Kayi Kadubu - Sweet dumplings for Ganesha Chaturthi

With Ganesha habba only few days away, I want to share how to make kayi kadubu recipe. 

Kayi kadubu is traditional sweet made for Ganesha specially during Ganesha habba. Rice flour dumplings filled with coconut-jaggery filling. My favorite sweet! 

It requires certain skill to pat thin shells with your hand and make sure they don’t break while steaming. The ones I made used to break. As usual my mom came to my rescue and gave few tips which saved my kadubus. I’ve shared the details below. Either shape them like kadubu or modak, recipe is the same. You can also make sweet undlakka - more like inside out kayi kadubu… maybe I’ll save the recipe(method) for next year :D

Happy Ganesha Chaturthi everyone!

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 and 1/2 cup

Maida - between 1 to 2 tsp

Water - little over 2 cups - approximation

Butter - very little

Jaggery - 5-6 heaped tbsp

Coconut - 1/2 pack frozen - approximately 1 and 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder 

Ghee - 1 tsp

Method

Prepare hoorna(filling) - In a pan add little water and add jaggery. Let it melt, add grated coconut and mix in low-medium flame until all moisture is completely evaporated. Add a tsp of ghee and cardamom powder. Mix and off the stove. Let it cool a bit. 

Prepare shells - Mix rice flour, maida and water to a smooth lump free paste - to dosa batter consistency, little thinner should also be fine. 

In a deep pan add little butter(ghee is fine too), pour this batter and mix in medium flame until everything comes together like a cooked dough. Off the stove, take it out in a plate and knead adding little ghee to your hands. 

Keep it covered. Grease your hands with ghee. Take a medium size ball. Shape like a cup - start pressing from the sides while rotating the ball. Move from edges to the center. Hold your hands in cup shape to facilitate cup shape :). 

Steaming - Put a tsp or more hoorna(filling) and close the shell by pressing  the edges. You’ll get a semi circle. 

Place these on a steam rack. Don’t overlap. 

Steam for 5 min. When the shell looks shiny, they are done. Let it cool a bit and eat with ghee. Don’t forget to offer it to God first :) 

Recipe Source - Shrimathi Vasudeva(amma)

Notes - 

• The above quantity made approximately 18 small to medium sized kadubus. 
• Even though steaming time is less, you can only steam few at a time. Steaming in batches is more efficient. While one batch is steaming, prepare the next batch.