure you use thick batter. Use clean grated or powdered jaggery free from dust and stones. If your jaggery is not clean, melt it with 1 to 2 tbsp water. Filter and boil until thick. Then cool it and use here.
  2. Make the batter: Mix all the ingredients together to a thick batter.
  3. Make sweet paniyaram: Grease the paniyaram pan and add few drops of oil/ghee in all the cavities. Heat up well until hot. Turn the flame to medium and fill ¾ of each cavity. Cover with a lid and cook.
  4. When the base is set and firm, flip them to the other side with a skewer and cook until crisp & cooked thru. Poke a skewer or a fork to see if it is cooked inside. Serve sweet paniyaram hot or cold.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.