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Obbattu is one of the most popular sweet dish prepared across most of the states in India. It is known by various names – holige, bobbattu, puran poli etc., It is prepared by stuffing a mixture of bengal gram and jaggery into an unleavened all-purpose flour dough ball that is flattened and roasted on a jot griddle using ghee.
Yields: 15
Ingredients:
For Covering (Kanaka):
All Purpose Flour (Maida) – 2 cups
Turmeric Powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Water – 3/4 to 1 cup
Turmeric Powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Water – 3/4 to 1 cup
Salt – Â to taste
Cooking Oil – 1/2 cup
Ghee – 1/4 cup  for roasting
Cooking Oil – 1/2 cup
Ghee – 1/4 cup  for roasting
For Stuffing (Hoorna) :Bengal Gram – 2 cups
Water – 5 cups
Water – 5 cups
Jaggery, powdered – 2 cups, tightly packed
Cardamom Powder – 1 teaspoon
Nutmeg Powder – 1/8 teaspoon
Salt – 1/8 teaspoonFor Aid:
Cardamom Powder – 1 teaspoon
Nutmeg Powder – 1/8 teaspoon
Salt – 1/8 teaspoonFor Aid:
Colander and collecting bowl
Cooking Oil – 3 tablespoons
Cooking Oil – 3 tablespoons
Thick plastic sheet – 1
Griddle & spatula
A large tray/plate
Griddle & spatula
A large tray/plate
Method:
Preparing the Covering:
- In a mixing bowl, take all-purpose flour, turmeric powder, salt. Mix to combine.
- Pour 3/4 cup of water and knead it into soft and sticky dough. The amount of water needed to get the right consistency dough depends on the quality of the flour. If the dough is hard and stiff, add a little more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you get the dough that is softer and stickier than the chapati dough.
- Reserve 1 teaspoon oil and pour the rest into the dough and knead well until it is well combined.
- Now pour the reserved 1 teaspoon oil on top and cover the dough with a cloth or a cling film. Set it aside for 3-4 hours.
Preparing the Stuffing:
- Wash bengal gram and pressure cook with 5 cups of water. Cook for about 2 whistles so that bengal gram when cooked are soft but still hold shape.
- Transfer the cooked gram into a colander to strain out the water used for cooking into a collecting bowl. Do not discard this cooked water, you can use it for making rasam, dal and even kneading chapati dough.
- Take cooked gram, powdered jaggery, cardamom powder, nutmeg powder and salt in a thick bottomed pan. Cook it until it thickens and starts coming together to form a lump. Do not wait until it forms a lump.
- Now mash the hot mixture thoroughly using a masher so that you get a smooth stuffing mixture. Allow it to cool down.
- Once cooled, divide the stuffing mixture into equal sized 15 stuffing balls. Keep them aside.
Preparing Obbattu:
-
- Gently knead the covering dough.
- Pinch off 15 equal sized portions of the covering dough. Place them on a greased plate.
- Heat a griddle, set the flame to medium.
- Place a plastic sheet on a flat kitchen surface and smear some oil. (Read Variation mentioned below)
- Take a stuffing mixture ball and cover it evenly with 1 portion of the covering dough.
- Place it on the greased plastic sheet. Gently pat and spread it into a disc with your hand palm. Ensure you grease your hand palm to move your palm easily to spread the disc without dough sticking to your palm. Spread the disc to the thickness you prefer, some like it thick and others like it very thin.
- Carefully, remove the disc from the plastic sheet, place it on hot griddle. When small brown specks are formed, carefully flip the side, drizzle little ghee and allow the other side to roast until brown specks are formed.
- Now flip again, drizzle little ghee on the other side.
- Remove from the griddle and place them in a tray/plate.
- Serve hot drizzled with a little more ghee.
- Once cooled, you can store the left over obbattu in an air tight container for about 2 days.
Variation:
- In ‘Preparing Obbattu’ procedure, in Step 4,5 and 6, instead of patting and spreading it into a disc with your hand palm using oil, you can lightly dust the stuffed ball with some all purpose flour and gently roll it into a disc using rolling pin. This method will give you slightly harder obbattu but will need lesser oil.
- Follow the above step of dusting and roll it into very thin disc like a chapati using a rolling pin and roast both sides without using any ghee. Obbattu prepared this way, usually called Holige, can be preserved longer. Also, for this method, you can use sugar instead of jaggery, if you prefer.
Note:
- If the stuffing mixture is cooked for long time until it forms a lump, it gets harder on cooling. When you stuff it inside the covering dough and pat to spread it into a disc, the stuffing mixture inside may not spread evenly inside the covering, leaving harder edges of only the covering mixture.
- Always roast on medium flame.
- Do not cook bengal gram until it is too soft and mashed. The gram after cooking must be soft but still hold shape.
