A dosa is to an Indian person what a pancake is to a Western person. Both are easy to make, tasty to eat, and leaves you satisfied that you’ve just eaten a great snack.
Dosa’s are made in a special pan called a dosa pan. Dosa pans can make dosas but they can also make other things, like pancakes and more. Dosa’s have been cooked for thousands of years and it originated in India.
Indians have used all kinds of cookware over these thousands of years to make their dosas. But perhaps, none have been as effective in making that perfectly thin-shaped dosa than using one of the best dosa pans.Best Pick
The Hawkins/Futura Nonstick Tava takes home our best pick dosa pan because of its unmatchable quality and terrific price. It’s built very well with a 5-mm thick pan that helps to cook dosas quick and evenly. A big bonus of this dosa pan is that you can use this on either a gas or induction stovetop.
Budget Pick
For shoppers shopping on a budget, the Prestige Omega Deluxe Granite Omni Non-Stick Dosa is the one that stood out to us. Aside from its excellently low price, this dosa pan has a lovely touch thanks to its granite design and would be a great addition to any upscale and modern kitchen.
Quick Comparison: Top 6 Best Dosa Pans
The Hawkins/Futura Nonstick Tava/Griddle is our top choice to make your dosa’s with for many reasons. It is the essence of quality construction and quality features that allows you to make your dosa’s the way you want it to be made.
Let’s start with its non-stick coating, a very important feature for any dosa pan to have. This dosa pan has that non-stick coating which sticks very well to its hard, anodized aluminum pan (pan part of the dosa). This is made of heavy gauge aluminum and is sure to be very durable.
The non-stick part of this dosa pan is important because it means you don’t necessarily need butter or oil to be spread over it to cook your dosa. The dosa batter can simply be put on this dosa pan right away after it’s done heating and it will come off without sticking.
This dosa pan is great because the pan is extra thick at roughly 4.9 millimeters thick. This is important because the thicker the pan is, the more even the heating process will be. This will ensure that your entire dosa is cooked evenly.
To hold this dosa pan, you can do so by using its always cool handle. It has a nice and ergonomic design that is comfortable to hold and sturdy at the same time. The handle is attached to the pan by stainless steel screws or rivets and these rivets are very strong and won’t loosen.
To give you an idea of the size of this dosa pan, this one measures out to roughly 20 inches in length, from the end of the handle to the end of the pan and it weighs about three pounds. Unfortunately, it can be cumbersome to store it away in your kitchen as the handle does not fold over. However, at the end of the handle is a hole where you can hook this dosa pan along with the rest of your pots and pans in your kitchen.
What we liked: we really enjoyed the fact that you could cook your dosa or anything else you wanted using this Hawkins Dosa Tava on an induction stovetop or a gas stovetop. It conducts heat very well and quickly and you dosa will be done cooking in a very short period of time.
What we didn’t like: the unfortunate part is that the non-stick coating on our dosa pan came off within two months. Despite this, if you happen to spread a bit of oil or butter on this dosa pan, the dosa will still cook very well and it still should slide off seamlessly.The Prestige Omega Deluxe Granite Omni Non-Stick Dosa is our choice for best budget dosa pan. Don’t be fooled by its affordable price, however, this dosa pan still comes with excellent features, a lovely design, and a very sturdy, 5-layer coating.
Right away, you can tell that this dosa pan is different from its presentation and design. It sports a granite dosa pan design that is both sleek and very stylish; an appropriate choice for modern and contemporary kitchens.
Aside from its gorgeous presentation, it also has some terrific features. Let’s begin with its thick body that is 3 millimeters thick that is topped off with a three layers of non-stick coating. This non-stick coating is durable and your dosas will simply just slide off this dosa pan.
Beneath the non-stick coating are a few more carefully thought out layers. There are two layers called spatter coats, and these reinforced layers help to ensure that this dosa pan always looks and feels brand new, no matter how long you have been using them. It helps to stave off the effects of wear and tear to keep it looking new.
Next is the intermediate layer and this is a sort of coating that helps to evenly heat and cook your dosas. It also helps to reinforce that already durable, non-stick layer and acts as sort of a backup non-stick layer.
What many people love about this dosa pan aside from its gorgeous design is the fact that it can be used on both gas stovetops and induction based ones. Having both options is especially great for the times that they want to lend it to a friend who may have a different stovetop heating type than them.
What we liked: we easily enjoyed both the design and effectiveness of this dosa pan. For such an affordable price, we were pleasantly surprised at how great the non-stick coating worked in this dosa pan and how easy it was to clean it after using it.
What we didn’t like: one of the disappointments with this dosa pan is that after a few months, we noticed the handle started to become loose and it became even more and more loose as the months went by. While the rest of the dosa pan was constructed very well, we would have liked to have seen a better built handle.
For a little bit of a different type of dosa pan but one that can also get the job done well, turn to the Victoria Cast Iron Dosa. As the name suggests, this dosa pan uses cast iron instead of an aluminum material to properly cook your dosa.
Cast iron is another excellent material to cook your dosas with and it may be even more effective than a metal one. This dosa pan in particular has a much rounder pan than other dosa pans giving you a much bigger surface area to create a bigger dosa if you wish to do so.
Perhaps one of the other things that stands out about this dosa pan is its sheer simplicity. Rather than having a handle that is attached by rivets, this dosa pan has a tiny handle built into the pan or pan part itself. It’s also made of cast iron and is designed this way for people to be able to handle this dosa pan easier.
When you first receive this Victoria Cast Iron Dosa pan, you’ll be happy to know that it comes pre-seasoned with flaxseed oil that is completely healthy to use as evidenced by its non-GMO ingredients. This pre-seasoned dosa pan is great to cook with at high temperatures and it makes it even much simpler to remove your dosa off of it once it’s done cooking.
Because the pan portion of this dosa pan is so much bigger, plenty of people say they have been able to make pancakes and pizza on this bigger surface area. Since it is made by heavy duty cast iron, this dosa pan is oven-friendly and can withstand very high temperatures so that your pizza is fully cooked through in your oven.
What we liked: this dosa pan provides excellent heat retention and once heated up properly, it does an excellent job at cooking your dosa batter both quickly and very thoroughly.
What we didn’t like: the only thing we absolutely did not like about this dosa pan is that because it’s constructed with cast iron materials, the entire dosa pan is way too heavy. At 11.5 pounds, this dosa pan is much heavier than any other dosa pan on this list and we also wish it would have come with two handles as carrying it with just the one handle is very difficult.
Moving back to the aluminum-based dosa pans, the Vinod Nonstick Dosa is another pan that we believe does a fantastic job at cooking your dosas and provides a very simplistic design.
Let’s start with its construction. This dosa pan is actually a bit thicker than other aluminum dosa pans as it is five millimeters thick, which they call extra thick. The full length of this Vinod Nonstick Dosa pan is 30.
It’s made of the familiar aluminum materials that is common in many of the great dosa pans today. This aluminum material allows for a more level heating distribution so that your food is not overcooked and burned. As such, because of the non-stick coating, this also helps to ensure your food does not get burned and stick to the pan.
This Vinod Nonstick Dosa is made using Swiss technology which means that it comes with a triple layer build, topped off by its aforementioned non-stick coating. The surface of the dosa pan is also scratch-proof allowing people to use metal spatulas and utensils on it.
While the base of the pan is terrific, the handle is also very good. It’s sealed into the pan through the use of three rivets that are all very strong and won’t become loose.
What we liked: we really enjoyed the presentation and weight of this nonstick dosa pan. It’s very simple and elegant in its design and would be great to have in a modern kitchen. Its weight is also a tremendous relief, considering the last cast iron dosa pan we tried that was 11.5 pounds. This one is only 2.3 pounds which was a tremendous relief on our hand and arm!
What we didn’t like: unfortunately, by using this dosa pan a few times, we found that it doesn’t really heat up evenly and our dosa batter even made these weird bubble shapes while it was cooking which we had to flatten every time.
For people that only have an induction stovetop in their kitchen, as opposed to a gas stovetop, the best choice for you is the Induction Base Non-Stick Dosa. As the name implies, this dosa pan is suited for induction stovetops primarily but can also really well on gas ones.
This dosa pan for induction stovetops comes with a good-sized pan that measures out to 10 inches wide. Like most dosa pans, this one is also not very tall in height as it comes out to less than one inch (0.8-inches).
As for its construction, it comes with two noticeable pieces. An aluminum body for the pan that conducts heat well on induction stovetops. It also comes with a strong handle that is remains cool while you’re cooking so that you can easily handle it.
This non-stick dosa pan also comes with a few extra accessories that aren’t necessary but provides a nice touch. It comes with a wooden spoon and a plastic scrubber. The wooden spoon is great because it’s not made of metal and so, it won’t scratch the surface of this dosa pan. The plastic scrubber is also a neat addition and offers an easy way to clean this dosa pan.
If you can’t be bothered to scrub off the food bits in this dosa pan, you can also place it in your dishwasher as it is 100% dishwasher-safe.
What we liked: we especially loved the extra accessories this dosa pan came with. No other dosa pans offers anything extra and it was really nice to have a wooden spoon that we could cook with while using this dosa pan. A very nice complement to this package.
What we didn’t like: we were quite disappointed with the handle on this dosa pan. We found that the rivets became loose a month after using it and it’s so loose that it feels like the handle is going to fall off at any moment.
The last dosa pan on our list that we thought was excellent at cooking a dosa was the Non Stick Dosa Pan. Much like the rest of the dosa pans on this list, this one is also non stick friendly and there’s more than enough space on the pan itself to cook a dosa, a pancake, and a crepe.
This dosa pan measures out to 11 inches wide, which is actually one of the wider pans on our list. This added surface area on your pan can enable you to make a bigger dosa and cook other foods as well.
Like most non stick dosa pans, this one is constructed of aluminum. Aluminum is great conductor of heat and this durable material heats up the entire pan really well. This helps to ensure that your entire dosa batter is cooked through and that no parts are left slightly more cooked than other parts.
In terms of thickness, this dosa pan has a 2.4 millimeter thickness which is a fairly standard thickness among the better dosa pans we’ve seen. On the surface of the pan, it wouldn’t be a dosa pan if it didn’t have a non-stick coating and that’s what this one has. The non-stick coating is essential for cooking dosas because it needs to be able to slide off the pan and not stick to it. If it sticks to the pan, there’s a good chance it would be ruined because a dosa is extremely thin and any damage to it would lose its dosa shape.
What we liked: we very much enjoyed this dosa pan’s size over the other ones. Aside from being much bigger, it’s also a very light dosa pan as it only weighs 12.3 ounces (less than a pound!).
What we didn’t like: unfortunately, we found that this dosa pan doesn’t really conduct heat all that well and we found that when cooking our dosas, some parts still felt uncooked. We tried cooking other things like pancakes and it was still the same story.Things to Consider Before Buying the Best Dosa Pan
Material
The material of the dosa pan is obviously very important for a number of different reasons. You’re not going to want to buy a dosa pan where the materials used in its construction aren’t reliable or durable.
The best dosa pans are usually made of either two materials: aluminum or cast iron. Aluminum is probably the most common type of dosa pan you’ll find in the western world. It’s much more affordable than cast iron and much lighter as well. They’re generally reliable because aluminum conducts heat well, which is important when it comes to cooking dosas as it needs to be evenly cooked at the same time in order to prevent some parts from burning.
A cast iron dosa pan is perhaps the most reliable type of material that a dosa pan can be made of and it’s what many people in India prefer to use. Cast iron is a terrific conductor of heat as well and is a very durable (almost indestructible) material for a dosa pan. Unfortunately, it’s one downside is that since it is such a dense material, it can be incredibly heavy.
Size and Weight
The size of the dosa pan is another important factor. When making dosas, are you the type of person that prefers making smaller ones or bigger ones? Dosa pan sizes can range from 10-12 inches and while a two inch difference may not seem like a lot, it can be a big difference when your dosa is cooked.
Along with the size, the weight can also be important. Most aluminum dosa pans are thankfully quite light in weight and it should be easy to find one under three pounds, and some are even under one pound. Cast iron dosa pans, however, as we mentioned earlier are much heavier because of the sheer density of cast iron. They are usually anywhere above 10 pounds.
Handle
The handle is a less of an important feature but one that many people pay attention to. The handles on aluminum dosa pans are not part of the pan and are usually attached by rivets (screws). They usually tend to be cool to the touch and some dosa pans are even oven friendly (be sure to check). One thing you’ll have to watch out for with the handles is if the rivets start to become loose. This, in turn, can make the handles become very loose as well.
Non-Stick
Dosa pans that have a non-stick coating are ideal for dosa cooking because dosas area very thin piece of food and once it’s done, it should slide right off the pan. Having a non-stick dosa pan is important because if you happen to accidentally overcook your dosa, you don’t want it to get stuck to the pan as what tends to happen with most foods.
A non-stick coating also helps to prevent a dosa from getting stuck to the pan and ripping. Once it rips, the dosa is effectively ruined and you’ll have to start cooking it over again.
Final Thoughts
Indian cuisine is an amazing cuisine that is loved by everyone around the world. Dosas are an integral part of Indian cuisine and diet and people can enjoy making it from the comfort of their own kitchens by using one of the best dosa pans.
As we’ve just shown you, there are many great dosa pan choices for you to choose from. Each do a marvelous job at cooking this Indian treat and all of them are affordable for you to purchase. Whether you’re looking to create a dosa or even pancakes, a dosa pan is a very reliable option.
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