Til Poli

It is that time of the year again when the sky will be full of colourful kites and our plates will be full of even more colourful treats. It is Makarsankranti, a festival hugely celebrated by the people from North India, to honour the hard work of farmers that they put in all year to provide us with good crops. As we all know, any special occasion calls for sweet treats to complete the celebration. While there are a number of sweets that are prepared for Makarsankranti, Til Poli is a Maharashtrian delight that you shouldn’t miss out on. Prepared with gram flour and stuffed with a sweet sesame seeds, jaggery powder and cardamom powder stuffing, Til Poli is a perfect dessert to savour this festival. It includes simple kitchen ingredients and takes less than 30 minutes of your time to be prepared completely. For a delicious sweet dish, it is also pretty less on calories and one serving wouldn’t hurt. Apart from Makarsankranti, you can also prepare this for a family game night or a get together with friends. To begin, follow our step-by-step recipe below! (Recipe: Chef Vaibhav Verma, Executive Chef at Grand Mercure Bangalore)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup sesame seeds

1 gm refined flour

2 tablespoon gram flour (besan)

250 gm powdered jaggery

1/2 cup coconut powder

1 1/2 teaspoon green cardamom

3 teaspoon refined oil

1/2 gm wheat flour

0 salt as required

1 tablespoon ghee

How to make Til Poli

Step 1

Roast sesame seeds and dry coconut separately. Cool and powder coarsely. Dry roast gram flour till fragrant. Cool and mix with the powdered coconut and sesame seeds mixture.

Step 2

Add Jaggery and green cardamom powder and mix. Add one tablespoon of oil and mix well. Divide into twelve portions and roll into balls. Mix together maida, atta and salt. Heat the remaining oil and add to the flours and mix with your fingertips. Add sufficient water and knead into a firm dough.

Step 3

Cover with a damp cloth and rest the dough for fifteen minutes. Divide into twelve equal portions. Stuff each dough portion with the stuffing portion and roll into balls.

Step 4

Further carefully roll them out into chapattis, dusting with flour as required, taking care that the stuffing does not come out. Heat a nonstick tawa and roast the til polis on both the sides, drizzling a little ghee, till light brown specks appear. Serve hot and drizzled with a little ghee.