Holige / Bele Obbattu or Puran Poli – A Traditional Festive Indian Dessert
Holige or Bele Obbattu - A Sweet Flatbread or Dessert made for Karnataka New Year - Ugadi Festival. Made with whole wheat dough and stuffed with a lentil jaggery filling, this is cooked on a hot griddle with ghee. Serve warm with some kesar or saffron Milk and more ghee.
Servings 12 Nos.
Equipment
- Griddle to cook Holige
- Rolling Board and Pin (used for Indian breads like paratha, roti)
Ingredients
INGREDIENTS FOR THE COVERING OR WHEAT DOUGH
- 2 cups Whole Wheat Flour (1 cup is 200 ml measurement) Traditionally made with Refined Flour or Maida
- ¼ tsp Turmeric Powder
- ¼ tsp salt to taste
- 2 tbsp Ghee to knead the dough
- Water as required to knead the dough
INGREDIENTS FOR THE SWEET LENTIL JAGGERY FILLING
- 1 cup Chana Dal or Bengal Gram Dal
- 1 cup Jaggery (powder the jaggery and measure)
- ¼ tsp Cardamom Powder or Elaichi Powder
- A pinch of nutmeg powder or Jaiphal
- A pinch of saunth or dry ginger powder
- 1 tbsp Ghee or Clarified butter Read below regarding ghee quantity for the entire recipe
- Water as required to pressure cook chana dal
Instructions
Method for wheat flour covering
- In a large bowl, add flour, turmeric powder, salt and mix well.
- Add water slowly to form a soft dough.
- Add a tbsp of ghee or clarified butter and knead this dough lightly for atleast 5-10 minutes
- Now smear 1 tbsp of ghee over the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- After the dough has rested for 30 minutes, knead it again for another 5 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes and then you have your covering ready to be filled and shaped.
Method to make the sweet filling / stuffing
- Soak the chana dal for atleast 5 to 6 hours, preferably overnight as I always do.
- Drain the water completely, add just 4 tblsp of water, cover and cook it in a pressure cooker for 5-6 whistles. The cooked dal should be completely mushy when pressed lightly. If it is dry in the centre, cook again for 2 whistles.
- After the water has drained, mash the dal well.
- Heat a non-stick pan or kadhai, add the mashed dal, crushed jaggery and ensure the gas flame is low. Stir it continuously to avoid burning of the jaggery at the bottom of the pan.
- Add ghee and keep stirring the mixture.
- The mixture will firstly turn completely runny but will eventually start cooking and thickening before turning into a blob at the corner of the pan or kadhai which is the exact moment you switch off the gas flame and add the aromatics like Elaichi powder, saunth and nutmeg.
- Mix well and allow it to completely cool down.
- Make balls of equal quantity, and be ready to make the polis or holige
Making Holige or Bele Obbattu
- Ensure you have melted ghee or clarified butter with you at all times during the making and cooking of the polis since it involves greasing of the surface and cooking the polis in a tawa or griddle.
- Make equal balls of the Whole wheat flour dough and keep aside.
- Smear some ghee in your palms and take a dough ball.
- Now grease either a plastic paper or I simply make do with my good quality marble base that I use to make rotis etc.
- Pat the dough ball into a small thick circle on your hands and place the filling (which are also made into balls) and try to cover and seal. Similar to making parathas with filling
- Dip your finger tips in ghee and apply on the disc which will now be patted slowly on the marble surface. Do it slowly, applying pressure at all corners lightly ensuring the filling doesn’t sneak out from the edges nor does the polis tear.
- Meanwhile, heat a griddle and once the bolis are done, place them lightly on the hot griddle. Ensure the flame is low when cooking them.
- Gently coat all the sides with ghee and smear on the top as well while they are cooking. Turn them over / Flip and cook on the other side too by once again pouring few drops of ghee on the edges.
- Remove from griddle and serve hot.These flatbreads remain good in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Notes
Recipe notes
- While making each and every boli or poli, ensure the marble top, the fingertips and the dough with the filling are all smeared with ghee. This enables you to shape and also prevents the boli from tearing while being shaped.
- Ensure good resting time for the wheat flour dough. Never be in a hurry to make it quickly as soon as you knead. It would turn to hard polis. Always cover the dough with a damp cloth while it is resting to ensure the dough doesn’t dry out. Smear the ghee generously while it is being rested, you will see that the dough absorbs all the ghee which in turn ensures your polis are soft and manageable to knead.
- If you are using a plastic sheet, grease the sheet after every boli in the similar way.
- Don’t make ahead and keep these polis in advance. They tend to give out moisture due to the melted jaggery so, make one at a time and cook. Patience is the key.
- Apply ghee generously while making this. It turns out very soft. If you try and shy away from adding ghee, it would lead to very hard polis.
- Ensure your gas flame is always low while cooking the polis. They usually puff up slightly which indicates they have cooked well.
- I have added only 1 cup of jaggery as we don’t prefer the polis to be too sweet. You can however, go upto 1.5 cups which actually taste delicious.