R001Palappam
The lace-edged fermented appam, the Syrian Christian breakfast bread
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringCoarse wholemeal flour rather than the white maida-adjacent wheat podi sold as "wheat puttu podi" in most shops, and the coconut held at 20 g a portion. No fat added at any stage, which is the whole argument for steaming over the parotta the same flour usually becomes.
Wheat sits more comfortably in Malabar than anywhere else in Kerala — this is pathiri and aleesa country, wheat-tolerant and tea-shop-centred — and wheat puttu is a genuine northern household breakfast rather than a diet substitution. It is also the most useful thing you can do with wheat flour in Kerala, because the alternative is the same flour laminated with fat into a parotta. In Pavithran's Kerala measurements, whole-wheat puttu came out at GI 45 and whole-wheat roti at the same figure — higher than red rice puttu's 38, which is worth knowing and worth saying.
Before you start: Wheat flour forms gluten the moment it is worked wet, and gluten in a puttu means a rubbery plug. Rake the water in with your fingertips and never knead, squeeze or press.
Wheat and Coconut Puttu
Active 15 minutes Total 30 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓240 g (2 cups) coarse wholemeal wheat flour (atta), or wheat puttu podi
- ✓4 g (¾ tsp) M07 salt or plain salt
- ✓170–190 ml water, at room temperature
- ✓80 g (¾ cup) freshly grated coconut
Allergens: Gluten (wheat).
Equipment: Puttu kutti, bamboo or steel. Substitute: a stacked steamer basket lined with muslin. Wheat puttu holds together better than rice puttu, so a loose basket is less of a problem here.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 275 kcal |
| Protein | 7 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 42 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 46 g |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Saturated fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 280 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Dry-toast the flour in a wide pan over a low flame, stirring, until it smells nutty rather than raw and has barely changed colour, . Cool it . Skip this and the puttu tastes of raw flour.
- Dissolve the salt in 150 ml of the water.
- Sprinkle the salted water over the cooled flour in stages, raking with fingertips only. Wheat absorbs faster than rice flour, so go slowly and stop earlier than you expect.
- Test the crumb in your fist: it should hold together and then break cleanly. Wheat crumb feels stickier than rice crumb at the correct hydration; judge it by how it breaks, not how it feels.
- Layer the puttu kutti with coconut and flour alternately, finishing with coconut, pressing nothing.
- Steam over hard-boiling water until steam plumes steadily from the top and the smell is of baked bread, from the first steam.
- Push it out and serve within . Wheat puttu firms up as it cools more than rice puttu does.
Why this worksSteaming a barely hydrated flour at low moisture keeps the wheat starch only partly gelatinised and, critically, keeps the gluten network from forming — which is what separates this from every other wheat preparation in Kerala. Bran and germ carry fibre and thiamine that white flour has lost, and slow the whole crumb down. No fat enters the dish at any point.
Sourcing note
Ask for coarse atta or chakki atta rather than fine chapatti flour; in a British or American supermarket, wholemeal chapatti flour is the closest thing and coarse wholemeal bread flour also works. What is sold as "wheat puttu podi" in Kerala groceries is often substantially refined — hold the bag up and look for visible bran flecks. Without them you are steaming white flour.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: whole-wheat puttu measured GI 45 in the Kerala trial against red rice puttu's 38. Both are useful, and R002 is better. Broken-wheat upma measured 41 in the same set, which is why R013 exists.
Blood pressure: 280 mg of sodium a portion with M07, about 400 mg with plain salt.
Cholesterol: 7 g of saturated fat from the coconut, and this is the dish where cutting the coconut costs least, since wheat gives more of its own body than rice does.
Swap it
Broken wheat (nurukku gothambu) coarsely ground for the flour → closer to the measured GI 41 of broken-wheat upma, and a distinctly coarser puttu. The best change on this page.
60 g ragi for 60 g of the wheat → more fibre and a darker crumb, and it works well with wheat's flavour.
Fine chapatti flour instead of coarse atta → smoother, paler, less fibre, and it turns rubbery more easily. Rake even more gently.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Toasted flour keeps 2 months in a jar, so toast a kilogram at a time. Moistened crumb keeps 24 hours refrigerated. Steamed puttu holds 2 days in the fridge and freezes 1 month. Reheat by re-steaming 4–5 minutes from chilled.
Leftovers
Crumbled wheat puttu fried with onion, green chilli and a beaten egg makes a good second breakfast, and it takes a spiced pulse better than rice puttu does.
Troubleshooting
Rubbery, chewy plug: the mix was kneaded or squeezed. Rake only.
Tastes raw and pasty: the flour was not toasted.
Falls apart completely: under-hydrated. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of water, rake, re-steam.
Grey and heavy: over-steamed. Nine minutes is the ceiling.
Serve with
R010 Kadala Curry · R014 Egg Roast, Rebuilt · R011 Cherupayar Curry
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