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Athirasam Recipe-How to make Adhirasam-Diwali Sweet

November 3, 2012 by PadhuSankar 54 Comments

Adhirasam/Ariselu is a Traditional South Indian sweet prepared on Diwali. It is prepared using  rice flour and jaggery. This sweet can be prepared with sugar also, but since I avoid using sugar as much as possible in my recipes, I have used jaggery. Many find it intimidating to prepare this sweet but actually this is very easy to prepare, if you follow the tips and steps given properly. I am going to make it very easier for you all with my step wise pictures.

Adhirasam

How to make Adhirsam
Yields – 28-30

Ingredients needed

Raw Rice – 1 kg (pacharisi)
Jaggery – 3/4 kg
Cardamom -6 (remove the pods)
Oil for deep frying

Preparation

First we will see how to prepare rice flour for athirasam. (I make it very clear that you cannot use ordinary store bought rice flour to prepare this)

Wash and soak raw rice for 2 hours.

After 2 hours, drain the water completely and spread it on a cloth or paper, so that it will absorb the excess water.

After 10 minutes, dry grind the rice nicely (not too fine and not too coarse-in between both) along with cardamom.(Alternatively you can add cardamom powder to the jaggery syrup also) Sieve it and keep it in a broad vessel. You cannot store this rice flour but have to use it immediately for making athirasams.

If you have a flour mill near your place, you can get it ground there for adhirasam, which is much easier.I got it ground in the flour mill.

Grate jaggery, add just enough water to soak the jaggery. Bring it to boil, switch off. Once the jaggery dissolves, filter it to remove any impurities.

Method

Boil the jaggery water until you get a soft ball consistency also known as uruttu padham in tamil. Take a small cup of water, pour a tsp of jaggery syrup into it, if you are able to collect it and make a soft ball out of it, then it is the right consistency. Switch off the flame.This is the most important step in making adhirasams.

adhirasam recipe

Immediately add needed hot jaggery syrup (little by little) to the rice flour and mix it well with a ladle as you see in picture below. Cover it with a lid and let it rest. After 4-5 hours, take it out and knead it well with your hands and keep it covered with a tight lid again. Let is rest for 1-2 days. (This dough can be kept for 2 days at room temperature.You do not have to refrigerate the dough).

how to make adhirasam

I left it only for 1 day.

After 1 day

Take the dough out and knead again. Divide equally and make balls.
Meantime heat oil in a kadai, once the oil is heated, reduce the flame to medium.

how to prepare adhirasam

Grease a banana leaf or a plastic cover with ghee and flatten the ball with your hands.You can grease your hands as well to make it easier.

Take the flattened dough in your hands from the leaf and gently slip it into the oil. Fry both sides till it turns nice brown color.(Keep the heat in medium as if the heat is high, it will turn brown immediately but will remain uncooked inside)

adhirasam

Remove from oil. Adhirsam has the tendency to absorb lot of oil. Press the adhirsam between two slotted ladles to remove excess oil. Then put it in a colander or on a paper towel to drain remaining excess oil.

adhirasam with jaggery

Repeat the process for the rest of the dough. Hope I have made everything clear and easy for you.

Tips to repair if you go wrong

If the dough is very sticky or too loose and you are unable to make balls, then add a little wheat flour to it to get the right consistency.

If the dough is too tight, then add little more jaggery syrup or little milk to it.

Prepare or fry athirasam 1 or 2 days after preparing the athirasam dough for best results.

Another important point is you should not add rice flour to the jaggery syrup and mix but you should add jaggery syrup to the rice flour little at a time and mix well with a ladle.

Are you searching for more Diwali Recipes, search no more! You have come to the right place. Find a long list of Diwali Recipes (both sweets and snacks)

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Filed Under: Diwali Sweets, Festival Recipes, Uncategorized Tagged With: Indian sweets, South Indian recipes, Uncategorized




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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nupur

    November 3, 2012 at 8:01 pm

    ohh this is a long long recipe.. The way you have described it is quite good though.. I think I will try it sooner than I think 😉

    Reply
  2. Shobha

    November 3, 2012 at 9:02 pm

    Adhirsam is my favourite…nice step by step instructions.

    Reply
  3. Swathi Iyer

    November 3, 2012 at 9:23 pm

    your adhirasam looks delicious love to try them. It is in my do list.

    Reply
  4. Suman Arthy

    November 4, 2012 at 5:07 am

    Wow athirasam looks so delicious…

    Reply
  5. Sravs

    November 4, 2012 at 1:32 pm

    Perfectly made and looks so YUM !! This is one of my fav sweet !!

    Reply
  6. gomathi

    November 4, 2012 at 4:57 pm

    It looks yummy.My favarite dish.Iwill try thisrecipe

    Reply
  7. Srimathi

    November 4, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    The only sweet I crave for in the U.S. They dont sell them at the stores, and that means I have to make them at home. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
  8. Unknown

    November 19, 2012 at 1:12 am

    i love adhirasam. but could 'nt make or get it in U.S stores

    Reply
  9. Niranjana Karthikeyan

    December 19, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Hi padhu,
    The sweet looks yummy. Will it come out well even if we grind it in mixie? cos we don have a mill here.
    Can u post pics for enabling us understand the 'úruttu padham'.

    Reply
    • Unknown

      October 28, 2018 at 7:18 am

      Hi niranjana mam has explained the uruttu padam in the next line itself

      Reply
  10. Niranjana Karthikeyan

    December 19, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Hi padhu,

    Ur adhirasam looks really yummy.. Can we grind it in a mixie? will it come out wel? and also can u elaborate more on that uruttu padham. approximately at wat time the jaggery syrup will reach this consisitency? should we keep it the flame in sim wen this syrup is made?

    Reply
  11. Umamaheswri shanmugam

    December 20, 2012 at 8:06 am

    Hello Padhu,
    I tried Adirasam many times and it didnt come out well.Either it was sticking into the oil or it was so hard to crunch.pls let me know wat mistake I did.

    Reply
  12. PadhuSankar

    December 21, 2012 at 6:06 am

    Niramjana – Yes, you can grind it in mixie but will take time.
    Keep the flame in medium while making jaggery syrup.How to find the correct jaggery syrup consistency- Take a small cup of water, pour a tsp of jaggery syrup into it, if you are able to collect it and make a soft ball out of it, then it is the right consistency.

    Uma Maheswari – The jaggery syrup is the most important step in making adirasam. If you boil the jaggery syrup beyond the 'úruttu padham'consisteny, then your adirasam will stick to the oil and be very hard. So take care while making jaggery syrup next time.

    Reply
  13. cypress folks

    June 16, 2013 at 1:38 pm

    Dear Padhu,
    I always dreaded making adhirasams, but your tips gave me confidence & I tried it today. The consistency was correct and I was happy it would come perfect. But again I failed. The adhirasams got split and I what I got out was a powdery mass. So I added wheat flour & it came out well. But it is not as sweet as I would have liked it to be. Can you please tell me what could be the reason

    Reply
  14. PadhuSankar

    June 17, 2013 at 5:52 am

    The jaggery syrup consistency is very important for making athirasam.

    Again after preparing the dough, you must not add water to it.You must keep it away from water.

    The athirasam flour should not be fine but should be coarse.

    While getting it ground in the mill, you must see to it that they have ground rice flour before that and not any other flour like finger millet etc.

    Reply
  15. Suchitra

    August 29, 2013 at 4:21 am

    hi can i grind it in a mixie? this is the first time i am going to prepare with ur step by step instructions thank u

    Reply
  16. PadhuSankar

    August 30, 2013 at 6:49 am

    Suchitra – You can grind in mixie but will take time. Read the whole recipe once or twice and also the comments and then start as many make mistake while preparing the jaggery syrup which is very important for this sweet.

    Reply
  17. geetha lakshmi

    October 22, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    Hi padhu
    ur receipe and tips were ausum and today i did adhirasam at home it come out well as above people said i also did mistake the dough has become little bit loose and i followed ur tip of mixing wheat floue and came out well evwryone in family were happy… thank u once again

    Reply
  18. Juliet Ivy

    October 29, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    Dear Padhu,
    neat explanation! but, cant we use ready made rice flour which we get from the shops?

    Reply
  19. Padhu Sankar

    October 29, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    Juliet – You can use ready made athirasam flour not just plain rice flour.Before Diwali all the shops sell athirasam flour. You can use that.

    Reply
  20. Ramya Iyer

    October 30, 2013 at 3:16 am

    hello padhu,
    I have tried this recipe today and I could only grind the rice in a mixie, so the consistency was very coarse (like rava), but I got the uruttu pad ham correctly and so far, so good. do you think the coarseness of the rice will make the final product very rough?

    Reply
  21. bharathi kannan

    November 3, 2013 at 8:37 am

    thank u very much for your recipe instructions it helped me lot, , i tried so many times but failed now today i got it correct ie because of u thank u………

    Reply
  22. rama

    November 12, 2013 at 8:52 am

    dear padhu
    i tried athirasam for diwali.but when i put the balls into oil ,it loosen and spared in the oil.and also it absorb more oil.where it goes wrong?
    thanks

    Reply
  23. Padhu Sankar

    November 14, 2013 at 7:15 am

    You would have done mistake in the jaggery syrup.

    Reply
    • Mahi S

      October 19, 2014 at 1:44 pm

      How can solve this?

      Reply
  24. Nithiya G

    October 18, 2014 at 5:33 am

    Hi pathu, how long can we keep athirasam after preparing it? ? should we keep in tight container again?

    Reply
  25. Padmappriya K

    October 19, 2014 at 2:26 am

    Nice one i made it and liked it very much.much appreciated. Thanks for your blog

    Reply
  26. kelina muthuveeren

    October 20, 2014 at 12:39 pm

    Hi..if the rice flour is too coarse..what will happen??

    Reply
  27. vijaya

    October 22, 2014 at 11:55 am

    I love athirasam very much but i dread making it, i think i ll try making it at home let me see and i will share with u the results

    Reply
  28. Anandhi V

    February 25, 2015 at 11:31 am

    Hi, I have been following your blog… it is very useful and colourful!! I have a doubt in adhirasam…. You have said the prepared dough have to be kept for a day or two… but what if I am doing for a ceremony ( devasam) where I cannot prepare the dough before hand…. I have tried making it , but it is not giving the satisfactory results.. Any tips for preparing the dough and making it immediately? Please let me know….Thanks…

    Reply
  29. Aish Warya

    September 4, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    nice presentation and explanat

    Reply
  30. leena nadar

    October 7, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    Pls tell me I had tryed 2'3times but coming and which jaggery should take.

    Reply
  31. Aarthy Sivakumar

    November 4, 2015 at 5:50 pm

    Hi padhus,
    I tried this recipe .i kept the dough for a day but the dough turned hard and what should I do to make it soft.what would have gone wrong?

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      November 6, 2015 at 5:59 am

      Aarthy – The problem is you would have boiled the jaggery syrup more than needed. In that case the dough will turn hard .

      Reply
  32. Nishy Susan

    November 15, 2015 at 6:26 am

    The rice powder and jaggery syrup proration given was not enough to even wet flour properly. Syrup consistency came right. Tried adding more quantity syrup made. Became very sweet and outer very nice. But inside was powdery / mushy. Pls advise.

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      November 15, 2015 at 8:19 am

      This is the correct measurement we follow usually.We add only 3/4 kg jaggery for 1 kg rice. Maybe you added too little water to make the syrup.

      Reply
    • Unknown

      May 8, 2019 at 8:44 am

      @Padhu Sankar the recipe says soft ball consistency but later it is referred as jaggery syrup. Kindly clarify.

      Reply
    • PadhuSankar

      May 13, 2019 at 6:38 am

      The soft ball refers to the jaggery syrup consistency.

      Reply
  33. viski

    August 20, 2016 at 5:58 am

    Hello Padhu Shankar … I used to make excellent admirasams years ago.. Since a few yes it's been getting crisp through and sometimes just breaks up into a mess in the oil. ……not crispy rims and soft Center , I tried your recipe and went by the book …jaggery syrup – light soft ball, soaked dried ground rice to a flour but not totally fine ..everything was fine but again crisp through & through 🙁

    Reply
  34. Veni Singh

    October 7, 2016 at 6:14 pm

    Hello
    Please advise quantity of sugar to replace jaggery. I am not sure where in South Africa to buy jaggery

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      October 9, 2016 at 5:00 am

      I have not tried it with sugar. Moreover I am not sure if it will work out.

      Reply
  35. kalaivani

    October 14, 2016 at 9:08 am

    Hii my adhitasam turned out crispy but dough n other stuff came out good.how to correct

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      October 15, 2016 at 5:18 am

      Might be in frying. You must have overdone it.

      Reply
  36. Ashwin Rajendran

    October 23, 2016 at 11:46 pm

    Hi Padhu Sankar, you have mentioned "Prepare or fry athirasam 1 or 2 days after preparing the athirasam dough for best results" so should it be refrigerated during that period or kept in room temperature? Kindly advice me as this method can proportion the work and so I thought of trying it. I follow your recipes and it has come out great both in appearance and to my expectation. Now I always directly search your site for all recipes, thank you so much, Happy advanced Deepavali

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      October 24, 2016 at 9:34 am

      I have written clearly that you do not have to refrigerate the dough. You can make it the next day. Thanks a lot for liking my recipes. Happy Diwali to you and your family.

      Reply
  37. Malini Jayaprakash

    October 27, 2016 at 4:21 pm

    My adhirasam is come out very well because of ur blog.Thank u Pathu.Happy Diwali.

    Reply
  38. Khanita Bareera

    March 1, 2017 at 9:49 am

    Hello i grinded rice not to a fine powder it was granulated suguar type as i mixed jaggery syrup it didnt form a dough ..it become like wet sand type ..what shall i do now?any correction i cn do ..this is the first attempt of mine..plz tel me the solution..

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      March 4, 2017 at 9:06 am

      I think you would have over boiled the jaggery syrup.

      Reply
  39. Lakshmi

    October 15, 2017 at 5:43 pm

    How many hours we need to rest the athirasam dough? When we can start to prepare? Can do frying on the same day itself??

    Reply
    • Padhu Sankar

      October 16, 2017 at 12:10 pm

      Resting the dough is important to get soft athirasams. Rest for a minimum of 10 hours.

      Reply
  40. Lakshmi

    October 15, 2017 at 5:44 pm

    Athirasam turned crispy? How many days we need to keep for making it soft?

    Reply
  41. Priya

    June 18, 2018 at 11:00 am

    After 1 it became too thick, if i add little milk can i keep it another day for preparing adhirasams….

    Reply
  42. muhil

    November 12, 2020 at 12:03 pm

    thanks dear for the repairing tips.. iam out of India missing my mom special sweet athirasam.. so try to prepare myself for the first time.. Dough becomes tight … now starts repairing….

    Reply
  43. Nithya

    November 4, 2023 at 3:55 pm

    Hi ,
    My athirasam is crispy and not soft..what could be the reason…

    Reply

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Meet Padhu, the Chef, the photographer, recipe developer and web designer behind Padhuskitchen which features Simple Indian Vegetarian recipes, healthy recipes, kids friendly recipes, Indian festival recipes, traditional South Indian Vegetarian ...

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