Puran Poli! Sweet memories of waiting with excitement as our grandmother rolled them out, one by one. I love them with coconut milk. And you?
Puran Poli, Holige, Obbattu, Poli, Bobbatlu… this delicacy has as many names as variations, from different parts of India. It is one of the special feast recipes prepared during festivals like Ugadi, Diwali, weddings and other special occasions. There are several varieties of Holige depending on the sweet stuffing used like peanut holige, jaggery (sakkare) holige, coconut (kai) holige, tur dal or bengal gram (bele) holige, and sesame seed (ellu) holige. Most people today prepare it using either maida/all purpose flour or wheat flour. But Maida is refined, and causes disease. Today’s hybridised wheat is also being linked with many diseases because of its high gluten content. One way around this is to find and use a non-hybridised, traditional wheat variety.
This is a millet version of the popular puran poli. After many weeks of experimenting, we have perfected a jowar holige! It is slightly more dense than a wheat puran poli, and tastes amazing!
Do try it out!
- 1 cup Sorghum flour jowar
- 1 cup Groundnuts / Peanuts raw, ground into raw peanut butter
- 1/2 cup Besan flour garbanzo bean flour
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt as per taste
- 2 cup Water as required
- 1 cup Bengal Gram Dal soaked
- 1/2 cup Dark jaggery as per sweetness, or dates
- 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder elaichi
- 4 cup Water as required
- Soak bengal gram for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Strain the water. Cook bengal gram dal with water till it becomes soft. Strain any additional water and use it as broth for other recipes like Obbattu saaru.
- Add jaggery and elaichi. Once jaggery melts, let it cool.
- Blend it into a smooth paste. This is the stuffing. Keep it aside.
- Blend 1 cup raw groundnuts into a smooth paste of peanut butter consistency.
- Boil 1.5 cup water. When it starts boiling, add 1 cup jowar flour, mix well, switch off the stove.
- Mix this with 1/2 cup besan flour and peanut paste, turmeric powder, and salt. Knead well to make a smooth dough. The dough should feel slightly oily at this point.
- You should be able to make a ball without any breaks. If it breaks, add a little water and knead again. If it is too sticky, add some flour.
- Dust some flour on your hands and the kitchen counter. Take a small ball of dough. Flatten it first on your hands. Lay the flattened roti on the counter. You can choose to continue flattening it with hands or roll it with a chapati roller. Flatten it into a small roti or bread.
- Now, take 1 or 2 tsp of stuffing prepared. Place it at the centre of roti and cover it with the flattened roti, press it well so that stuffing is at the centre and doesn't come out.
- Now roll this again using dry flour so that it doesn't stick. Keep rolling to form a thin Holige or Roti.
- Heat an iron tava - make sure it is heated well. If required, smear a drop of oil on iron tava and clean it up. This should be done only for the first one to season the tava. Once it is ready, place the roti on the tava and immediately smear some water on the roti - like how oil is smeared on chapatis. Be careful not to put too much water.
- Turn the roti over just before the smeared water dries up. Let it cook on the other side. Once done, turn it over once more.
- Smear water on other side also if necessary. Cook both sides well.
- Serve warm with some peanut butter or coconut milk!
- You can close the lid while cooking roti to make it softer. Make sure it is on low flame!
- Cook only for some time to get soft rotis. Cooking for more time will make it crispy but even that does taste good!
- Smear peanut butter once roti is cooked and is warm so that roti can remain softer.
- Serve with something watery, like coconut mylk or cashew mylk.
- Check out our jowar roti recipe for the pat-down method of making the rotis.
- Make sure the sorghum or jowar flour is fine and fresh to get better Holige. If it is store bought flour, then sieve it before using.