PURAN POLI RECIPE – Pooran Poli – South Indian Poli Recipe with Coconut

Puran Poli /Boli /  Bobbatlu /Holige / Obabattu is a sweet flatbread from India prepared during festive occasions. Poli is a traditional sweet which is usually prepared during Bogi pandigai, we also make it during Vinayagar Chathurti and Diwali. Every region has its own way of preparing this sweet pancake, we normally make it with lots of coconut and jaggery.  Shared here is my MIL’s recipe, which i have been following carefully applying the techniques that I learned over years, hope you all like it.

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For the Sweet Stuffing / Sweet Pooranam 

Ingredients
Chana Dal / Kadalai paruppu	1/2 cup
Fresh grated coconut	1/2 cup
Jaggery	3/4 cup
Elachi	3 (powdered)

To start with soak chana dal / kadalai paruppu for at least one hour. Pressure cook the soaked dal with water (just to immerse the dal) and cook up to 3 whistles. Once done, transfer the cooked dal to a colander and drain all the water.  Let it cool and stay for sometime to drain all the water.  Now using a mixer / blender grind to a fine paste/ powder or if you have a good masher , then try to mash as much as possible and keep this aside.  Now powder / grate the jaggery and keep aside. Grate fresh coconut, powder the cardamom and keep both aside too.

In a kadai or pan, add the mashed dal and powdered jaggery. Heat it over low flame and the jaggery will start to melt. Initially it will be slightly watery and then as you keep stirring, the water content will reduce and the dal will turn like a thick mass. Now add powdered cardamom and grated coconut to it and mix . Keep stirring until everything blends well and turn in to thick mixture. Stir until the mixture starts leaving the sides of the vessel. (it takes about 10 to 15 minutes) depending upon the water content in the mixture. Once done let cool completely and proceed with any recipe of your choice. They can go in as a stuffing for kozhukattai, puran poli, suzhiyan or just simply plain!

For the outer covering

Ingredients
Maida / All purpose flour	1 cup
Salt	1/8 teaspoon
Turmeric powder	2 pinch
Yellow food color (optional)	1 inch
Oil (preferably sesame oil)	1/4 cup (for kneading the dough)
Oil	2 tablespoons (for soaking the dough)
Ghee	8 – 10  teaspoons (for making 8 polis)
Water	1/4 cup

Mix salt in the flour along with turmeric powder and food color. Slowly add the 1/4 cup oil and make sure you make a crumbly flour mixture. Slowly add water and start kneading. The dough will be very wet, oily and sticky- keep kneading for 15 minutes till you make a soft, sticky dough / very elastic.

Pour 2 tablespoons of oil over the dough and cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel and let it rest for 5 hours- 6 hours.

Now divide the dough and make into equal sized dough balls.  Roll the pooran also the same way and keep them ready.  Press the dough ball to make a small poori / puri and place the pooran in the center. Gather the dough around it and roll it into a ball.  Grease a banana leaf or a plastic sheet or butter paper with little oil/ ghee. Place the dough ball in the center – press and flatten using your fingers to make a small poori / you may also use rolling pin if you are not comfortable using your hands. Roll it out thin as much as possible.

Meanwhile heat a tawa and carefully transfer the poli. Using a butter paper or banana leaf will help you transfer the poli to tawa as you may place them upside down on the tawa, so that the poli sticks to the tawa and it will allow you to easily peel the sheet or leaf.

Cook about few minutes over low flame with few drops of ghee and flip to the other side and cook with some more ghee. We may want tiny brown spots of either side of the poli.  Adding more ghee while toasting really yields the yummiest softest poli’s – be generous! Repeat the process for rest of the dough and finish. Serve hot topped with ghee or butter.

These are really good straight from the tawa with oozing ghee on top but you may also enjoy them cold. Re-heat for few seconds in a microwave just before serving will also work. Enjoy!

Notes

• The pooranam itself last for about a week when refrigerated and can be used as needed. We usually make a big batch, for a small family just make half of the above measure.
• Chana dal can be roasted dry to cut down on the soaking time.
• Alternately you can also melt the jaggery and remove all impurities and then add it back to the dal and cook the pooranam. This process takes longer time for the pooranam to get thick.
• You can also make this pooranam with out coconut.If you add more jaggery then mixture will turn watery and sticky like a paste.
• Traditional Puran poli includes just dal and jaggery / sometimes North Indian use toor dal. This is typical south indian version which includes more of coconut.
• Ghee is a must for the dish go please be generous to make it more tasty.
• Resting the dough for atleast 5 hours is  a must to make it more soft and elastic.
• Adding turmeric gives good color to the poli.
• Addling a pinch of cooking soda to the maida dough makes stretching easy.
• Makes about 8- 9 poli about 5″ diameter.
• Coconut poli stays good for 4-5 days at room temperature, a litte longer is refrigerated.