Puran poli

A sweet stuffed flatbread rolled out in rice flour, or in oil with no flour at all.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (ghee).

Ingredients

• 250 g chana dal, which is split Bengal gram
• 250 g jaggery, grated
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 200 g plain flour
• 100 g whole wheat atta
• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• about 150 ml water
• 6 tablespoons ghee
• rice flour, for rolling

Method

1. THE STUFFED BALL IS ROLLED OUT IN RICE FLOUR, OR IN OIL WITH NO FLOUR AT ALL, and its article gives both: it CAN BE ROLLED USING RICE FLOUR WHICH MAKES THE ROLLING VERY CONVENIENT, and IN SOME RECIPES FLOUR IS NOT USED AT ALL; OIL OR GHEE IS USED TO ROLL IT INTO A FLATBREAD INSTEAD. That choice is the whole difficulty of the dish. Wheat flour on the board gets kneaded into the skin and toughens it; rice flour does not absorb, and a film of ghee does not either.
2. THE FILLING IS CHANA DAL AND JAGGERY COOKED DOWN TOGETHER. Its article names the predominant ingredients as chana, plain flour, and jaggery or sugar, with CARDAMOM POWDER AND/OR NUTMEG POWDER. Boil the dal soft, drain it hard, mash it, then cook it with the jaggery over a low heat until a spoon drawn through leaves a clean line. Too wet and it bursts the bread; too dry and it crumbles.
3. COOL THE FILLING COMPLETELY AND ROLL IT INTO BALLS. Eight of them, each the size of the dough ball it is going into. Warm filling is soft filling and soft filling tears out sideways.
4. THE DOUGH IS SLACK, OILED, AND RESTED. Flours, salt, turmeric and water to a soft dough; two tablespoons of ghee kneaded in; an hour under a cloth. The article notes that a pinch of turmeric is what gives it its yellow colour, so a quarter teaspoon goes in for the colour and nothing else.
5. FLATTEN A BALL OF DOUGH, CUP THE FILLING IN IT, AND SEAL IT SHUT. The article's shape is A SWEET FILLING INSIDE FLOUR DOUGH, THEN ROLLED OUT AND COOKED ON A HOT GRIDDLE, USUALLY WITH GHEE. Pinch the seam and press it flat with your palm before any pin touches it.
6. ROLL FROM THE CENTRE OUT, TURNING A QUARTER EACH TIME. Rice flour under it. Stop while it is still thick enough to be opaque -- the filling shows through as shadows and a window means a hole.
7. COOK IT DRY FIRST, GHEE AFTERWARDS. On a medium tava, a minute a side until it is spotted. Only then smear ghee over the top; the article allows roasting with or without it and SMEARED AFTER IT IS COMPLETELY COOKED, and ghee from the start fries the skin before the inside is hot.
8. SIZE AND THICKNESS ARE A CHOICE, AND THE ARTICLE SAYS SO. Where toor dal is the stuffing it is SMALLER IN SIZE AND THICKER; with coconut stuffing it is LARGER IN SIZE AND THINNER. Eight from this quantity makes them saucer-sized and thick.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes