Karnataka Style Holige/Obbattu/Puran Poli Recipe

OBBATTU RECIPE

Karnataka style Holige also know as Obbattu in Kannada, bobbatlu in Telugu, Puran Poli in Hindi, Paruppu Boli in Tamil is a very popular sweet in Karnataka, Andhra and North India. Of course each recipe has its own variations. People in Karnataka should make this sweet for festivals like Varamahalakshmi pooja, Ganesh chaturthi and Ugadi.  

We Tamil people don’t celebrate Ugadi but being in Bangalore for the past ten years, I wanted to celebrate Ugadi at least by making holige. Holige/Obbattu is considered to be one of the most important Neivedyam recipes for Ugadi. People in Karnataka & Andhra make it along with Mango pachadi or Maavinkayi chitranna and vada. Here in Bangalore, people make this holige not only for offering GOD, its a must serve sweet in weddings, Sathya Narayana pooja etc. I
n Karnataka,  people make it with two different stuffing. One using dal ( bele obbattu) and the other one with coconut (Kayi holige). But the most famous one is bele obbattu. In Tamil nadu, we call this as Boli /Poli and we make the same stuffing with chana dal. In North India, it is called as Puran poli. I am not a big fan of this sweet recipe but I love Obbattu saaru (a spicy rasam kind of gravy made from the stuffing and the cooked dal water)so much. My husband Sendhil loves obbattu like anything. He loves to have it hot hot drizzled with a tsp of ghee. I have tasted holige in my school moms friends houses and in marriage feasts. 
My friends make it extremely soft and tasty. So with the help of Megha and Tara’s recipes, I tried holige after a long time to make a special post for Ugadi festival. By God’s grace, it came out well and soft as I expected but not 100% like my friends. No worries. Practice makes a man perfect.After this successful attempt, I am pretty much confident of making it perfect next time. But I became very happy when Sendhil gave thumbs up with a broad smile on his face. So its a hit recipe in my home. I have mentioned all the possible tips and tricks shared by my friends. Hope it will be useful for beginners. 
Now lets see how to make Karnataka special Holige/Obbattu recipe with stepwise pictures in detail ! Please don’t forget to go through the “Points to remember” before you start making it.
Wish u all a very happy Ugadi !.

Points to remember
  1. Please be generous in adding oil. Oil helps you to get a really soft holige. So use the mentioned quantity of oil strictly. U can add more oil but definitely not lesser the given quantity.
  2. My friend Tara use the combination of maida and chiroti rava in the ratio of 2:1 for making the dough but Megha uses only maida. Here I used only maida as I din’t have chiroti rava in hand.
  3. You should knead the dough at least for 5-7 minutes adding oil in regular intervals. Its a very important step.
  4. Holige/Obattu dough needs to be fermented and soaked in oil at least for 8 hours to achieve the best result. i.e. If you want to make obattu in the evening around 6 pm, I suggest you to make the dough in the morning around 7 am. This tip was shared by Tara. This time I fermented the dough for just 4 hours as I wanted to click the pictures before sun light goes off. Next time I am planning to soak the dough overnight.
  5. Rolling the dough along with stuffing also plays a major role in bringing out soft obattu. Do not roll the holige too thin or too thick. You can either pat it using your hands or use a rolling pin by keeping the dough between two greased obbattu sheets which is easily available in Market. If you don’t get it, use oil sheets, milk cover or any plastic sheets. You can use banana leaf as well. 
  6. Make sure the size of maida dough should be half the size of stuffing ball. This helps in uniform spreading of stuffing all over the holige. Suffing should be more than the outer covering.
  7. Always cook the obbattu in medium flame and never forget to drizzle a tsp of oil around the corners and all over the obbattu to get a shiny look.
  8. To keep the obbattu stay soft for long time, always stack the cooked obbattu one over the other after they turn warm. Keep it covered till you eat.
  9. Last but not the least,serve the obbattu adding few tsp of melted ghee topped with it. If desired, you can add warm milk too. This is how it is served in Wedding feasts here. This combo is just out of the world ;)).
  10. You can keep this holige for a week and enjoy !
Obbattu recipe

Obattu/Holige recipe

Obattu/Holige recipe How to make obattu/Holige recipe for Ugadi festival

Cuisine: Indian
Category: Sweet
Serves: 10 nos
Prep time: 8 Hours
Cook time: 5 Minutes
Total time: 8H5Minutes

INGREDIENTS
( 1 cup – 250ml)

  • Maida/All purpose flour – 1 cup (levelled)
  • Cooking oil – 1/4 cup + Extra while cooking holige ( total 1/3 cup) 
  • Turmeric powder – 1/8 tsp
  • Salt – a pinch
  • Water – to make dough ( I used nearly 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp.But it may vary)

For stuffing

  • Toor dal or chana dal – 1/cup
  • Grated/powdered jaggery – 3/4 – 1 cup
  • Grated coconut – 1/4 cup
  • Cardamom – 2 nos
  • Water – as needed
METHOD

  • Prepare the dough part first. For this, take 1 cup of flour and add turmeric powder and  a pinch of salt to it. Mix well. Make a dent in the center and add water little by little. Make a sticky dough.
Obbattu recipe
  • Take 1/4 cup of oil in a bowl and add 1 tsp of oil to the dough. Start kneading using your palm. Knead it for a minute and add another tsp of oil whenever the dough sticks to your hands. Repeat the same thing until the dough is completely soft. I used nearly 6-7 tsp of oil. Knead the dough for 6-8 minutes. No problem if the dough is loose and sticky. 
Obbattu recipe
  • Now pour the remaining oil over the dough. The dough would be immersed in oil and it will be soaked. So add 1 tbsp more oil if needed. Close the bowl with a lid and leave it for 6-8 hours minimum.
Obbattu recipe
  • Next comes the stuffing part. Boil toor dal in an open bowl or pan adding 4 cups of water. Let the dal cook till it blossoms and not mushy.i e.the dal should be mashable by hands but it should look firm and stay in shape. You can also pressure cook but cook in high flame for one or two whistles. Make sure dal is not mushy. It should blossom and cook. People here don’t pressure cook dal for making holige. So I too followed the same. 
Obbattu recipe
  • After the dal is cooked, drain all the water and collect it in a bowl. Use this dal water for making obbattu saaru.
  • Now take the cooked dal, grated coconut, grated jaggery and cardamom in a mixie jar and grind it well to make a paste.
Bele obbattu recipe
  • If you feel the mixture is watery and too wet to handle,saute & cook the mixture in a hot pan till it becomes like a whole non-sticky mass without moisture content. If the mixture is hard and non sticky, cooking the stuffing is not needed. Take the stuffing and make lemon sized balls out of it. Cover the balls and set aside. Reserve 2 balls of stuffing to add in obbattu saaru. 
Bele obbattu recipe
  • After the obbattu dough is rested for 8 hours, take it and pinch a big gooseberry sized ball out of it. The size of dough ball should be half the size of stuffing ball. Stuffing ball should be bigger than dough ball. Keep the ball in a greased obbattu sheet ( U get in shops) and spread it lightly like a poori. Make sure the corners are thinner than the center portion. Now keep the stuffing ball in the middle and cover the stuffing with the dough. You can use banana leaf for rolling holige but obbattu sheet works the best. 
Obbattu recipe
  • Press it using your hands and pat it as much as possible distributing the stuffing evenly all over the holige. Make it medium thin Or thick as you like (If you make polis too thick, it may turn out hard).
Obbattu recipe
Obbattu recipe
  • Heat a dosa tawa (Iron griddle is best) and drizzle few drops of oil. When the pan is heated, take the obbattu sheet and invert it over the tawa. Just drop the holige and remove the sheet. Spread it well. Cook it by adding a tsp of oil. Cook both the sides in medium flame till holige cooks with golden brown spots. Remove in a plate and serve it hot hot adding milk and Ghee generously. Tastes great!!
Obbattu recipe
  • Repeat the same for all the dough and stuffing. Always Stack the holige and store it. It will stay good for a week provided you cook the stuffing part without moisture.

Note

  • Please refer “Points to remember” given above before you start making obbattu. All the best !!

Enjoy making this Karnataka’s most popular Obbattu for Ugadi Habba. 
Wish you all a very happy Ugadi festival celebration !!
Obbattu recipe

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30 thoughts on “Karnataka Style Holige/Obbattu/Puran Poli Recipe”

  1. Sandhiya

    Wow..Nicely done and wonderful explanation. Using toor dal is totally new to me. i liked the poli made with channa dal. so definitely , i'm gonna try this.Where can i buy obattu sheets?

    Reply
  7. capt TRajkumar

    Excellent blog post and so well written .Many thanks again . I am from Mangalore settled in Chennai and Purann poli /Holige isa must at all spl events -kind rgds TR

    Reply
  16. Kumudha Balaji

    tip to get the puran in desired consistency: make jaggery syrup of soft ball consistency and then add the cooked dal(after draining the water completely), elaichi powder, grated coconut. Cool completely and grind in a mixer and make balls. I find this method quick and hassle free.

    Reply
  17. Kumudha Balaji

    tip to get puran in desired consistency: make jaggery syrup of soft ball consistency, add the cooked dal(after draining the water completely), elaichi powder , grated coconut . Cool completely and then grind. I find this method quick and hassle free.

    Reply
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