Puran Poli Recipe (Bobbatlu)

Puran Poli Recipe for beginners with detailed tips & tricks to make the best. Puran Poli is a popular Maharashtrian sweet flatbread made with flour, lentils, jaggery and cardamoms. Sometimes nutmeg & dried ginger is also added for a punch of flavors. It is a festive delicacy and is made during most festivals like Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi and Holi. Puran poli is also known as Vedmi, Bobbatlu, obbattu, holige or poli & is also popular in all South Indian states, Maharashtra and Gujarat.

In all these regions they are made the same way but the ingredients used vary slightly. So the texture of this sweet stuffed flatbread is different.

About Puran Poli

The Marathi word “Puran” refers to “Sweet stuffing” and “Poli” to “Flatbreads”. Puran Poli are traditional flatbreads from Maharashtra Cuisine, that are stuffed with sweetened lentils.

The outer covering is made with wheat flour or all-purpose flour or sometimes with both. The stuffing is made with cooked chana dal (bengal gram) which is sweetened with jaggery and flavored with cardamom and nutmeg powder.

Puran Poli are cooked in pure ghee which enhances their aroma. Traditionally they are eaten with katachi amti which is made by tempering the strained lentil stock. Puran Poli can also be served with melted warm ghee or milk.

This post will help you to make perfectly thin and soft Puran Poli with a melt-in-the-mouth texture.

The first step in the preparation starts by cooking chana dal until soft and then the lentils are mashed or ground to a smooth consistency. It is later cooked with jaggery until thick consistency is achieved. The puran is flavoured with ground spices.

Puran yantra, a traditional manual food mill is used to mash the lentils to a super smooth texture which is essential in this recipe. But we can also do the same with a strainer or a grinder.

The prepared puran is stuffed inside rolled discs of dough & sealed carefully. Then the stuffed dics are rolled and later cooked with ghee.

Puran Poli vs Bobbatlu vs Obbattu

Andhra style bobbatlu are made without turmeric. The covering is mostly made with whole wheat flour but it also depends on the region. Some people also make them only with all-purpose flour and is similar to the Karnataka style holige.

Karnataka obbattu are mostly made with only all-purpose flour & lots of oil to make the dough. Also known as holige, these are hand stretched and not rolled. These are made paper thin with different kinds of stuffings.

Again these are only my findings and vary a lot from one household to the other.

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Photo Guide

How to Make Puran Poli (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1.Add 1 cup chana dal to a cooker and rinse well. Pour 2 ½ cups water and add half teaspoon ghee. Pressure cook until soft for 5 to 6 whistles. If cooking in Instant pot, press pressure cook button (high) and set the timer to 10 mins.

2. While the dal cooks, make the dough for covering. Add 2½ cups flour. Here I have used 2 cups wheat flour & ½ cup all-purpose flour. If you do not want to use all-purpose flour, use 2½ cups wheat flour. (More details in the tips below)

3. Add a pinch of salt and ¼ teaspoon turmeric (optional). Begin to make a soft dough by adding warm water as needed. I used ¾ cups plus 3 tbsps. You will need more if using only whole wheat flour.

4. Pour 3 tablespoons oil and knead well until the dough absorbs all of the oil & becomes soft, pliable. If you press down with your finger, it should dent easily.

5. Cover and rest aside until the puran/ filling is ready. It needs a minimum of 1 hour resting time. The longer it rests the results are better especially since we are using wheat flour. You can also make it the previous night and refrigerate it for upto 2 days.

Make Stuffing – Puran

6. When the pressure releases naturally, open the lid. Check if the dal is soft cooked by mashing it in between your thumb and forefinger. It should be well-cooked & get mashed easily. You will be left with very little water in the pot.

7. Transfer this to a strainer, cool and add the dal to a blender jar. Make a smooth paste. You will be able to blend all of the dal in one batch. Alternately you may pass it through a strainer like I did. To do that rub the dal against the strainer with a sturdy spoon or steel cup. Collect the smooth dal at the bottom. Note that this is a bit of arm work so you may prefer blending.

8. Next put back the dal to the same pot. I was left with very little dal water/stock which I just let it stay in the same pan.

9. Add 1 cup grated or powdered jaggery (150 grams) to the pan. Stir and cook on a medium flame to avoid splatters. Jaggery will melt and the entire mixture turns gooey.

10. Just cook until the mixture turns slightly thick. Add 1 tablespoon ghee towards the sides and cook until the entire mixture begins to leave the pan.

11. Add ½ teaspoon cardamom powder. You can also add ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder (optional). Mix well and turn off the stove when the consistency is thick as seen in the picture below. As it cools it will thicken. You should have a smooth puran at this stage. Cool this completely.

Roll Puran Poli

12. Divide the dough to 12 equal parts and the puran/ stuffing to 12 equal parts.

13. Take a dough ball and slightly flatten it. Dip it in flour & dust off the excess. I prefer to use all-purpose flour here as wheat flour makes them tough/ hard.

14. With the help of your thumb and fingers on both your hands, begin to shape it like a cup or a puri. I made mine around 3 ½ to 4 inches.

15. Then place a ball of puran in the center and push it to the deep center.

16. Bring the sides of the cup higher by simply tapping the whole thing on the hand and stretching the dough on the sides.

17. Keep pushing the puran in and stretch the dough on the sides until you are able to bring all the edges on top.

18. Bring the edges together, join and seal them. I do not remove any excess dough, instead pat it back. Do check the video to make it right.

19. Flatten this gently in between your palms or with your fingers to make a small puri.

20. Dust some flour on the rolling board and place it. Also sprinkle some flour on top.

21. Gently roll it to as big as you can taking care not to tear the covering. I roll mine to 8 to 9 inches. While rolling take care you do it evenly so all of the puran and the covering is well distributed including to the sides. If you see the poli becoming too thin and about to tear, sprinkle some flour and gently pat it.

Fry/Toast

22. Heat a griddle on a medium high flame. I make 3 to 4 poli at one time and then begin to cook them. When the pan is hot enough, dust off the excess flour from the puran poli and transfer it to the hot griddle.

23. Soon you will see bubbles on the puran poli. Flip it gently to the other side, pressing down with a spatula so it puffs fully. Drizzle as much ghee as you like and cook until it is evenly done including on the edges. I use about a tablespoon for each.

24. Flip to the other side and spread more ghee as desired. Remove to a serving plate. Spread enough ghee over the puran poli and then stack them.

Serve with ghee, milk or katachi amti / holige saaru. We personally love these dipped in this kesar badam milk.

Pro Tips

Dal: If you plan to make katachi amti or holige saaru then use 4 cups water to boil the dal and strain it. Use the collected dal stock to make the amti or saaru.

If you want to use toor dal, use only 2 cups water to pressure cook & reduce the cook time.

Jaggery: Dark color jaggery and powdered jaggery will make dark or brown color puran. This makes the whole poli look darker in color so you may choose lighter color jaggery.

Tips to Make the Covering:

I often make different kinds of wheat flour poli for my kids’ school box. So sharing my findings on the covering.

Choosing flour: Using only wheat flour makes nutty and denser covering if not prepared well. So I use 1¼ tablespoon oil for every cup of atta. Rest the dough overnight in the fridge. Bring it to room temperature before rolling it. You can do the same if you want to use only wheat flour here.

If making for a special occasion I use 2 cups atta and ½ cup all-purpose flour. This gives better results than using only whole wheat flour.

For health reasons, use organic or at least unbleached all-purpose flour and avoid regular maida as it is bleached.

I have also made these a lot of times with whole wheat pastry flour or white wheat flour. This gives very close results of using 1:1 atta:maida. For more thinner puran poli you may use that.

Oil: Using a good amount of oil to make the dough helps you to make thin poli as it stretches well. Do not reduce it.

Turmeric does not add any flavor to the puran poli but it imparts a nice bright color. It is a tradition for many people and some use it since they like the color. You may skip it if you don’t like.

I personally like it because sometimes darker jaggery makes brown poli which don’t look appealing.

Tips to Use Ghee

It is believed that ghee helps in digesting lentils. So traditionally a generous amount of ghee is used while cooking the puran poli. I usually do not measure when I cook them. Please use more or less to suit your taste and diet.

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Puran Poli Recipe first published in Oct 2015. Updated & Republished in December 2022.