There are many mavilakku recipes:
In T N the following recipe is follwed. Take raw rice-whatever vessel you use (I mean any size,depending on the no: of family members, to how many people you are going to distribute etc ) take fullyheaped in that vessel & a handful. You can use a small or big vessel. Rice is not generally washed with water but wiped with a clean cloth.Just smear some milk on it, mix well(pesari vaippathu)& rest it for 10 mts in a covered vessel.. grind it with cardamom in a mixi as fine as possible.Take the same volume of nattu sakkarai(also called poora sakkarai),clean it by picking out tiny lumps etc. Reserve a little of rice flour for putting kolam & mix the rest with the sugar thoroughly. Heap it into a flat mass with your hands, mixing it well. After the mavilakku is offered this will have a nice ghee flavour.Now the coconut offered is grated & mixed with this & the mixture is offered as prasadam.
Kerala recipe:
Raw rice is washed, soaked for 1 hr, drained well on a cloth & powdered with cardamom. Powdered jaggery is gradually added in the mixi itself & blended
gradually till a chappathi dough consistency is reached. Jaggery is not measured
but added as much as necessary. Take it out of the mixi & knead nicely with hand till you can pat it into a flat mass.
The first one is “uthir uthir” whereas the second one is dough-ey!