Kadle bele Holige | Bele Obbattu

Holige or Obbattu (aka Pooranpoli in Maharashtra) is the quintessential sweet dish made during some of the Indian festivals.  It's a must in our house for Ugadi, Dasara and deepavali. It's one of my favorite sweets, it can be eaten hot with ghee or cold with milk. There is a by product while making this dish. The water left from cooking the dal is retained to make a very delicious kattina Saru (rasam) along with a tad bit of hurna(the sweet mixture stuffed inside the holige). I was always more interested in this spicy, tangy rasam than holige itself . Here is my mother's holige recipe, I follow these measurements to T and always get perfectly done holige. It yields about 12 medium sized holige. Adjust the quantity according to your requirement.

Ingredients:

Split Bengal gram : 250 gms

Jaggery: 250 gms

All purpose flour/whole wheat flour: 250 gms

Salt: 1/8 tsp

Oil: 1 tbsp 

Turmeric: 1/4 tsp

Cardamom powder: 1 tbsp

Oil/Ghee: for cooking/basting 

Method:

1. Take the flour in a mixing bowl and add turmeric and salt. Knead with a little water and make a soft dough (a little stiffer than chapathi dough). Apply a little oil and keep it covered until needed.

2. Pressure cook the split Bengal gram for 5-6 whistles, once the pressure is released strain the water.

3. In a heavy bottomed pan mix jaggery, cooked Bengal gram and cardamom powder. Cook until the jaggery melts and the whole mixture thickens. Let it cool.

4. Put the jaggery and Bengal gram mixture into a grinder/mixer and grind it so that there are no lumps left. Divide into 12 balls of equal size.

5. Take the rested dough and knead well, make 12 equal sized balls (about the size of a lemon) and roll into a small circle, place the sweet mixture in the center and pull the sides of the rolled dough and cover it up.

6. Roll into a small sized roti with light hands. 

7. Place on the hot griddle and cook on both sides. Baste with ghee.

8. Serve it hot with a big dollop of ghee and enjoy!