Soft Finger Millet Puttu | Ragi Puttu with Jaggery | Sweet Ragi Puttu Recipe

Ragi puttu is usually considered as a chewy stuff with many lumps. Here is an ultra soft, lump-free version. Kids can eat with ease and jaggery sweetener makes it more healthier.

Calcium & Iron-rich Finger millet makes it a nutritious breakfast. Working moms can prepare the puttu flour in the night, refrigerate it and steam it next day morning to make healthy breakfast in a jiffy .

Recommending this breakfast for pregnant ladies, lactating moms, menstruating & menopausal women and just puberty-attained girls. Dedicating this post to females of all ages 🙂

Preparation

1.Add a pinch of salt to Ragi flour and mix well. First add 1/4 cup of water.2.Mix well and check the consistency. Take some flour and fold it with your fingers like making dumpling/kozhukkattai. When you hold that dumpling using 2 fingers as shown below, it should not break down to fall. When you crumble the dumpling, it should fall back without any lumps. If water is insufficient, the dumpling will crack and fall when holding. In such case, sprinkle some water, mix well and repeat the check.3.Using the largest hole sieve(see notes), rub the flour to and fro with fingers so that it falls through the sieve as a lump-free soft flour. Take required coconut pieces in a mixie jar.4.Grind coconut for 2-3 pulses to grate the coconut. If you are using puttu kuzhaai, layer puttu and coconut alternatively into puttu maker. 5.Fill it loosely and close with a lid. Fill 3/4th of the bottom vessel with water and allow it to boil. Once steam starts escaping, then place the top puttu-filled part and cook for 5-7 mins. Once done, take out the top-part, open the lid and slowly push puttu out with the provided stick.6.Grate jaggery, add a pinch of cardamom powder and water till immersing level. Let it boil and nicely bubble up.7.Filter for impurities and keep the jaggery syrup ready. If you don’t have puttu kuzhai, you shall steam puttu using idli maker(I prefer this method).8.Cook for 10 mins and empty the contents to a bowl.9.Heat ghee and fry grated coconut slightly till nice aroma wafts around.10.Add jaggery syrup and cooked puttu. Mix well until all water(in the syrup) is absorbed by puttu.
     So soft and lump-free puttu is ready. Serve fresh..

Tips/Tricks

1. When adding water to flour, first add 1/4 cup of water and then add gradually as required. If water is very less, puttu won’t get cooked well. If water is more, you can’t sieve it as the flour will become sticky. Water quantity depends on the flour used. Mine required 1/2 cup water.
2. Do not add more water to jaggery. Just add till it immerses.
3. Ghee is optional but it gives a nice flavor.
4. For homemade finger millet flour, just wash finger millets, dry it in sun and grind it in mill. Shelf life for the flour is 3-4 months.
5. Detachable sieve comes with 3 sieve plates differing in hole sizes. I used the largest one. If you don’t have this, you can even use your colander, that is used to wash your veggies.