Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi to all who celebrate 
Kozhukkattai – sweet rice flour dumpling filled with a mixture of jaggery, coconut, and cardamom powder( puranam), steamed and drizzled with ghee and offered to Lord Ganesha, our Elephant God on his birthday
This is a quintessential Prasad offered to Lord Ganesha on his birthday along with konda Kadalai ( chickpea salad) sundal! There are a lot of varieties of puranam that can be made and stuffed inside. This one I’m sharing here is a very basic one with jaggery and grated coconut. The outer covering is made with rice flour and I’ve used store-bought rice flour for this recipe and it works just fine! You can use your idli cooker and any kind of steamer to steam your kozhukkattai’s. Just make sure not to oversteam it as it might overcook your kozhukkattai’s and it might eventually turn very chewy / bit hard after some time.
Also when you make the filling do not cook it for more than 5 mins. It’s completely ok for the filling to be a bit on the juicier side rather than becoming like hard candy. You don’t want that. If you feel the filling needs to be a bit thicker just place it in the refrigerator for some time till you make the outer covering. It will eventually thicken up or you could also try adding some rice flour to the cooled puranam ( stuffing) to thicken it up. I highly recommend using freshly grated coconut for the filling.
Here you go with the recipe:
Ingredients:
Outer covering:
Rice flour- 1 cup
Water-11/4 cup
Salt-1/4 tsp
Ghee-2 tsp
Filling:
Jaggery-1 cup
Grated fresh coconut- 1 cup
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Method:
Filling:
To make the filling, heat ghee in a pan. In medium heat add the grated coconut and jaggery to the ghee along with cardamom powder. The jaggery will melt first. Keep mixing and stirring continuously till the mixture becomes slightly thick for 5 – 6 minutes. Do not cook it for more than 5 mins. It’s completely ok for the filling to be a bit on the juicier side rather than becoming like hard candy. You don’t want that. If you feel the filling needs to be a bit thicker just place it in the refrigerator for some time till you make the outer covering. It will eventually thicken up or you could also try adding some rice flour to the cooled puranam ( stuffing) to thicken it up. I highly recommend using freshly grated coconut for the filling.
Outer covering:
In a pot add the water salt and ghee. Let it come to a rolling boil. Turn off the heat and remove the pan from the stovetop. Add the rice flour and mix thoroughly. Close it with a lid and set it aside for 3-5 mins.
Once it’s warm knead the dough. You could use a tsp of ghee to make the dough. Cover and Set aside for 5-10 mins.
Making Kozhukkattai:
Take a lemon-sized ball flatten it add some filling and then seal the ball and crimp or pleat the edges like a modak or you could just leave it as a ball. It’s totally up to you how you want to shape it. You could also use modak molds as I’ve used. Prepare the remaining modals.
Steam them for about 8-10 mins till done.
Drizzle with some ghee and it’s all ready to offer to Lord Ganesha