Boli/Holige/Puran Poli/Indian Sweet Flatbread

I am not much of a sweet tooth, neither is Soumya, my sister. Despite this, one sweet dish that both of us would love to snack on is Boli or Holige as it is called in Karnataka. Boli and a splash of warm milk is just beyond yum. 

My sister often comments on my good memory, be it with the dates or my ability to connect different incidents and the day it happened. My memory with food is not bad either. That gives me the right to comment on my Boli memories as well. Boli is a snack that my father often buys from local bakery and I loved taking it to Bangalore during my college days. More recently on our visit to India, my sister introduced this to Shibin as well. He loved it too which inspired me to try out this snack.  

Boli is made of All Purpose Flour/Maida. To make it more healthier, I tried out the with wheat flour. Not much of a difference in recipe, just replace maida with wheat flour.

There it is the recipe -

Ingredients

1. Wheat Flour/ All purpose Flour - 1 cup
2. Bengal gram dal/kadala parippu - 1 cup
3. Jaggery - 1 cup grated
4. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
5. Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp
6. Rice Flour - to roll
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Salt
9. Water

Method

Pressure cook the Bengal gram dal in a little water till soft. Do not overcook. Drain the water and grind it till a smooth paste. 

In a saucepan, heat 2 tbsp ghee and add the gram paste, grated jaggery and cardamom powder. Roast it till the water drains out, the color changes and the mixture holds together. Roll this into lemon size balls and keep aside.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, pinch of salt, turmeric powder and slowly pour warm water. Use a fork to mix this gently. Keep it covered for 15 minutes till the moisture holds together. Uncover and make dough out of this. Roll this also into lemon size balls. Rub your hands in a little ghee, in case you find it difficult to make the dough.

Lightly roll the dough balls into sheets and place the gram mixture balls onto this. Bring together the edges of the sheet using water to hold this together until the gram mixture balls are completely covered.

Flatten this with your hand and turn it over on rice flour. Using a rolling pin roll out sheets like chapati, apply more rice flour in case the dough sticks on.

Heat a pan and place the rolled out sheets on the pan on medium heat for a minute. Flip it over and let the other side also get cooked. Add ghee to either sides and flip it over twice more. Transfer to a plate and serve with a cup of milk.

Generally. Boli is served along with payasam/kheer. But trust us milk is an excellent replacement!