Haalu Holige / Poori Basundi

Haalu Holige is a traditional Karnataka sweet dish. The crispy fried pooris are dunked and soaked in a mildly sweetened milk and can be served hot or chilled. It is also called Poori Basundi or Paal Poli.

Serves: 6 to 8

Ingredients:

For Pooris:

Clarified Butter / Ghee – 2 tablespoons
All Purpose Flour / Maida – 1 cup + 2 tablespoons
Super Fine Semolina / Chirtoti Rava – 1/2 cup
Salt – 1/8 teaspoon
Ghee/Oil for rolling and deep frying pooris

For Milk syrup:

Whole Milk – 1.25 litre
Sugar – 1 3/4 cups
Cardamom Powder – 3/4 teaspoon
Saffron Strands – 7 to 8
Slivered Almonds – 3 tablespoons
Pistachios, Cashew nuts, chopped – 3 tablespoons

Method:

1. Take 2 tablespoons ghee and 2 tablespoons all purpose flour in a mixing bowl. Knead it thoroughly using the heel of your palm for 5-10 minutes until the dough becomes soft like butter.
2. Now add remaining all purpose flour, semolina and salt. Pour about 1/2 cup of water and knead it into a soft dough. If the dough is hard, keep adding more water, 1 teaspoon at a time, until you get a soft and firm dough. The quantity of water will vary depending on the quality of the all purpose flour and semolina. Keep the dough covered for 1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, boil milk in a deep pan.
4. Add sugar and continue boiling until the milk reduces to 2/3rd the original quantity. Keep stirring the milk frequently and stick any cream that forms to the sides of the pan.
5. Now add saffron strands, slivered almonds and chopped pistachios and cashew nuts.
6. Scrape the cream from the sides of the pan, add it to the boiling milk. Continue boiling it for another 3-4 more minutes and turn off the heat.
7. Now knead the prepared dough and make small dough balls.
8. In a wok, heat ghee/oil for deep frying.
9. In a small bowl, take 2-3 teaspoons of ghee/oil. Dip a dough ball slightly in ghee/oil and roll it into thin disc. You can dust the dough ball with flour instead. Using a fork, poke around the rolled out disc.
10. Deep fry the disc in hot ghee/oil. The fried poori must be slightly golden brown and crispy.

    Place the fried pooris on a kitchen tissue.

    
11. Repeat steps 9-10 for all the remaining dough balls.
12. Drop the fried pooris, one by one, in the prepared milk syrup, gently pressing each poori as you drop it in the milk syrup. Let the pooris soak for 15-20 minutes atleast.
13. Scoop out a poori and some milk syrup into a serving bowl and serve hot. You can serve them chilled too.
14. You can refrigerate the pooris soaked in milk in an air tight container for 2-3 days.