Puran poli is a traditional Indian stuffed bread with sweet lentil filling. Puran poli is the Maharashtrian name and if you literally translate it, then Puran means stuffing and poli means roti or outer covering. It is basically a flat bread stuffed with a sweet filling made of spilt Bengal gram or Chana dal and jaggery. A hot puran poli with a dollop of ghee is sure to warm the cockles of your heart!
Puran poli is made during different festivals like Diwali, Holi, Gudi padwa, Ganesh Chaturthi, Raksha Bandhan. This can be served as a dessert (mainly in Southern part of India) or can be served as a part of a savoury meal. But a generous drizzle of ghee or clarified butter at the time of serving is very common for all regions. Yumm!!
While rolling the puran poli, be careful. If it breaks a little, do not worry. Just add some dry flour to that part and continue to roll. When making these for the first time, the pooran poli may break. But that should not stop you from making puran poli. With practice, you will get better. It will be just a matter of time before you become an expert on this.
Instead of whole wheat flour, you can also make the dough with all purpose flour or half-half of both the flours. I have used whole wheat flour and all purpose flour in this recipe. Also, instead of jaggery, you can also use sugar.
Now, let’s get to the recipe…
Ingredients
For the puran mixture
- 1 cup Jaggery, powdered
- 1 cup Chana Dal/skinned spilt Bengal Gram
- 3 cups Water, for cooking the Dal
- 2 tsp. Ghee
- 1 tsp. Fennel powder
- ¾ to 1 tsp. Dry Ginger powder (optional)
- ½ tsp. Cardamom powder
- ¼ tsp. Nutmeg powder
For the poli
- 5 cups Whole Wheat Flour + ½ cup All Purpose Flour
- 4 tbsps. Oil or Ghee or Clarified Butter
- ½ tsp. Salt or as required
- ¼ tsp. Turmeric powder
- Water as required to knead the dough
- Oil or Ghee as required for frying the puran poli
Method
- Rinse the chana dal first in water after soaking it for 30 minutes. Next drain the water.
- In a pressure cooker, cook the chana dal for 6 to 7 whistles. Once the pressure settles down on its own, strain the cooked dal.
- Keep the stock aside. This stock can be added to your veggie dishes or rotis.
- Heat ghee in a pan and add the dry ginger powder, nutmeg powder, cardamom powder and fennel powder. Saute for a few seconds.
- Add the chana dal and jaggery. Stir and let this puran mixture cook on a low flame till the mixture becomes dry.
- Once the puran stuffing becomes dry and thick, switch off the flame.
- Let it cool and then mash the puran mixture with a potato masher or mixer grinder. Keep aside.
- To prepare the poli dough, take whole wheat flour, all purpose flour and salt in a bowl and mix well.
- Add the turmeric powder and a little bit of water and ghee and mix. Knead the dough adding water as required to form a soft and smooth dough. Cover and keep aside the dough for 30 minutes.
- Next, take a medium or large size ball from the dough. Roll it 2-3 inches in circumference on a dusted rolling board.
- Place a portion of puran mixture in the centre of the rolled dough.
- Bring the edges together towards the center. Join all the edges and pinch them.
- Sprinkle some flour and start rolling the dough.
- Make a medium or large circle depending upon the size of the dough and puran filling you took.
- On a heated griddle, spread some ghee. Place the rolled dough circle on the griddle.
- When one side gets browned, turn over and cook the other side till you see some brown spots.
- Apply ghee after puran poli is cooked.
- Make all puran polis in this way and stack them in a casserole or in a kitchen napkin.
- Serve puran poli warm or at room temperature with milk, ghee or yogurt.
