Puran Poli Recipe | Bobbatlu | Ganesh Chaturthi Recipes

I am sure every one would had celebrated Krishnasthami with lovely home made goodies.Once the celebrations for Krishna Janmashtami gets over, its time to start preparations for another major festival - Ganesh Chaturthi which is the biggest festival in Maharasthra and south India. If you are interested check out our Vinayaka Chavithi Celebrations in the previous year here.
'Puran Poli' is a very popular sweet in Maharasthra and it is known as 'Bobbatlu or Bakshalu' in Andhra and 'Poli' in Tamilnadu and 'Holige' in Karnataka. Bobbatlu or Bakshalu is one of the traditional sweets of Andhra which are prepared for festivals or occasions. I have already posted 'Hoornada Holige' also known as 'Pappu Obbattu' which is prepared in our typical community style. Usually for Puran poli or Bobbatlu or Poli the filling is prepared with chana dal and jaggery and the outer layer(dough) is prepared with maida and also the polis are made bit thick. In our community style Holige the filling is prepared with toor dal and jaggery and the outer layer(dough) is prepared with chiroti rawa and the holiges are prepared very thin and are folded like hand kerchiefs. These two varieties vary in taste, looks and texture but both the varieties taste delicious and my taste buds slightly incline towards our community style holige rather than the puran poli.

I am posting Puran poli(Bobbatlu) recipe which is prepared in a simple way with neat step wise pictures hoping that it would help the readers. Try this Puran poli recipe for Ganesh Chaturthi and seek his blessings. We prepare a very delicious Saaru(amti) called as Holige Saaru with the water strained from the cooked chana dal and is mixed with a porion of puran, it tastes absolutely delicious when mixed with hot steamed rice.

You can also check out other special recipes for Ganesh Chaturthi here:

1. Bellam Kudumulu | Vella Ammini Kozhukattai
2. Hoornada Holige/Obbattu
3. Kudumulu(Modak) with three-sesame,coconut and groundnut fillings 
4. Undrallu Payasam | Paal Kozhukattai
5. Palathalikalu
6. Karida Kadubu | Kari Kudumulu | Fried Sweet Dal Dumplings 
7. Dry fruit Modak | Kharjur Modak
8. Pappulo Undrallu

If you are looking Bangalore style Hoornada Holige check out the recipe here.

Puran Poli | Bobbatlu | Bakshalu Recipe:

Yields: 8-9 Polis

Prep time: 30 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins | Total time: 1hr + 1 hr resting time

Cuisine: Maharasthra -Indian | Category: Sweets/Festival Sweets

Ingredients:

Ghee/oil, to fry Puran poli

for outer layer/dough:

1 cup Flour(Maida)

a pinch of Turmeric powder

a pinch of Salt

1 1/2 tsp ghee, melted

1/3 cup Oil, to soak the dough

Water, to mix the dough

for filling:

1 cup Chana dal(Senagapappu)

1 cup grated Jaggery

2 tbsp. grated fresh Coconut

2 Cardamom pods, seeded & powdered

a tiny pinch of Salt

1 tsp Ghee

Method:

for outer layer/Dough:

• Mix flour(maida) with a pinch of salt, turmeric powder and ghee and add water to it and knead in to a very smooth dough. The consistency of the dough should be very loose than the regular roti dough, this is the most important step otherwise you will not get softer polis.
  

  
• Now using your fist hit the dough for few mins to get the softer dough or lift the dough and drop it hard into the bowl and repeat it until the dough becomes very smooth.
• Now place this dough in a deep vessel and pour oil over it until the dough is completely soaked in oil. Let the dough rest for a minimum of 1 hr and upto 2 hrs. Drain the excess oil and use it for other purpose. 

for the filling:

• Wash and soak chana dal for 1 hour.You can even slightly roast chana dal before you soak,however this step is optional.
  

  
• Bring 5-6 cups of water to a boil in a deep vessel and add salt,ghee and soaked chana dal and let it cook until you feel it is almost cooked. Dal should hold its shape and should be firm, it should not become mushy. Press a grain of dal with your fingers to get to know whether the dal is cooked properly or not. Alternatively you can pressure cook it for 1 whistle, not more than that.
• Strain this cooked dal over a strainer and let it drain the water and cool completely. Reserve this water to use it in making delicious holige saaru(amti).
  
• Grind chana dal with coconut, jaggery and cardamom powder to a smooth paste in a mixer and if necessary if it has some extra moisture fry it in the pan for few minutes until it becomes thick. Let the mixture cool completely and make lemon sized balls out of it.
• Alternatively heat 2 tbsp of water in a kadai and add grated jaggery to it and let it melt over low flame.Add strained chana dal, grated fresh coconut into it and let it cook along with jaggery until you get a uniform mixture. Now add cardamom powder and mix well and switch off the flame. Let the mixture cool completely. Grind to a smooth paste( do not add water) in a mixer and make into a big lemon sized balls and leave them aside. See the pics to get to know the consistency of the filling.

to prepare Puran Poli:

• Cut the holige paper into a round and place it on the rolling stone which we use to roll rotis. Grease holige paper or banana leaf with oil.
  

  
• Pinch a small amla sized dough(the amount of dough should be half the quantity of the filling you take) and flatten it a bit using your hands as shown in the pics and place one ball of filling and seal it properly from all the edges like how we do for parathas.Now flatten it slowly with hands to get 5" diameter circle. Alternatively you can roll it like parathas like how we do in between two greased transparent sheets. Adapt the method which ever is convenient for you.
• Now place the holige paper along with the poli(with poli facing down the tawa)on a hot tawa over the low flame.
  

  
• Let it sit for 20-30 seconds and now peel the holige paper gently scraping it along the edges using a spatula. See the pics to get a clear understanding of it. 
• Now fry it on both sides applying ghee until light golden in color. Pour the ghee over it, do not try to spread ghee over the poli while frying it. Do not fry it for long time, it will make the polis bit hard so quickly remove it from stove when you get to see the brown patches on it.
  

  
• Repeat the process for making all polis, smear the holige paper liberally with oil and follow the same procedure. 

Serve the puran poli/bobbatlu warm or hot with melted ghee and warm milk. I like to eat it with either ghee liberally smeared over it or dunk it in warm milk.

Notes:

1. These Puran polis stay good for 2 days and for 3-4 days when refrigerated.
2. The thickness of these puran polis depends on your taste buds, you can prepare them small like parathas(slightly thicker) or large thin polis/bobbatlu which can be folded. As I already posted the thin variety I wanted to show the thicker one which is easy to prepare.
3. The amount of dough should be half the quantity of filling for each poli otherwise the dough would be more and makes the polis bland and hard at the edges as the dough gets accumulated in the edges.
4. You can either pat it or roll it like parathas in between two greased polythene sheets.
5. If you want a less calorie version, do not soak the dough in oil and instead smear oil on top of the dough and let it rest and then roll the puran polis like we do for parathas by sprinkling some flour. But these are not soft as compared to the ones which are prepared by dunking the dough in oil. But it tastes delicious too.
6. Do not make the filling very dry as it will make the puran polis dry. The filling should be fairly thick and soft and the dough should be very soft to get the soft polis.
7. For a vegan version use oil instead of ghee and also also avoid ghee in the filling and the dough.
8. I use holige paper or the plastic banana leaf which we get in markets. If you do not get them use a banana leaf instead.
9. You can even replace jaggery with sugar in the recipe.
10. You can use the strained water to prepare Holige Saaru or Amti which is again a must when we prepare polis. 

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