Puranpoli

I have been so excited ever since Zlamushka announced this month's Tried & Tasted, celebrating Bee & Jai's blog, Jugalbandi. My favorites folder is overflowing with their recipes that I have been wanting to try, but my laziness and IQ (Inefficiency Quotient!) have been steadily growing as well. This blog has been getting ignored on some or the other lame excuse, for quite some time now.However, when I came across this recipe, I could not wait , as I had run out of excuses , to not make this.

All ingredients at hand ? Check.

Reasonably easy? Yep

Not unhealthy ? Nearly

Can it make a one dish meal ? Certainly

Will Shiv like it ? Oh yes

Do I like it ? Yes, yes, yes

Selfish as it may sound, the last one was the clincher.

Now there are only three sweet dishes that I really adore, Thai Sticky Rice with Mango, Ada Pradhaman and Puranpoli.

I no longer find fresh mangoes here so the first one is out. Ada pradhaman, I am too scared to attempt(what if I mess it up and then stop liking it too!). Finally, Puranpoli always seemed to be too much work and too much maida (white, refined flour) and so I almost never get to eat any home made sweets.

Bee's mom's amazing puranpoli are a blessing, made with wholewheat flour and very little ghee..no way was I going to pass these up.

They were also suprisingly easy to roll out, it took less than 1 minute to roll out each, and for someone whose rotis are rarely round, these turned out pretty decent.

The only variations I made:

1. I used our regular Roti dough, made with atta and water, as I had some that needed using up. I am certain that milk would have made the polis exceptionally softer, and that is what I will do when I next make these ( and that's going to be soon, I think)

2. Since the dough had no salt, I added a pinch of salt to the dal. A little salt does give a nice edge to the sweetness.

The verdict:

Exceptionally delicious, the atta makes it much more hearty and moreish, and compliments the earthy chana dal beautifully.

This is a truly special post and I cannot thank Bee enough for sharing her amma's recipe. These are easily the best Puranpolis I have had.

P.S : Getting carried away by the lovely pics at Jugalbandi, I also tried to roll all my polis stacked on each other , which gave them a scrumptious, crumbly top, that screamed for a dab of ghee. Go ahead and try that, these are totally worth it!

These have been inspiring in more ways than one, making me bloggish again. From now on, I will try and post at least once a week, every Friday, and stay better connected to this wonderful blog group.
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