Sweet poli - An Indian dessert

Sweet poli is the most popular dessert of India. For me holidays are all about friends, family, hanging out in the kitchen, tasting the gorgeous food my mom makes. She makes these lovely pancakes during Dussera and Summer holidays. As she prepared them today, the soothing aroma of the ghee was bringing back tons of childhood memories to me.

These hot polis were was prepared by stuffing the dough made from all purpose flour with sweet mixture.These are so simple to fix and can be made in less than 30minutes. The delicious coconut, earthly jaggery and a dash of cardamon creates a warmth in every mouth. A soothing layer of flour on either side of the stuffing gives them the right amount of sweetness to the dish and thus makes it enjoyable without reaching the saturation in the tongue.

Makes 6-8 polis

Ingredients
For the dough:
2 cups all purpose flour
2tsp vegetable oil
A pinch of salt
A pinch of baking soda
50ml water

For the stuffing:
1cup dessicated/fresh coconut (shredded)
1cup jaggery
1cup channa dal
1tsp cardamon powder
A pinch of salt
50ml water

Method
Warm the water in a measuring cup. Sieve the flour, baking soda and salt in a fresh bowl. Drizzle the oil on top and mix them well with hand. Add water little by little to roll them in a soft dough. You could sprinkle little flour on the kitchen bench and roll the dough over. Once done, leave them covered on the kitchen top.

Clean and steam cook the channa dal in water for 3 whistles. Cool and grind them to a course paste in a grinding jar.Heat the non-stick pan with jaggery,salt, cardamon, channa dhal, coconut, little water and cook for further 10-15minutes on medium heat. Keep stirring to avoid burning at the bottom. Remove from flame and cool. Drizzle a teaspoon of ghee for extra flavor and mix well.

Now remove the dough and roll them into tiny balls (1-2 cm radius). Sprinkle the bench with little flour. Roll out the balls into a small circle with a rolling pin (like you roll out a pizza). Take a spoonful of the stuffing and place it in the center of the circle. Seal them back to form a sphere and roll them back to a circle. Lightly dust the rolling pan and the bench to avoid sticking.


Cook them on a hot tava. Drizzle little ghee along the edges. Cook for 5-8minutes on each side. Keep the flame on low and have an eye to avoid burning.

Serve hot with a little ghee on top.

This is my entry for the 'Flat bread' event at Sandhya's kitchen.