Kayi(Kannada), Narlu(Konkani) means coconut. Obbattu(Kannada), ubbatti(Konkani) – a kind of sweet roti, is very popular in Karnataka. I have tasted it many times at different places, but the best among them was my friend Poornima‘s obbattus. They make this at many festivals. She used to bring these in her lunchboxes and I simply loved them.
Few days back when I was reading my Kannada magazine collection, I found a recipe for this dish. The recipe looked a little elaborate to me. So I didn’t give it a try. Then while talking to Poornima few days back, she mentioned that I haven’t posted this recipe. She gave me recipe but somehow I was very lazy to try this.
Yesterday when I was posting a recipe for JFI coconut here, I realised I could have sent this recipe to the event. So I tried it immediately and it turned out to be great. My husband’s comment on this, “This is the best sweetdish you have ever prepared”. Within minutes, all the obbattus were gone :).
The outer wrap came out very crispy and tasty. I used very little oil. The poppy seeds (khus khus) gives a very distinct taste to this dish. I made them very very thin. I din’t use rolling pin, instead just rolled them with hand, so I could make them real thin.The outer wrap needs to be kept for atleast 2 hrs but I left it for around 15-20mins, still it came out very well.
This is a very simple recipe, I want all of you to try this atleast once, because they are too good to miss. Even those who don’t like coconut, can try this because it has a very distinct poppy seed taste which is just superb.
My Aayi’s version does not have poppy seed in it. Both versions are equally good, but the poppy seed gives a very different taste to it.
This is my entry to Ashwini’s JFI coconut. See Manjula’s recipe of this dish. See puran poli recipe which is similar to this but has a different stuffing.
Ingredients for KaNaka (outer wrap):
3/4 cup all purpose flour or maida
3/4 cup chiroti rava(wheat sooji)
A pinch salt
1 tbl spn oil
Method:
Mix flour, rava, salt with water to make a soft dough(Do not make the dough very hard). Now add oil and mix well. Leave this dough for around 1-2hrs. When you try to roll this dough into a small puri with hand, it sould not break, if it breaks, the dough might be too hard/dry.
Ingredients for HooraNa (stuffing):
1 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup poppy seeds(khus khus)
1 cup jaggery
1/4 tea spn cardamom powder(optional)
1 tea spn ghee
Increase or decrease the jaggery according to taste.
Method:
Squeeze the coconut by hand to remove any moisture/juice out of it (you can skip this for frozen coconut). Heat ghee and fry coconut for around 5mins on a medium heat till it becomes dry. Now add the jaggery and mix till the jaggery is melted and well mixed with coconut. Switch off the heat.
Now grind this mixture to a coarse powder.
Roast poppy seeds on a medium flame till a nice aroma comes out of it. Mix this with powdered jaggery-coconut and cardamom. Mix with hand.
Procedure to make obbattu:
Make a big ball of stuffing. Take a small ball (almost 1/2 to 3/4th size of stuffing, don’t make the outer wrap too big) of outer wrap.
Apply ghee to a plastic paper. Fold it into half and keep the wrap ball on one half. With the fingers, spread into a small puri size.
Keep the stuffing on it and wrap the wrapper around stuffing.
Close the second half of plastic paper over it.
Press on the paper till the ball becomes a big thin circle.
Heat a tava and fry the obbattu on both sides. Apply some ghee to it while frying to make it very crispy(they puff like puris while frying).
Makes 5-6 obbattus
Preparation time : 30mins
I have eaten this, at my neighbours place, but my mom never made this version. Need to try this. Have pur fresh coconut just yesterday and long vacation too. Thanks for posting a different ubati. Will let you know the results/outcome in a day or two.
Wow! You have so many coconut recipes going on…
I thought we, keralites, have the best coconut recipes. Boy, was I wrong? With all those jaggery and sesame seeds, this sounds very delious.
Do you serve it as a snack? or a dessert after the meals?
One of my fav desserts, looks very good!
Happy NewYear.
Madhavi.
Wishing peace, health, and happiness in 2007 and always. Happy New year to you and your family !
Wishing you a Very Happy New Year 2007 !!!
Hi Shilpa
A very happy new year to you and your family. Great recipe. I have tried this recipe before, but it never came out right and I have always wondered how they may the holige paper thin and soft. Thanks a lot for the demonstration. I hope I get it right this time when I try it.
Mamta
Hello Shilpa,
What is chiroti rava? Is it upma rava or is it something different. Your recipe is too tempting and I want to try it ASAP. Please let me know. Wishing you a wonderful and happy new year.
Ramya, use any fine rava. I used upma rava which was fine consistency for this.
Hi shilpa!!!
Happy new year to u all!!!
Nice recipe as usuall!!
I just want to know if we cam substitute maida with atta like in puranpoli??
Bye!!!!
hi shilpa,
great recipe.is there any other alternative way for using jaggery, as the jaggery i get here has little stone and mud. pls. do clarify this.thankyou.
Hi Shilpa,you always have such unique recipes here!I will definitely try this one.My mouth is already watering!:)
Rochin, the outer wrap for this is exactly same as puran poli. There also we use maida. But if you have tried it with some other atta, you can follow the same for this recipe also. Let me know if you try it with any other atta.
Rathi, you can use sugar instead of jaggery. But jaggery has a very different taste which will be absent if you use sugar.
Thanks Vini. This tastes just superb, I am sure u will love this.
hi shilpa, can i make jaggery syrup [in order to filter the sand and dust] and mix with the coconut powder?.will it turn out well?.
Rathi, yes you can do that. I think it will come out good.
Shilpa:
I just love kai holige dear and always how do they actually make them. I tried out one or two recipes as well but somehow they didn’t turn out as good. Will definately try out your version and let you know
Thank you so much buddy
Seema
Hi shilpa !!!
In traditional maharashtrian puranpoli, we don’t use rava and we use maida only if wheat flour does not have proper elasticity. I will try this recipe with wheat flour and let u know!!!
Bye!!!
Shilpa,
I love Kayi Holige, but never found a good recipe. But now, with your demonstration, I can make it on my own…Thank you so much for the recipe…
Have you tried sukurune. It is a typically Karwari dish made of maida covering and cooked whole moong with jaggery and cashewnuts inside. Your recipe is mouthwatering as I am an undying fan of coconut recipes.
Shipa,
Thanks for the mouthwatering Kayi holige recipe. Have a question please clarify.
Should the jaggery be melted on the stove or after frying the cocnut, remove from the stove & add the jaggery ????
“Heat ghee and fry coconut for around 5mins on a medium heat till it becomes dry. Now add the jaggery and mix till the jaggery is melted and well mixed with coconut.”
Thanks,
Aruna
Aruna, the jaggery should be heated with coconut so that it melts. Once a uniform mixture is formed, switch off the heat.
i am gonna try this too.
i am gonna try this too.
Hi,
I am going to try it and make my husband happy.
hi shilpa,
I liked your kaayi holige recipe very much!
i searched for it everywhere but didn’t get good one!
this is great!liked it!
hi shilpa,
the kaayi holige came out well. Thx. But it was different from what my grand mom used to make. The same recipe without poppyseeds might be better.
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i prepared chiroti, it came very nice daily i am preparing new recipes from this website thanks.
suma says,
thank u shilpa, now i am a big cooker
i can make delicious food from u r recipes
Hey Shilpa..thks for expanding my knowledge..always thought that Ubbatti is only puran poli in konkani..didn’t know that sweet rotis are called ubbattis!! I hv developed a very sweet tooth suddenly-you may say..:D..just posted mysore pak which I made twice over from AR.This ‘Ubbati’ is in pipeline..;)
I need to buy these obbattu for an occasion – is there somebody who can prepare and mail to me – I am in East Coast of USA.
I have tried this with ur recipe,it turned out very good.
Thank you
I tried obbatu it is nice.please give reciepy formysorepak
Shilpa: Its already on the site under sweets
I like kaiholige verymuch.I satisfied with aayi reciep
please can u give reciep for neer dosa
Shilpa: It is on the site with name “soyi polo” under dosa corner
Very good recipe.I like this sweet dish but I haven’t prepare yet. Thank you very much.
Hi Shilpa,
Ever since I got your recipe for Pineapple shira, I have indeed become a great fan of your’s.
And what ever dishes I have tried out till now have come out very well. Whenever I make something delicious, my husband asks “Courtesy Aayi’s recipe?”
I indeed admire your crafts too, about which I will write to you later.
Now, yesterday I was trying out Coconut Roti, but it did not come out soft. I have followed whatever steps that you have mentioned.
After I fried coconut dry and mixed well till jaggery melted, I switched off burner and kept the pan down. Now, my question is should I
immediately put it in mixer to make a coarse powder or should wait till the mixture comes to room temp. I waited till the mixture got cooled down. And then tried to get powder, but I couldnt get coarse powder. It got very dry and hard. So, though I was able to make obbattu, which were tasting good,but it was hard to roll them. And also to eat 🙂
Please tell me how to get soft stuffing.
Thanks & Warm Regards,
Shashi
Shilpa: Shashi, I guess the jaggery was cooked for long which made it hard. So next time, do not cook it for long. Remove from heat once the mixture heats up a bit. The mixture is heated to make a uniform mixture only.
You have a phenomenal blog. I am from Mysore but left India as a teenager. I absolutely love your detailed recipes and mouthwatering pictures. Thanks for inspiring people like me who love to experiment with new recipes!
my husband wanted this for ugadi.i found your recipe at exact time.
i tried it today,but i think i over heated the stuffings.it has become hard.no moisture in it.if i break it ,it becomes a dry powdr like.so can i continue doing obettu wth same stuffing,will it come out well?
hi here in dubai poppy seeds are not available.can it will b tasty witout this ingredient?
Shilpa: You can leave it out and make it. It tastes great without the seeds too.
Dear Mam,
Yesterday i tried the recipe of Coconut Obbattu, but as per ur ingredients 1:1 proportionate we used coconut & jaggery. the stuffing was very liquid and unable to make the roti thin it was very thick and while cooking the jaggery started to melt out of the outer layer.
Can u please provide us the correct detail how to prepare thin and soft Coconut Obbattu.
Thanks in advance.
Bye,
Jayalakshmi
Shilpa: The proportions I have mentioned are right. You could have heated it a bit to get it to thicken.
Yesterday was Narial Purnima, hence we thought of making some dish out of Coconut. So I choose this, We prepared with a single coconut and made 7 polis. The aroma of poppy seeds was simply celestial. Thanks and the credit goes to u.
This looks like a delicious recipe! I just have one question, it looks like your khus khus is white…I have only every seen blueish-black. Do you know if the taste will be the same with black khus khus? Is there any special name I could ask for if I was looking for the white one at my local Desi store?
Thanks,
Rangoli
Sorry, I don’t know what is bluish black khus khus, I have always used this khus khus. It is called poppy seed/khus khus in Indian stores.
I have one doubt ,in this reciepe ,whether the sooji want to add rawly are the sooji want to soak for 5-10minutes.Kindly clear my doubt
No soaking, just roast them and then add
shilpa your having a great blog nd some great recipes. Thanks for all yr recipes
for the kayi holige, can i use butter paper instead of plastic pls give yr suggestion
You can use anything that helps in rolling.
wow, nice receipe, super
Grinding the jaggery mixed with kayi is a new step for me. Should try it. Thanx for the recipe
It was amazing …one of my friend prepared obattu from this recepie….i loved it,,i am also going to prepare it
Hi.. I loved this dish…. I had no idea all these how to prepare….after reading the procedure i got it!!!
i m gonna prepare this weekend and will let u know the outcome..
Thanks !!!!
I have been trying to find this recipe for past two days and finely i found yours.
Iam going to try this and let you know.
Thanks
Does anyone know if we can buy Kayi holige in United States. We are basically looking for someone who can prepare and ship this for a Indian cultural festival in west coast.
Hi Shilpa,
Thanks for this recipe, last time I tried to do (not as u said, in other way)but it did’t came out well. So, I was in search of gud blog for this recipe I found yours,I tried today just now, it came out well I am very happy. Thankfull to you.And keep posting recipes.
Thanks, U MADE MY DAY.