Set Dosa Recipe (Sponge Dosa)

Set Dosa also known as Sponge Dosa is a thick, soft and fluffy Dosa variety made with rice, urad dal, fenugreek seeds and poha. Since these dosas are served in a set of 3, they are called as Set Dosa. This breakfast meal is served with Coconut chutney and Potato Masala or Sagu. These Set Dosa are also sometimes topped with butter. In this post I share how to make restaurant style Set Dosa that literally melts in your mouth.

For the uninitiated, dosa is a kind of lentil crepe from South Indian cuisine and there are so many kinds made across the region. Masala Dosa, Rava Dosa and Neer Dosa are some of the staples.

About Set Dosa

This Set Dosa is another variation and is mostly seen on the Karnataka restaurant menus. Crispy thick base, soft spongy & fluffy top with a porous texture is what makes these Set Dosa so much different from the regular crisp thin dosas.

The recipe to make these is very unique and different from the other variations of dosa. Less urad dal, more rice and more poha is what gives these the unique texture.

Some methi seeds are also used to give the batter a rise and fluffy texture to the set dosa.

To make good set dosa, proper fermentation of the batter is very important else it won’t yield porous and spongy dosa.

Fermentation time varies & depends on the climatic conditions or season. You need to follow the same method to ferment the batter as we do for Idli & dosa batter.

In restaurants you will also find variations of set dosa. Pudi dosa & pudi masala dosa are 2 such well known variations. Pudi is the Kannada word for podi.

Podi dosa are made with the same set dosa batter but served in single quantity and not as a set of 3. These dosas are topped with spiced lentil powder, like you see in the pictures.

Pudi masala dosa is served with a topping of podi and potato masala. This variation is quite spicy and delicious too.

Set dosa can be eaten with any Chutney of choice or even topped with Peanut podi.

They can be eaten for a meal anytime of the day and they also go well in the school & office lunch boxes. They can also be served to babies over 10 months, make sure you do not use sour batter if making for baby.

For more Dosa varieties,
Neer dosa
Oats dosa
Cheese dosa
Wheat dosa
Egg dosa

How to make Set Dosa (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. Rinse well and soak 2 cups rice (raw or parboiled) in one bowl. Next rinse and soak ½ cup urad dal with 1½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds in another bowl, both for about 5 hours. Rinse poha 2 to 3 times & soak for 10 mins, just before grinding the lentils.

2. Add soaked urad dal, fenugreek seeds, ½ teaspoon non-iodized salt and rinsed poha to the blender jar. If you live in a very hot climate, you may add salt later after fermenting.

3. Pour 1 cup of water and blend till smooth and bubbly. If needed add more water. I add ¼ to ½ cup more water. Transfer it to a large mixing bowl which you will also use for fermenting the batter. So use a large one.

4. Add rice to the blender jar with ¼ to ½ cup water and blend to smooth texture.

5. Transfer this to the bowl containing urad dal batter. Mix everything well until combined. The batter should not be very thin or very thick else it may not ferment well.

6. Cover and set aside in a warm place till it ferments and rises well. Usually it takes around 8 to 12 hours depending on the temperature. If you live in a cold country, turn on the oven light and place this in your oven over night.

7. After fermentation, it almost doubles. But make sure your batter does not turn sour. Taste test and adjust salt as needed.

Make Set Dosas

8. Heat a tawa, Gently stir the batter for combining everything well. Test by sprinkling little water if the tawa is hot. A hot tawa sizzles, when water is sprinkled. Pour one ladle of batter on the tawa and gently dab it to spread slightly, do not spread like the regular dosa. The size of these dosas will be small. The stove flame should not be very high else they turn brown at the bottom without cooking. If the tawa is not hot enough, you may not get a good spongy dosa. Sprinkle oil around the edges, you can skip it as well if you are on a oil free diet.

9. Set dosa is not cooked on the inner side, the batter is very airy that cooking it from the bottom, cooks on the inner side as well. However I prefer to cover and cook for a little while and then without the lid. I cook further to make them crispy from the outer side. This is optional. If you are particular about cooking it on the other side, you can flip it and cook on the other side as well.

10. To finish off I like to sprinkle idli podi or pappu podi or flax seed podi. This is optional.

Serve set dosa hot with your favorite chutney. We had it with beetroot chutney.

Pro Tips

Oil-free dosa: This batter cooks up very well to dosa even without any oil or fats. Covering the dosas will help them cook well & retain softness. This is highly recommended if you skip the oil or fats.

Rice: Though I have made this recipe with only parboiled rice (idli rice) in the past with very good results. Lately I have felt only raw rice or a combination of raw rice and parboiled rice works best.

Poha: Use thick poha for this recipe as it works better in rising the batter. If using thin poha, you will need more than mentioned in the recipe.

Salt: Adding salt before fermentation does not work for every one and in every season. I prefer to add salt before fermentation because this works best for me. Also use non-iodized salt. Iodized salt curtails the fermentation process and hinders the batter from rising.

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