Puran Poli — Maharashtra's jaggery-and-lentil stuffed flatbread

i. Origin & history

In Marathi, puran is the sweet stuffing — from the Sanskrit pūrṇa, 'full' or 'filled' — and poli (poḷī) is a thin flatbread. The dish belongs to the Deccan, the plateau shared by Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and each language there has its own name: holige or obbattu in Kannada, bobbatlu or bakshalu in Telugu, poli or boli in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and vedmi in Gujarat.

Stuffed sweet breads of this kind are old. Medieval Sanskrit and regional texts from the Deccan describe flatbreads filled with sweetened lentils, and food historians often cite the twelfth-century Manasollasa, compiled at the Chalukya court, as an early reference to something similar. The details are debated, but there is no doubt that puran poli has been part of Deccan festival cooking for many centuries.

In Maharashtra it is the dish of celebration. It is made for Holi — when it is offered to the bonfire — for Gudi Padwa, the Marathi New Year, for Ganesh Chaturthi, and for Bail Pola, the festival honouring bullocks. In Karnataka and Andhra, holige and bobbatlu are essential for Ugadi, the Kannada and Telugu New Year. For weddings and family occasions, a meal with puran poli is a feast meal.

A Maharashtrian puran poli meal is also an exercise in thrift. The water the chana dal is boiled in is never discarded: it becomes katachi amti, a thin, spiced, tangy lentil broth served alongside the sweet bread, so nothing is wasted. Other accompaniments are ghee poured over the hot poli, warm milk, or gulavani, a jaggery-sweetened milk.

ii. Getting the puran thick enough to roll thin

The whole difficulty of puran poli is rolling a ball of soft, sticky filling inside a thin dough without the filling bursting through. Two things make it possible: a filling cooked dry enough to hold its shape, and a dough soft and elastic enough to stretch around it.

The filling starts as chana dal boiled until it is completely soft but not falling apart, then drained thoroughly. It is cooked with an equal weight of jaggery, which first melts and makes the mixture loose and liquid. It then has to be cooked, stirring constantly, until the excess water evaporates and the mixture thickens to a stiff, glossy paste. The traditional test is to stand a spoon upright in the centre: if it stays standing, the puran is ready. A wet puran is the commonest reason polis tear.

While still hot, the puran is pressed through a puran yantra — a sieve-like grinder — or blended, to make it completely smooth. Any whole lentils left in it will poke through the dough when rolling.

The dough is the other half. It is made much softer than chapati dough, with plenty of oil worked in, and rested for at least an hour, ideally longer. During resting the gluten relaxes and the flour fully hydrates, so the dough stretches rather than springing back. Many Maharashtrian cooks use fine wheat flour (maida) or a mix of maida and whole-wheat flour for extra stretch; a pinch of turmeric gives it a golden colour.

iii. Ingredients

Makes 12 servings · scroll the side panel to adjust

• 250 g chana dal (split Bengal gram)
• 1000 ml water, for boiling the dal
• 250 g jaggery, grated
• 1 tsp ground green cardamom
• ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
• ¼ tsp dried ginger powder (optional)
• 250 g plain flour (maida), plus extra for rolling
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• ¼ tsp salt
• 60 ml sunflower or other neutral oil
• 150 ml water, for the dough
• 60 g ghee, for cooking and serving

Use chana dal, not whole chickpeas; it softens evenly and makes a smooth, nutty puran. Jaggery gives the classic deep, caramel flavour; equal weights of dal and jaggery is the standard ratio, and some families use part sugar for a lighter colour. Nutmeg and cardamom are essential, and dried ginger aids digestion according to tradition. The dough is often made with maida for the thinnest polis, or half maida and half whole-wheat atta. Be generous with the oil in the dough: a very soft, oily dough is the secret. Toor dal is used in some regions instead of chana dal, and Karnataka's kayi holige uses coconut.

iv. Method

1. Make the dough: mix the flour, turmeric and salt, add 2 tbsp of the oil and enough water to make a very soft, slightly sticky dough. Knead for 5 minutes, then pour over the remaining oil, cover and rest for at least 2 hours.
2. Rinse the chana dal and soak for 1 hour. Boil it in the 1 litre of water for 35–45 minutes (or pressure-cook for 3–4 whistles) until completely soft but holding shape. Drain well, saving the cooking water for katachi amti if you like.
3. Put the drained dal and jaggery in a heavy pan over medium heat. Stir as the jaggery melts and the mixture turns loose and liquid.
4. Keep cooking and stirring constantly for 15–20 minutes, until the mixture thickens into a stiff, glossy paste that leaves the pan and a spoon stands upright in it. Stir in the cardamom, nutmeg and ginger.
5. While still warm, press the puran through a puran yantra or a sieve, or blend it, until completely smooth. Cool, then divide into 12 balls roughly twice the size of your dough balls.
6. Divide the dough into 12 balls. Flatten one into a 7–8 cm disc, place a puran ball in the centre, and bring the dough up around it to seal completely, pinching off any excess. Flatten gently.
7. Dust with flour and roll out gently and evenly into a thin round, about 18–20 cm across, turning often and using more flour as needed. If the filling shows through in places, that is fine.
8. Heat a tawa or heavy griddle over medium heat. Cook the poli for about 1 minute until small brown spots appear underneath, flip, and cook the other side. Brush with ghee, flip again and cook until both sides are spotted golden brown, about 3 minutes in total. Stack and keep covered while you make the rest.

v. Tips & common mistakes

• Cook the puran until a spoon stands up. A filling that is too wet makes the poli tear, leak and stick to the griddle.
• Make the dough softer than chapati dough. It should be almost sticky and very elastic; stiff dough will not stretch around the filling.
• Rest the dough properly. Two hours at least; many cooks rest it overnight. Unrested dough springs back and tears.
• Grind the puran smooth. Whole lentils left in the filling will poke through the thin dough when you roll.
• Roll gently, from the centre out. Pressing hard at the edges forces the filling out; let the rolling pin do the work.
• Keep the griddle at medium. Too hot and the jaggery in the filling scorches before the dough is cooked; too low and the poli dries out and becomes hard.

vi. Variations

Maharashtrian puran poli uses chana dal and is often rolled very thin and served with katachi amti. Karnataka holige or obbattu is similar, though often made with a dough of maida tinted with turmeric and rolled on banana leaf; kayi holige uses a coconut and jaggery filling. Andhra bobbatlu are thicker and richer with ghee. Gujarati vedmi often uses toor dal. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, poli or boli is sold in sweet shops and is softer and oilier.

The same Deccan kitchen produces other jaggery sweets, from payasam to chikki, and the Gujarati mohanthal uses gram flour in a very different way. For other festival flatbread sweets, compare the stuffed Korean pancake hotteok, filled with brown sugar, and the Japanese red-bean bun anpan.

vii. Serving & storage

Serve puran poli warm, folded into quarters, with a spoonful of melted ghee poured over, and with katachi amti, warm milk or gulavani on the side. On festival days it is the centrepiece of the meal, eaten alongside rice, dal, vegetables and kurdai.

Puran polis keep well — one of the reasons they are made in large batches for festivals. Stack them with parchment between and wrap them: they keep for two to three days at room temperature and a week in the fridge. Reheat on a warm tawa with a little ghee. The cooked puran filling can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated, and both the filling and cooked polis freeze well for a month.

ix. More from Indian & South Asian

• Shrikhand — saffron strained yoghurt
• Mohanthal — gram-flour fudge
• Rava Kesari — saffron semolina sweet
• Pedha — milk fudge rounds
• Chikki — jaggery nut brittle
• Hotteok — Korean sweet stuffed pancakes