Bobbatlu-Poli

I made bobbtlu for sri ramanavami and brought them to work to create a festive environment here. Everyone liked them very much. It is quite a time consuming process but it is worth the effort. here is the recipe

Ingredients
1 cup Chana dal(bengal gram Dal)
1 cup Jaggery or sugar(adjust to your taste)
1 1/4 cups maida/all purpose flour
1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 to 4 Tbsps fresh grated coconut (optional)
salt to taste
Oil
Method
1) Mix the maida/all purpose flour with pinch of salt and enough water to make a very soft and sticky dough. add 1 -2 Tbsps oil and knead the dough well, cover and keep aside.

2) Pressure Cook the chana Dal until soft. Drain water and cool. Grind the Dal with Jaggery or Sugar to a smooth paste. In a heavy bottemed wok, cook this paste at low heat so that the paste becomes hard enough to make into a ball. Remove from heat, mix the cardamom powder, grated coconut, pinch of salt and combine well. Make a small lemon sized balls and keep aside.

3) Take a plastic sheet (I used a ziploc cover) grease it with a little oil and use it to shape the bobbatlu. Grease your fingers with oil and take a small portion of the dough (smaller than a lemon size) and expand it little bit, keep the Chana-Jaggery ball and cover it with the dough and press again to form a circle shape of about 6 inches diameter.

4) Roast both sides in a Tawa/flat Pan until brown spots appear.

Serve warm with Ghee (Clarified Butter). Some people mix this with milk also and eat.

You can store them in air tight container in refrigerator upto 1 week.

Sending this to Mithai Mela Hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons.

Kajjikayalu (Karanji)

This is one of the sweet/snack my mother use to make in huge quantity and store for us upto 3 weeks when we were kids. We can use various stuffing of your interest. Usual stuffing would be Roasted chick peas powder mixed with sugar, dry grated coconut and cardamom powder.
I used crushed dry fruits and nuts as a filling.

Ingredients

1 Cup maida/all purpose flour
2 Tbsps Ghee
salt to taste
Oil for deep fry

For Filling

1/2 cup Roasted chick peas coarsly powdered (you can use Sooji/poppy seeds also)
1/2 cup sugar (adjust)
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 to 4 Tbsps Dry grated coconut
2 Tbsps crushed cashews/walnuts
Method
1) Mix the flour, 1 Tbsp ghee, salt with enough water to make a dough. It should not be too soft. Make a small balls, cover and keep aside.

2) In a pan, heat another Tbsp ghee and fry the grated coconut for 2 to 3 mins and keep aside. If using soori/Rava roast that also in ghee until it turns golden color. Mix the coconut, roasted chickpea powder/sooji, sugar, cardamom powder, crushed cashews/walnuts and keep this filling aside.

3) Roll each ball of the dough into a thin circle of around 6 inches, put 1 Tbsp filling on one half and cover with the other half. Fold the edges and press nicely so that filling will not come out during deep frying. you can wet the edges if required and press.

4) Heat oil in a pan and deep fry 3 to 4 at a time based on the size of the pan. Fry both sides untill they turn brown. You can fry more than what is shown in the picture above.

Cool and store in air tight container. They will stay fresh for 3 to 4 weeks.