Kerala Boli

Boli is a sweet delicacy which always brings sweet memories of my childhood; that of me and my brothers having packet-fulls of this. I could never stop at one or two; my minimum always is 5. And still whenever I am at my parent's place, my mom sees to it that there is enough of boli on the table to satisfy my craving. Though I like this so much, I had never tried making this myself since we always could get good quality ones in Kerala; even though I make a good Obattu/Pooranpoli,a close relative of boli. As the last time I had boli was about 6 months back during my last trip to India, I was really craving for some nice,soft and yummy boli. So I decided to give this a try and here is the result for all to see.

One mistake I made was that I made the balls a little too big; and as my skillet was not that big, I couldn't really go for the thinnest boli possible, even though the dough turned out to be so stretchable that I could have made these bolies much more thinner than it turned out to be. Yet it was so soft and yummy not just the same day, but even after a day.

Ingredients:
Chana Dal (split black-chickpeas) - 2 cups
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup (or to individual taste)
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Gingilly oil - 1/2 cup
Cardamom (powdered) - 3/4 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

In a mixing bowl add all purpose flour, ghee, salt and oil; add water slowly while mixing and kneading to make a soft dough.  The dough should be soft and almost like slipping through your fingers. Cover and set dough aside for at least ten minutes.

Cook the dal in 3 cups of water till about 3/4 th done. Drain the water and puree this. Put this in a thick bottom vessel and add  the sugar and cook till it becomes dry. Now add cardomom to this and once it has cooled down, make small balls the size of a small lime with this paste.
Make the dough into small balls (equal in number as above).  Take the dough ball in your hand and spread it with your fingers to form a disc. Now put the dal ball in the middle and seal the edges by wrapping the dough around to form a ball. Now roll this ball to a circle (the thinnest you can), using a rolling pin, and sprinkling enough of all purpose flour so that the dough doesn't stick. Cook this on a skillet, heated to medium heat, on either side, just like you make roti or chapatti.
Serve a such or along with payasam.
Sending this to Kerala Kitchen hosted by Kaveri 

and to Kid's Delight :Something Sweet an event by Srivalli hosted by Kavi