How to make soft and puffed puris
Who doesn’t like to make soft and puffed puris? Here are few tips which can be followed to make perfect puris. Follow any one of them most suitable for you.
- Puri dough should be made little harder than chapathi dough. This prevents puri from retaining more oil when it is deep fried. Also once dough is prepared, make the puris immediately. I always follow this method and they always turn out perfect. They don’t even soak any oil.
- Do not stack the puris one above the other after rolling them (before frying).
- Mix 1 cup of milk and 1-2 tea spns of sooji(rava) with wheat flour while making the puri dough. Keep the dough aside for sometime. Make puris.
- Mix a little sugar and rice flour with wheat flour while preparing the dough. Make puris.
- Prepare puri dough with milk instead of water. Make puris.
- Add one or two drops of red vinegar to oil while frying puris.
Please click here for detailed puri tutorial.
Thats a useful tips shilpa… mom use to say that if the dough of poori is kneaded with milk it puff’s and remains soft..Thanks for sharing shilpa..
Hey Shilpa,
I used to add a little Sooji/Rava to the dough, as you have mentioned. The Puris used to come out well then. Nowadays, I don’t fry too often.
Thank u very much for the neat tips.
Oh, I should try one of these.
What if i make poories only with rava/ sooji and dont use any other flour, will the poories turn out soft or not ?
And is their any alternative to red vinegar?
Thanks for the useful tips
Thanks all.
.
Cinnamon, Usually puris are made of wheat flour, So do not try making them with only rava/sooji. I haven’t used the vinegar for making them soft, because sooji/milk. The vinegar tip is taken from a book, so I have no idea if any other Vinegar is useful in this matter
Cinnamon,
You can make pooris with only sooji. i make them often. They remain puffed for a long time. However, you have to use milk to make the dough otherwise your pooris will be hard if not eaten hot. Soojis make attractive white pooris.
i have several laws. and my puris are perfect everytime.
1. use wheat flour only, no maida
2. mix in oil or ghee along with salt
3 make the doughreally stiff.
4. rest for a little while, not too long maybe 20 mins. then knead abit again, till smooth.
5. roll out as even as you can.
dont use flour on the board to prevent sticking. use a drop of oil on the flour ball instead. it will work and your oil will remail clear with no residue.
i first roll out a batch and store them on paper.
6. use oil that is quite hot, almost smoking. the puri shd bubble and rise to the surface.
7. use a long handles fork or spoon to gently keep ducking the puri into the hot oil, so it puffs and then carefully turn over and remove.
8. make sure the oil heats up again before the next one, so wait for a second or more.i use a small kadai and make them one by one.
Dear Shilpa,
I like the way you share your recipes with others. May I share my recipe with you.
Many of my friends have taken my puri recipe after having eating them. THe process looks lengthy, but I have only tried to explain it clearly, the way i do it. Hope it helps you.
2 cups – wheat flour
1 tsp – milk powder
1/2 tsp sugar (optional)
1/4 tsp salt
[can add 1/2 whole cumin seeds + 1/4 tsp asafoetida too. I add when I have guests coming.. it is simply tasty].
Mix all the above dry ingredients. Then add normal plain water (about 3/4 to 1 cup) to make a dough which is stiff but at the same time if a bit of it is taken and rolled, then u should get a good textured ball).
Heat the oil only now. Medium flame to high flame. WHile the oil heats, form balls of the puri dough and keep the balls in a closed vessel or under a damp cloth (to prevent drying up). Take a ball, flatten it on your palm, dip in the oil… and roll out to a little thick round (too thin rounds will make hard puris). Since we are using oil to dip and roll out, these rolled puris can be kept partially one on another. (i keep them on the damp cloth with which I cover the puri balls). After about 10 puris rolled out, start frying them. Place your hand about 6 inches above the hot oil… if you feel the heat hot but manageable, then the oil heat is perfect. Drop a puri into the oil in such a way that it is well immersed. Using a perforated laddle, press on the puri softly, so as to make them puff up.. then turn .. wait a few seconds, then pick them out. Spread them on a sheet of spread newspaper on which a layer of kitchen tissue is spread. After the first batch of 10 puris are made, lower the flame to the lowest, and prepare the next batch.
Thanks for sharing Anila. I will try them sometime and give the feedback
i was waiting for these kind of puries. thanks a lot for ur tips. dont worry- it is not lengthy.
Hi..
Thanks a lot for the tips above.. i shall try them all….
Nice tips…I feel like eating poories now…!!!
Hi Shilpa,
i liked ur home page where ur aai-baaba are in the snap! my amma too is a good cook and so r my mhaves (3 of them) and dad’s sides pacchi (his bro. wife)
tks for ur puri tips…i m abt to make it…and btw..do u need paanak recipe as i saw it in ur recipe request..i hv roots frm mulki, my moms place and dad frm Karkala…am myself born and brought up in bombay but visited native in vacations and especially during Ram Navmi (where the yummy bajjo,paanak was more inviting) i m currently in Kuwait wt husband and two kids who r fond of new recipes…so i too try my hand at all recipes
i want to share wt u and readers a microwave pedha recipe which turned out very well…i took ref. frm net only though..
ingr : one cup condensed milk
one cup whole milk powder
two tbsp rose essence
two tbsp ghee/ unsalted butter
pistachios chopped to garnish
tip: keep the ratio of cond.milk and milk powder 1:1
method :mix ghee,m.powder,cond.milk,rose essence in a microwave safe caserole,mix well wt a spoon till lumps vanish..microwave on high power, 4 mins,
take it out, mix well again, wait for 5 mins then microwave again for 2 mins. bring it out, mix again and then for 1 minute and let it cool. say in half an our or so , once it cools makes pedhas, and garnish wt pistas… note..these pedhas taste well after one day as the taste forms well! bon apetite!!
all the best to you shilpa…
keep in touch if possible…
purnima.
Shilpa: Thanks for the recipe Purnima. I have posted the panak recipe here but I forgot to update the comment with link.
Hi again Shilpa..
but i m sure ur gr8 tips wd b of great use to me.. and there is a correction in my pedha recipe… its one tsp rose essence or two tbsp rose syrup! sorry for the trouble ..kindly mend it if u r going to make them..
tku veryyyyyyy much for ur puri tips..they turned out to b a hit …my both kids loved it, so did my husband,and he kept asking me the secret of puffy and oilfree puris!!! next try wd b chappati and phulkas..believe me i hv been trying my hand at soft chapatis and managed to get soft dough..later on tava it gets spoilt..either too hard or it doesnt get roasted properly!
have a great day and keep up the good work …very very precious site for me!
love purnima.
very useful and helpful.
Hi Shilpa, Thanks for sharing tips about pooris. I have trouble kneeding dough. Have you tried a food processor? Would it be the same quantities of water or milk and other ingredients or do you need to make ajustments if you mix the dough in the food processor? Thanks for your help.
Shilpa: Sorry Gowtami, I never used food processor for kneading any kind of dough. I think you should try the same quantities, because if you use more or less, the puris won’t come out well.
Anila,you have come up with a unique method of making puris .It’s simple and gives remarkeble results.Would you please suggest a similar one for parathas.
Shilpa: Here is a detailed description for making chapathis/phulkas, some more parathas
Promiti, here’s what I do for tasty parathas:
Soft parathas (good for packed lunch):
Ingr: 2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
salt to taste
milk
Method:
Stage-1: Mix the flour and salt. Make a well, into which you pour the milk slowly and keep mixing the flour at the same time. This way you get a consistent dough. Once the dough is of rubbery soft consistency, stop adding any more milk. Now add the oil and knead the dough once again. Keep it covered with a damp muslin cloth for at least 15 minutes.
Stage-2: Make balls out of the dough such that each ball is of approx. 2.5″ diameter. Every ball to be rolled as follows:
1) Flatten a ball and roll it to a 5″ diameter pancake. Add 1-2 drops of oil and spread it on the surface.
2) Fold the pancake to a semicircle. Add a drop of oil, spread it on the surface and again fold it (to a quarter circle shape)
3) Dip the pancake into dry flour and lightly roll it with a rolling pin to a triangular shape of around 7″ width. Make sure that you do not press the rolling pin too hard on the dough while rolling.
4) While roasting the paratha on a tava, you need’nt add too much oil. Just drizzle half teaspoon oil around the paratha and roast on both sides. You will find the inner folds puffing up nicely
5) Line your casserole/dabba with tissue papers before stacking the hot parathas and cover the topmost paratha with another tissue before covering the casserole/dabba. This will absorb the condensed heat and not make the parathas soggy.
For crisp parathas (that are to be had immediately): Replace oil with ghee and proceed as above. Ghee tends to crispen the flour. Also, slow roast each paratha on the tava and add a little bit more ghee per paratha.
Hi shilpa,
Your tips are really good…
I have tried making puris a couple of times before and it never turned out to be soft or fluffy…..this time i tried using your tips and woow….it was fluffy and soft…i am really happy with the way my puris came out….
thanks a loot
Hi, I really appreciate the painstaking efforts you have taken to keep your site updated. I am a foodie and really drool over food sites. I also manage to make some new dishes from time to time but I hate to spend hours in the kitchen. I plan to try out your date cake and Banana cake. Shall let u know how they come out
I need a good recipe for making homemade naans
Hi,
I m currently with my wife in Ireland and I have taken charge of the kitchen and I can cook (Ok….). I like to know if we can make puri’s with plain flour( avaliable in any store in Ireland) unless we go to an Indian shop(not in our town). Can I add the great tips given by Shilpa with plain flour too. Pls let us know. Thank you. Enjoy Eating to all.
Shilpa: Yes you can. But plain flour is not as good as wheat flour for health.
You should have the recipes in procedure format so that it easy for one to make it.
Hai Shilpa,
Many many thanks for your tips regarding making puris…I followed all your steps…and could improve a lot in making puris..But I still have a doubt regarding to what thickness should I spread my pooris to get all my puris uniformly fluffy…???
thanks for the tips shilpa .
Hai Shilpa,
Thank you very much for the contributions you are making for the food loving Indians.
I am in USA and my kids are born and brought up here. I have two sons. Me, my wife and kids all have different food tastes. The only food all our family like is the fluffy poori. The next most popular item is Kentucky Fried Chicken which all the “men” in my family enjoy( my wife do not like it).Can you tell us the receipie for “Bhaji” which goes with poori? Is their any no-veg curry in place of bhaji could be used with poori? I greatly apriciate If you could be specific on the messurements on grams,liters,milliliters, or centigrade. On meassuring units, USA is still in the 19th century;still pound,gallons,ounces,foot and miles are used here. One I get standard metric quantitiy, I can convert to local “legendary” FPS system. Thanks in advance…
Shilpa: There is a chutnis and bhajis section on this site, Please check out.
I have to try this. Normally my mum uses water while making the poori dough. Thanks anyway. :-* Love ya.
But the poori still turned out very well.
Its ok, just use milk la.