Patishapta pitha recipe – bengali kheer narkel nolen gurer patishapta pitha(pithe) recipe at home with step by step pictures. Patishapta is one of the most popular bengali sweets or dessertsin West Bengal and Bangladesh prepared at Makar Sankranti or Poush Parbon festival. It is basically a rolled-shaped rice flour pancake, stuffed with khoya(kheer)-coconut(nerkel)-sweet date palm jaggery(nolen gur) mixture flavored with ghee and cardamom. One of the common homemade Bengali pitha recipes prepared at every bengali home in West Bengal and Bangladesh to celebrate wintertime Makar Sankranti or Poush Parbon festival. This bengali pithe works out best if served with another common wintertime delicacy, khejur gur or date palm jaggery.
What is pithe or pitha in Bengali?
Pitha/pithe is a Bengali term that means traditional bengali sweets or desserts recipes prepared at home with rice flour and coconut. Sidho puli pitha, Dudh puli pitha, Bhapa puli pitha, Patishapta pitha are perfect examples of this sweet. Pitha is a wintertime Bengali sweet delicacy, specially made on the day of Makar Sankranti or bengali poush parbon festival at every home of Westbengal and Bangladesh. Poush is the bengali month for welcoming newly harvested rice(notun kata dhan). On the last day of this Bengali month, poush parbon festival is held due to the production of a good crop. That day, different sweets like Nolen gurer payesh, Choshir payesh and bengali pitha recipes are made inevery bengali home with thenewly harvested rice for worshippingGoddess Lakshmi. Not with the whole rice grains, rather ground rice grains made in a husk lever(dhenki) or in a grindstone(shilpata or shilnora) to make a fine powder of it. That homemade ground rice or dhenki ki te gurano chal or shil nora ba shil pata te bata chal er guro, a mixture of gratedcoconut/ narkel kora, and date palm jaggery(khejur er gur) are used together for making those sweet recipes.
Difference between pitha and pithe?
Like other bengali sweet and savory pitha recipes, this patishapta recipe was also invented in the land of Bangladesh, in the Indian pre-independence era. Though then Bengal was not parted away and today’s Bangladesh was then known as the East part of Bengal. Due to its Bangladeshi origin, patishapta is commonly known as “Pitha” among Bangladeshi people.Even the Bengalis who belong to Northeast and North Bengal(like Siliguri, Dinajpur, Assam) are originally from East Bengal and the Bengalis live close to the Bangladesh border also calls it pitha. Whereas Bengalis from West Bengal called this sweet as “Pithe”. So the only difference found between the two Bengals’ “Pitha and Pithe” in its names. However, there was no difference in taste.
Making patisapta is not a tough job if you know how to make its pancake. How the pancake will be soft, your patisapta will be more delicious in taste. Generally, the pancake can be made with a mixture of rice flour or maida, or suji, or even a perfect combination of these two or three. However, patishapta’s kheer-narkel-nolen gurer filling aka khoya-coconut-date palm jaggery mixed stuffing is easy to prepare. But for making its soft pancake with rice flour is the most challenging task of this recipe. But don’t worry, my step-by-step recipe will guide you to make it perfect. Even I will let you know how to make a super soft patisapta pitha at home in different ways.
Different ways of making patishapta’s batter
Method 1 : Super soft patisapta recipe with store bought rice flour –
Make patishapta’s batter withrice flour(chaler guro) and maida(plain all-purpose flour).That rice flour can be simply homemade or store-bought. The exact ratio of rice flour(1/2 cup) and maida(1 cup) can make it soft together. Though then first rice flour needs to soak in absolutely the same amount of water, mix it up well then soak the mixture in with another 1/2 cup of milk. Mix it well with 1/2 a cup of milk, make a lump-free batter and rest it for the next 15 mins. Then make a perfectly smooth & creamy batter got ready by blending milk and maida with soaked rice flour. Here the secret of this homemade sweet is how long the rice flour will be soaked in liquid(milk or water) makes a totally soft and fluffy crepe. Consistency of the batter also helps to make it soft, which should not be too thick or not too runny. As too thick batter will make the crepe hard whereas the too runny batter will make a soft crepe, that can be broken during rolling the pitha. That is you can easily make super soft patisapta pithe at home with store-bought rice flour too.
Method 2: Traditional way of making super soft patishapta with homemade rice flour-
At my home, my mom prepares this dish in a traditional way. She used to make this sweet with homemade rice flour, prepared with overnight soaked gobindo bhog rice(atop chal) and parboiled rice(sidhdho chal) with 1:1 ratio. On the next day morning, my mom ground the soaked rice by hand in a Shil Nora(Shil Batta) or grindstone. Then soak it in a perfect ratio of water or milk(dudh) for almost 6-7 hours or till the evening, then before making the patisapta, mom would check the consistency of the batter. If got too thick use a little more water or milk in the mixture as per the requirement. Just remind not too thick not too runny batter. As I described before. So you must have seen, long hours soaking of rice and its flour can only make a soft patishapta crepe. That is our grandma’s cooking tricks to make a soft rice flour patisapta at home.
Method 3: The most quick and easy way of making soft patishapta with suji & maida:
For making quick and easy patishapta recipes at home, need to make a pitha batter with maida(all-purpose flour) and suji(semolina). Just simply replace the rice flour with sooji as sooji will only make a little crunch made by rice flour, whereas maida will still keep it soft. Suji & maida ratio will be completely the same as the rice flour & maida ratio, I used in this recipe. Sujir patisapta is also delicious and super soft at the same time.
Method 4: Maida made soft simple patisapta:
Though people also simply make this crepe with only maida, that makes it soft but neither get the close taste nor a texture of the original patisapta. Even that maida-made crepe is quite close to “moida’r golaruti”(maida-based homemade soft savory pancake).
After long years in Bangalore, we never forget our origin, not even our Bengali tradition. So every year we celebrate poush parbon (or Makar Sankranti) festival at home by making our favorite bengali pitha like patisapta, dudh puli, bhaja pitha, Gokul pithe, chitoi pitha, and many more recipes. Among those recipes, patishapta is one of the favorite pithe of my entire family even my kid loves it too. Today I was making our bengali patisapta pitha recipe, thought of my next blog post, for the upcoming bengali poush parbon festival. I hope you all like it.
Try this patisapta pitha at home and write down your valuable feedback about this recipe in the comment section below.
Patishapta pitha recipe | bengali kheer narkel nolen gurer patishapta pitha(pithe) recipe step by step
Prep time: 25 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Served in: 55 mins
No. of servings: 7
Course: sweet or dessert
Cuisine: Bengali
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
1 cup=250 ml
For making batter
- 1/2 cup of Rice flour/ Chaler Guro
- 1/2 cup Water
- 1 cup of Maida or plain flour
- 1 cup Milk or dudh
- 4 tbsp crushed Patali gur or sugar(optional)
For making filling
- 1 cup grated Coconut/ Narkel kora
- 3/4 cup crushed Patali gur/ nolen gur/ khejur gur
- 1/2 cup Khoya kheer/mawa(in hindi)
- 3 tbsp Ghee
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder/ elach guro
Instruction
How to make patishapta pitha recipestep by step with pictures
Preparation of batter
- First, take 1/2 cup of rice flour(homemade/store bought) in a bowl and mix it with 1/2 cup of water.
- Stir the mixture for 2-3 mins to mix it well.
- Then mix 1/2 cup of milk with the rice flour mixture and stir it continuously to make a thin lump-free batter.
- Cover it and leave it for 15 mins
- After 15 mins of soaking, start to add 1 cup of maida or flour with this mixture in 2-3 batches.
- At this moment take 1/2 cup of more milk and start adding to the mixture until making a perfect batter with soaked rice flour and 1 cup of maida.
- Don’t stop stirring the batter in this stage as we need a smooth perfect batter(without any lump).
- The Batter should not be too runny or too thick, the consistency of this batter must be medium.
- Here I’ve divided the batter into two bowls, in one bowl I’ve added 2 tbsp of nolen gur or patali gur and stirred it well till the gur melts down. On the other bowl, I didn’t add anything.
- If you want to make the whole batter sweet, then add 4 tbsp gur or sugar to it and mix it well.
- Our pitha batter gets ready, now cover the two bowls for using it later.
Making of stuffing
- Place a pan on medium heat, add 2-3 tbsp ghee or clarified butter, then add 1 cup of grated coconut( narkel kora) to it. Sauté it for 1-2 mins.
- Then add 3/4 cup of crushed or grated patali gur or khejur gur to it. Mix it well.
- Cook the mixture, till the gur almost melts down.
- When the gur melts down then immediately add 1/2 cup of grated khoya kheer/Mawa to it and mix it nicely.
- Continuously stir the mixture. Instead of khoya, you may add dudher shor or malai too.
- When all ingredients are mixed with each other, then add 1/2 tsp of cardamom powder to the mixture. Mix well.
- This filling must not be dry, which means moisture should remain, so don’t cook it much, just do it as shown in the pic. Then turn off the heat. Pithe filling is ready.
Making of Bengali Patishapta Pitha
- Take a tawa or skillet, make it hot, and brush little ghee in it. Remove excess ghee with a paper towel. As shown in the pic.
- Use a round shape ladle to put the batter on the skillet and then start moving the ladle in a circular way to make a round-shaped pancake with it.
- After getting your desired shape of a pancake, let it cook.
- When the bubbles start appearing on the pancake and it starts to get dry.
- Then place the filling on the right side of the pancake and start to roll it out with the help of a spatula.
- After rolling out, brush the pancake with ghee(both sides) and little fry it from both sides for a maximum of 30-40 secs.
- Our favorite bengali patishapta pitha(patishapta pithe) is ready, serve this dessert hot or when comes to room temperature with nolen gur or khejur gur.
Tips about patishapta recipe
- You may use more or less gur in this recipe as per your requirement.
- If you feel the patisapta’s batter doesn’t reach your desired consistency, may mix 1-2 tbsp more milk for the best result. Do not use more than that.
- Water and milk should be at room temperature, don’t use hot water or hot milk for making the batter of this pithe.
- Maida or all purpose flour is a must-used ingredient of this batter as only rice flour will make the crepe too hard. Even it can get the crepe damaged while folding.
- Even you may use mashed apple or carrot(gajar)and atta instead of maida in this patisapta’s batter. That will make this recipe more healthy for your kid’s morning breakfast.
- Though originally patisapta’s stuffing is prepared with narkel kora(grated coconut) and gur(jaggery) mixture. Addition of khoya kheer just to make this filling more delicious. Though instead of khoya kheer, powdered milk or guro dudh or whole milk or condensed milk or malai or even dudh er shor also can be the best options to use with perfect mixing of coconut-date palm jaggery filling. Though you can use desiccated coconut instead fresh one.
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