Delicious traditional flatbread stuffed with sweet filling.
I am from Southern part of India where I grow up with eating Boli, a type of sweet flat bread. My hubby is from Mumbai where Puran poli is famous, and whenever I visit my mother-in-law would make it for me with the help of her cook. However I forgot to note down the recipe so my making of Puran poli got delayed.
One day I was searching for Mohanthal/chickpea fudge in YouTube and saw a video of puran poli. Trust me I could not understand a single word as it is in Marathi language. But she is giving the recipe I checked with my hubby he know Marathi and told me yes you have written it right. I like this recipe because in this recipe she uses two kinds of sugars, one is raw sugar jaggery and other is granulated sugar both are in equal proportion. Since my kids are not into any Indian sweets I made only 9 flat bread, so that I can enjoy it all to myself. Yes you heard it right; hubby will not touch it because he is diabetic.
Preparation for puran poli is very similar to Boli, the recipe from my hometown in Kerala with a few differences in the steps. Even though boli is made with All-purpose flour/madia it is spread in rice flour. Here it is made all purpose flour or whole wheat flour or mix of both flour and spread in All-purpose flour too. If you want you can use jaggery entirely no need of substituting with sugar. But I liked the jaggery-sugar combo. I used sesame seed oil for dredging the dough and finally made with ghee. If you don’t like the taste of sesame seed oil, use your favorite vegetable oil or canola. But make sure to give a final touch with ghee.
Sometime it is too dangerous for me to watch YouTube videos as I will get inspired by it, and would want to try the recipes in my kitchen. You will see some modifications in the recipe compared to traditional as I don’t trust jaggery to be used without straining the impurities. Also I made a cooked chickpeas puree with my blender instead of Puran yantra (a traditional utensil) which I don’t have it in my hand. It looks similar to potato Ricer/ Masher.
You are make dishes with whatever in your hand that is my policy when comes to cooking. Here comes my version of puran poli.
Puran Poli /Sweetened chickpeas stuffed Flat bread
Ingredients
- For covering
- 2 cups /250g All purpose flour
- ¼ cup +3 tablespoon oil I used sesame seed oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ cup water +1 tablespoon
- For the filling
- 1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoon/250g chana dal/split chickpeas
- ½ cup /100g Jaggery
- ⅓ cup /60g Sugar use 40g more if you want more sweetness
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- Ghee for brushing
Instructions
- Wash Chana Dal/split chick peas with running water and cook it with 3 cups of Water in a pressure cooker. (Cook on high till one whistle; then lower the heat and cook for 5 minutes and then crank up the heat till one whistle.)
- Once the pressure is gone, drain the excess water in the dal and wash with running water once again drain it in colander.
- In medium saucepot cook the dal together with the Sugar and jaggery on medium heat .First sugar melts and it become watery .But with continued cooking it will form a thick mass
- Add nutmeg Powder, dry ginger powder and cardamom Powder; mix well and switch off the heat.
- Grind them into fine paste still it is warm, as it cools it get thickens.
- Divide them into 9 lemon sized balls and set aside.
- To make the dough for the covering
- Mix together Flour, Salt and turmeric and make soft dough using enough Water. (The dough should be really soft; softer than a Poori dough)
- Keep it in a bowl and cover it with Oil .The dough should be covered completely with the Oil. Let it rest for 30 minutes at least.
- Pinch out 9balls from this dough and set aside.
- To make the Bolis
- Divide the filling into 9 equal lemon sized balls.
- Take a small portion (the size of a marble) of the dough; flatten it in your palm; place a Dal filling in the middle and cover it with the dough.
- Flatten the balls and keep it aside on Rice flour and repeat with all the other portions.
- Roll out each Dal filled dough into 7 inch circles with the help of flour to avoid sticking.
- Heat a tawa/ griddle on medium heat and cook the Boli on both sides till it starts to change the color here and there. When both sides are cooked brush with ghee, that will help to remove the flour and increase the flavor.
Notes
to this add oil and set aside like this
Pressure cook the chana dal/ split chickpeas like this.
Drain the water and add skillet and cook with sugar and jaggery like this
at first it become watery then continue to cook until it becomes thick to this add, nutmeg, cardamom and dry ginger powder.
once it cool enough to touch grind them into fine puree like this.
when you are ready to make the puran poli, divide both dough into 9 equal balls like this.
First flatten the outer covering like this
fill the stuffing
then cover it like this
then spread each ball into thin circle like this.
Heat the skillet.place it carefully and cook when you see the bubbles like this on the top flip
spread both sides with ghee and transfer to plate.
enjoy.Pin it for later
This is Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) from Zesty South Indian Kitchen who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread. All the recipes you see here are created by me and approved after taste-test by my family.
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says
Swathi, I've never tried a sweet flatbread. This sounds great, and yours look so perfect. But, of course! 🙂
Jean | DelightfulRepast.com says
Swathi, I've never tried a sweet flatbread. This sounds great, and yours look so perfect. But, of course! 🙂
Suja Manoj says
Looks yummy, must try this version.
mjskitchen says
A sweet flat bread...love it! I definitely would be tempted to drizzle a little honey on a warm one of these.
Kylee from Kylee Cooks says
Homemade bread is the ultimate in comfort food, right? I love the look of these, can't wait to try!
Natalie says
I love flatbread, but I never tried sweet ones. Love the spices you used to make this flatbread. All my favorites. Really delicious! Btw your recipes are so inspiring, and I love reading your stories 🙂
Jennifer A Stewart says
This is genius! I love that you have chickpeas in the middle. Added protein and for me a portable breakfast that is tasty with all those spices! YUM!!
Daniela Anderson says
I have never had sweet flatbread before, only the savoury version, but it sounds delightful. I love munching in between meals, this flatbread would be great with a nice cup of tea. The step-by-step instructions are fantastic, I keep saying I should do something similar for some of my recipes, but never do it.
deepa says
you are right on sesame oil part, not all can acquire the taste of it. Puran poli is my favorite
Molly Kumar says
Hi Swathi, the puranpoli's look so amazing!! I love them and I always eat them when mom visits us here 🙂 I love the way you have it explained with pictures and will give them a try soon.
Adriana Lopez Martn says
I love naan and roti must try this version too, seems fairly easy to make and I can bet must be delicious and a great pair to any meal =)
Byron Thomas says
This is so interesting! Would you call it a dessert flat bread? You mentioned that the chickpea paste you created was sweet. I think it sounds delightful and so different from anything I've seen in terms of flatbread!
Sandhya Ramakrishnan says
Swathi, what a traditional recipe this is and I love puran poli. This is my mother's favorite ever. Me and my dad love the paal poli and hence she would often not make her favorite and make paal poli for us. I would have loved to make this for her.
Noe says
I love learning about new foods from other cultures. I had no idea that flatbreads could be sweet. Now why is that such a surprise to me? I don't know. LOL.
I'm also getting a giggle out of you saying how dangerous it is to watch You Tube because you become inspired. LOL I know that feeling oh so well!
Helene D'Souza says
I have never come across these puran poli. I wish I had known those when we traveled the south. because I didn't know what was what I would frequently order just bread and that's when I learned that bread in south India is always sweet. ^.^ I think I can do this sometimes, thanks for the awesome useful share!
ManilaSpoon says
Wowza! I just read the ingredients and seeing it has all my favorite spices, I can just imagine the explosion of flavors in my mouth!
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy says
This sounds very interesting. I love flatbread and chickpeas. In fact I LOVE bread!! I have never attempted to make flat bread from scratch. This would be a fun weekend experiment in the kitchen.
Veena Theagarajan says
super tempting Can I have it.
Emily @ Recipes to Nourish says
These look amazing! I love that you use jaggery in these too. My favorite kind of jaggery is from Pure Indian Foods - they flavor is so awesome. Wish I had some of these right now, they sound so delicious!
Stephanie@ApplesforCJ says
These sound fabulous with the chickpeas. I often get inspired by You-tube videos as well. Actually that's how I figured out how to start my blog..watching a you-tube video 🙂
Veena Azmanov says
Oh my word Swati.. you are a champ. If I remember correctly these are a lot of work!! And they look delicious. Your kids are so lucky. I only attempted these ones back home with my mom - ever since I have only purchased them..
Amanda says
I have never heard of this, but the flavors sound delicious. I'd probably want to keep it for myself, too! I love the picture of the flatbread all puffed up.
Traditionallymodernfood says
My all time fav 😊It s been a while since I made id. Perfectly puffed podi looks delicious
Anindita says
Love puranpolis,they go so well with chilli pickle,and love the way they fold up like a hankey