Halwa Poori is a traditional Bangalore dish, popularly made by Muslim families specially during weddings. During a wedding, a no. of food items go from the Bride’s side to the Groom’s side, which also includes Halwa Poori. There are also numerous occasions when they are made at home, but they kind of always need a special reason. I have no idea where the tradition came from, but it does have a little Mughlai influence and that’s why the traditions are carried on by Muslim families.
The reason probably is also because it a tedious job making them, requires time and effort and usually made in a large batch too. When made, its always distributed among relatives, friends and neighbors. When I first saw Halwa Poori, it reminded me of Diwali Gujiya and honestly I have never been a fan of Gujiya. I always found them too coconuty and I also felt that it was always too dry and the dry coconut would start falling out if not careful. I also felt that if there was something that was nicer, softer and sweeter and Halwa Poori seemed to be a perfect answer to it.
Halwa is made of Chana daal, coconut, Khoya, Milk and sugar cooked together in ghee/ Oil. The poori is made from All purpose flour. The halwa is filled in the poori and then sealed and fried. The traditional recipe is great and awesome if you are serving a large no. of people in a day or two. After that they kind of get a little mushy unless you keep them in a perfect airtight container.
Initially when I started making Halwa Poori, t was hard to make them for just the two of us, Mr. Parveez and me. Making 10 would be more than enough and would last us more than a week and usually by day 2 we would be dead bored and didn’t feel like eating more. So, this is when I felt that the Halwa poori needs a twist and I changed it to halwa Puff Pastry. The good thing about that is that I can always make the dough for puff pastry and keep it in my freezer. And, for the Halwa, I can make and refrigerate it for up to 15-20 days. This way we make the puff pastry whenever we want, eat them warm and fresh and we can also use the Halwa as just halwa minus the poori or puff pastry.
I hope you enjoy making this as much I do..Its definitely a great recipe.
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 90 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 cups Chana daal
- 1.5 cups coconut Fresh, cut to pieces
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup Khoya Powder You can also use 1/2 cup Khoya if powder isn't available
- 1.5 cups granulated Sugar More or less according to your taste
- 4 tbsp Ghee
- 1 No. Cinnamon stick
- 2 No. cloves
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg powder
- 1 No. Puff pastry dough shaped and cut to small rectangles
Ingredients
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- Wash and soak the daal for 2 hours.
- Boil the daal till its soft and mushy. Puree the daal.
- Cut the coconut to small pieces.
- Add coconut and milk in a blender.
- Add the milk powder to the blender too.
- Blend everything well till it makes a perfect puree.
- Add ghee to a pan. Add cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom powder to the ghee.
- After 1 minute, add the pureed daal. Cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the coconut and milk puree. Keep cooking for 10 -15 minutes till it gets a little thicker.
- Add nutmeg powder.
- Add sugar too.
- Keep stirring on low to medium flame till all the water evaporates and the halwa becomes thick.
- In the end, the consistency should be thick and grainy. Time to reach this stage should take around 20-25 minutes of constant stirring. Put the halwa aside to cool down.
- Turn the oven to 350F Roll the puff pastry out to squares or rectangles
- Seal them like a pocket. Put the pastries in the oven for 15-20 minutes.
- Serve warm
