A special occasion dessert, these pooris or sweet empanadas are a social affair. Ladies love to gather, knead the dough and make the fillings. When it’s time to assemble, the dough is carefully cut it into equal sized pieces, a couple of them sit down and roll out the dough, one or two people are incharge of filling them and once a sufficient number have been made, ome person heads over to the stove to deep fry them. I loved the poori making time since my childhood, and as a little girl would always join in with my little toy girda Brian (board and rolling pin) to do my favourite part of this production line like undertaking – the rolling out the dough into little circles, trying to perfect every single one of them into a neat round. The most boring part for me was filling and even today I make sure to avoid it and delegate to seemingly equally unwilling participants.
The most common types are pooran poori ( filled with a sweet paste of lentils and sugar / jaggery ) , chobay ki poori ( filled with a sweet mix of grated dry coconut and nuts) and khoway ki poori ( filled with a mix of milk solids and nuts).


The dough is the same for all and typically two or three of these types are made in one sitting and are served as is or usually with chawal ki kheer.

Prep Time | 1 hour |
Cook Time | 5 minutes |
Servings |
empanadas
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- 3/4 Cup Maida (plaim flour)
- 1/2 Cup whole wheat flour
- 1 Tsp salt
- 1-2 Tbsp Ghee
- 1/2 Cup milk Or more as required
- 1 Cup Chana Daal (split Bengal gram) Washed and saoked
- 1/2 Cup Jaggery
- 2-3 Tbsp Ghee
- 1 Stick Cinnamon
- 2 Tsp Cardamom powder
- 2 Halves Dried coconut
- 3 Tbsp Sliced blanched almonds
- 3 Tbsp Sliced blanched pistachios
- 1/4 Cup Granulated sugar
- 1/2 Cup Sweetened milk solids (Can use mithai like khalakhand or food peda)
- 4 Tbsp Cashew powder
- 4 Tbsp Almond powder
Ingredients
For the dough
For the pooran
For the choba
For the khowa
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- To make the dough. Mix the dry ingredients well first then add the ghee and gradually the milk. knead into a smooth dough.it should be not very soft. A bit hard and pliable. You can adjust the amount if milk used accordingly. Let it rest covered for about 15 minutes
- To make the pooran, pressure cook the daal until super soft. Uncover the cooker and cook off all the water before mashing. Let it cool and then grind it with the battery. Heat ghee, add in the cinnamon and the cardamom and fry for a few seconds. Add in the daal paste and cook stirring for about five minutes until the oil separates. Let it cool. It will harden on cooling and become like a soft dough. This pooran is now ready for filling.
- For the chobay, mix all the ingredients. Make sure the slides nuts are dry. Adjust the sugar as per Your taste.
- For the khowa filling, crumble the dried milk solids and mix in the nut powders. You can adjust the quantities as per Your taste
- Take about half the dough and roll it out into a smooth log. Using a sharp knife cut this log into equal sized pieces according to the size you prefer. About 5 large sized would do for the amount listed.
- Using dry flour for dusting roll it out into a smooth circle about 3-4 mm thick.
- Place a spoonful of more of your choice of filling in the centre. Moisten the edges with water and fold it over. Seal the edges thoroughly and pinch it lightly to seal and also to give a pretty shape to the edge. Let these air dry for some time before frying
- Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.
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