Puran Poli

My mom makes the best puran polis in the world. Having spent my entire childhood in Mumbai, I have grown up eating puran polis atleast 3-4 times a year. My mom had learnt to make it from a Maharashtrian aunty whom we used to call “aai” (meaning mom). Every community has a slightly different version of these polis like we have for every Indian food. Some people make it with jaggery, while some with sugar, while some use chana dal or Bengal gram whereas some use tuvar dal. Some people add coconut too in the filling. This is my version ofcourse learnt from amma. As you all know by now that I am not too much into making sweets at home. But this is something I know well and make it at times and distribute it to my neighbours and friends.

The other day, Neha surprised me by asking me to make it for her. Just to make it healthier, I have made it with full 100% whole wheat flour. But it has come out quite well. Draining the water from cooked dal and grinding it into a powder and then adding jaggery is a much easier process than pressure cooking the dal and then adding jaggery to it and making a dry mixture of it. The later one takes more time and at times we end with a soggy filling. Making it the below given way ensures that the filling is very smooth and dry and this easily rollable into a poli while stuffed. Do try it and share your feedback.

Ingredients:

• Split Bengal gram 1 cup
• Jaggery 250-300 gm
• Cardamom powder 1 tsp
• Nutmeg powder 2 pinches
• Wheat flour 2 cup
• Salt a pinch
• Oil as required
• Ghee as required

Method:

• Wash and soak the chana dal in sufficient water for atleast 2-3 hours.
• Boil around a litre water in a heavy bottom pan and add the chana dal to it. Add a pinch of salt.

• Cook on high flame for 8-10 minutes and drain the water.

• Allow it to cool for a few minutes and then grind it till it a fine powder.

• Grate the jaggery or chop it finely and take a wide heavy pan and add the jaggery to it. When it melts add the powdered chana dal and mix well.

• Add cardamom powder and nutmeg powder and stir well to form a smooth homogeneous mass. Allow it to cool.
• Make a soft and pliable dough with the wheat flour or maida or a combination of both using salt and little oil. You can even knead the dough with milk for a softer poli.
• Cover the dough with a damp cloth. Allow the dough to rest for atleast 15-20 minutes.
• Make a big lemon sized ball from the dough and flatten it a bit in your hand ( like you do for aloo parathasa ) and fill a generous amount of stuffing in it. Cover it and pinch off the extra dough and make a smooth ball.

• Roll it into a paratha of around half cm thickness using little rice flour or atta.

• Heat a heavy tava or girdle and cook the puran poli on both sides till it is well cooked. You can drizzle some oil on top.

• Remove from the tava and drizzle ghee on top liberally.
• Serve it hot with cold milk or more ghee. Yummy puran polis are ready to be devoured.

Notes:

• You can make these with maida (apf) or a combination of maida and atta (wwf).
• One can add a pinch of turmeric powder while kneading the dough. Making the dough with milk will yield a softer poli.
• While making with maida, I remember my mom immersing the dough in little oil and water and resting it for few minutes. The polis made this way used to have a very very thin layer of dough and more of the filling. The gluten in maida ensures it doesn’t break or tear while rolling.
• If you use only wheat flour make sure not to use very thin layer of dough, it  might tear while rolling.
• Be very liberal with the stuffing. The amount of  jaggery can be altered according to your preferences.
• Some people add little grated coconut too along with the chana dal and jaggery.