‘Puranpoli‘ is a classic Maharashtrian recipe prepared on special occasions or festivals (especially for Holi). It is a type of flatbread prepared either with maida (all purpose flour) or wheat flour. A sweet and delicious stuffing of jaggery and chana dal (bengal gram dal) is used to stuff the flatbread. This stuffing is known as puran while poli means roti or flatbread in Maharashtra, India; thus the name ‘Puranpoli‘ literally translates to stuffed flatbread. Its outer covering is thin and soft with sweet stuffing underneath, flavoured with cardamom and nutmeg. Serve warm and fresh with cold milk or ghee, every bite is a bundle of joy.
Although, puranpoli is a favourite recipe in every household, one needs patience and skills to make a perfect one. Preparing it at home might be time consuming and hard work but results will be worth the efforts.
There are multiple versions of this recipe with some changes here and there. Some people like to use only maida while some prefer wheat flour only. I like to use combination of both maida and wheat flour which makes superb dough, easy to roll and finishes in soft puranpoli. I am sharing my step by step recipe below; which I have divided into 3 key parts. Perfect puran and dough are essential steps in this recipe and helps to make an ultimate Puranpoli.
Ingredients:
1 Cup bengal gram (chana) daal
1 Cup wheat flour
1 Cup all purpose flour
1 Cup grated jaggery
Pinch of turmeric
Ghee (clarified butter) as per requirement
Oil to kneed the dough
1/4 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of nutmeg powder
1/2 tsp of cardamom powder
Rice flour as per requirement
Method:
How to make Puran:
Soak chana dal for few hours after washing it thoroughly (I usually soak it for overnight but you can soak it for 3-4 hours as well).
Add the soaked chana dal in the pressure cooker. Add 2-3 cups of water in cooker and wait until 5-6 whistles (ensure dal is properly cooked as we need to grind it further to make puran).
Once the pressure cooker cools down, remove access water from dal.
Now, mash the boiled dal with spatula to make a paste.
Take a pan on gas with medium flame. Once pan is hot, add mashed dal and grated jaggery.
Keep stirring the mixture untill jaggery starts melting.
Once jaggery melted, the mixture starts to loosen up.
Continue to cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes together.
(Tip – Key here is to get correct consistency of puran ; refer below pictures for puran consistency. If spatula is able to stand still in the mixture means your Puran is ready).
Once this mixture cools down, grind it into smooth paste. You can either use grinder or sieve it to form a smooth paste.
Finally add nutmeg, cardamom powder into it and gently mix together.
How to make Dough:
Mix wheat and all purpose flour together with water. Add salt and oil as required.
Knead the dough till it softens, if required add more oil or water. I have added little turmeric in dough to get the colour, which is totally optional.
Let dough rest for some time in a bowl with the lid on.
Once dough and puran are ready; make small balls out of them. Refer images below (as thumb-rule, puran balls should be slightly larger in size).
How to make puranpoli:
Stuff the puran inside dough balls and gently press so that stuffing is evenly spread.
Roll it evenly into thin puranpoli.
Use butter paper or cotton cloth below while rolling the puranpoli. You can also dust some rice flour to help easily roll puranpoli.
Switch on the gas on high heat. Once pan is hot, add the puranpoli to fry.
Fry it over medium heat.
Flip the puranpoli, once it rises a bit from one side. If possible, use hands to flip the poli, as spatula might break it.
Add ghee on the puranpoli and fry it properly on both sides.
Once it is fried thoroughly from both side, take it out on paper towel/cotton cloth.
If required you can apply ghee over it. Our hot Puranpoli is ready to serve, you can enjoy it will cold milk or ghee.
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Recipe
Puranpoli
Ingredients
- 1 cup chana dal or bengal gram dal
- 1 cup wheat flour
- 1 cup maida or all purpose flour
- 1 cup grated jaggery
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- oil to knead the dough
- water as required
- rice flour as required
- ghee for frying
Instructions
How to make Puran:
- Soak chana dal for few hours after washing it thoroughly (I usually soak it for overnight but you can soak it for 3-4 hours as well).
- Add the soaked chana dal in the pressure cooker. Add 2-3 cups of water in cooker and wait until 5-6 whistles (ensure dal is properly cooked as we need to grind it further to make puran).
- Once the pressure cooker cools down, remove access water from dal.
- Now, mash the boiled dal with spatula to make a paste.
- Take a pan on gas with medium flame. Once pan is hot, add mashed dal and grated jaggery.
- Keep stirring the mixture untill jaggery starts melting.
- Once jaggery melted, the mixture starts to loosen up.
- Continue to cook over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes together.
- Once this mixture cools down, grind it into smooth paste. You can either use grinder or sieve it to form a smooth paste.
- Finally add nutmeg, cardamom powder into it and gently mix together.
How to make Dough:
- Mix wheat and all purpose flour together with water. Add salt and oil as required.
- Knead the dough till it softens, if required add more oil or water. I have added little turmeric in dough to get the colour, which is totally optional.
- Let dough rest for some time in a bowl with the lid on.
- Once dough and puran are ready; make small balls out of them. (as thumb-rule, puran balls should be slightly larger in size).
How to make puranpoli:
- Stuff the puran inside dough balls and gently press so that stuffing is evenly spread.
- Roll it evenly into thin puranpoli.
- Use butter paper or cotton cloth below while rolling the puranpoli. You can also dust some rice flour to help easily roll puranpoli.
- Switch on the gas to high heat. Once pan is hot, add the puranpoli to fry.
- Fry it over medium heat.
- Flip the puranpoli, once it rises a bit from one side. If possible, use hands to flip the poli, as spatula might break it.
- Add ghee on the puranpoli and fry it properly on both sides.
- Once it is fried thoroughly from both side, take it out on paper towel/cotton cloth.
- If required you can apply ghee over it. Our hot Puranpoli is ready to serve, you can enjoy it will cold milk or ghee.
Notes
- Allow chana dal to soak enough and pressure cook it until thoroughly cooked.
- Dough should be soft, use enough water and oil while kneading the dough.
- Consistency of puran should be perfect; neither watery nor hard. Use traditional method to test its consistency – where spatula should be able to stand still in the puran.
- For stuffing, make balls which should be slightly larger than dough balls.
- Ensure stuffing is evenly spread till the edges of puranpoli.
- While rolling, use butter paper or cotton cloth over the surface and dust some rice flour. It ensures puran poli won’t stick to the surface.
- This is a vegan friendly recipe, replace ghee with oil for vegan version. Serve it with non-dairy options.