The One with many names

Bakshalu/Bobbatlu/Holige/Pooran Poli

Bobbatlu or Bakshalu is one of the traditional and popular Andhra recipe made during Ugaadi, Diwali or any other festive occasion. It is also called Puran Poli in Maharasthra,  Holige in Karnataka and many other names in different places. My favorite memories of bakshalu is mom making them for us on festivals and serve them hot with dollop of ghee, also because I am not big fan of ghee she used to give me glass of milk or thick curd as accompaniment and we kids would eat our hearts out and take a nice nap!!

I tried replicating them in my kitchen but they never tasted as good as my moms! For Sri Rama Navami mom made these specially for me. When I told her I want to post this recipe in my blog she got very excited. She also wanted to know how I do it. So mom sitting next to me while I am writing this post and she says Hi to all 😉

 

Everyone has their own way of making Bakshalu. Some make them with just Maida and some add both maida and wheat flour. Today we used both flours in equal quantity. Also whenever you make anything with jaggery try to use fresh one as this is the key element for the recipe. I remember once when I did not have jaggery at home I made stuffing with brown sugar and it tasted great too. So you can try them with brown sugar also sometime.

Ingredients:-

Powdered jaggery 1 cup
Chana dal   1 cup
Toor dal 1/2 cup
Ghee 2 to 3 tsp
Turmeric1/2 tsp
Fennel powder/saunf 1 tsp
Cardamom powder 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder 1/4 tsp

Whole wheat flour 1 cup
All purpose flour/Maida 1 cup
Pinch of salt
Ghee 1 tsp
Oil as needed

Method:-

Rinse both dals well in water. Soak them for 30 minutes to 1 hour and then drain the water. (Soaking dal is optional as anyways you are going to pressure cook them, I prefer soaking as it wont take lot of time to cook, so I first soak dal and then make the dough and other preparations)

Mix both flours with a pinch of salt, ghee and add warm water and knead in to a very smooth dough.
The consistency of the dough should be very loose than the regular roti dough, this is the most important step for soft bakshalu so be patient and kneed the dough nicely.
Drizzle some oil on top and cover the dough with a wet cloth and keep aside for minimum 30 minutes.

Add turmeric and pressure cook dals for 3 to 4 whistles, make sure dal is completely cooked. Now add jaggery, nutmeg, fennel and cardamom powder and mix everything evenly. Once its cooled you can either mash it with potato masher or just use the mixer to make a fine paste of the same.

Never add water once dal is cooked and remember to taste to check if anything more is needed.

Take a medium size ball from the dough and flatten it enough on the edges, leaving it thicker in the middle, as to cover the filling when placed in the middle.

Place a portion of stuffing in the center of the rolled dough and bring the edges together towards the center. Join all the edges and make a roundel of the dough again and keep aside.

Make all these stuffed potlis at a time and cover them with a cloth or a lid and start making bakshalu. On a greased cover/baking paper/banana leaf spread some oil, place this dough and wet your hands with oil and start pressing them and make a nice round chapathi. Do not make a big size chapathi, the smaller they are the easier they are to make.

Now fry it on both sides applying ghee/oil until light golden in color on a hot tawa. The more ghee the better taste of course but I put lil oil. So according to your tastes add ghee/oil and fry them.

 

Serve hot or warm with generous topping of ghee and enjoy!!