Dudh puli pitha recipe step by step – Dudh puli is a traditional bengali pithe or pitha and Makar Sankranti or poush sankranti(in Bengal) is the best time to make it at home. Bengali style Dudh puli means half-moon shaped stuffed rice cake or dumpling cooked in dudh or milk. In this bengali dudh puli recipe sweet coconut-jaggery stuffed rice cake or dumpling is cooked in jaggery mixed milk. But it’s not that common jaggery rather it’s a winter special bengali date palm jaggery knowns as nolen gur or notun khejur gur in bengali.
Almost everywhere in India which is called Makar Sankranti only Bengalis call it as poush sankranti. Makar Sankranti or poush sankranti(or poush parbon) is the last day of bengali “poush” month. When different sweet recipes mainly Nolen gurer payesh, Choshir payesh and different pitha or pithe like Patishapta, Dudh puli, sidho puli pithe, chitoi pithe is made with newly harvested rice and date palm jaggery for worshipping goddess Laxmi. The main ingredient of this Makar Sankranti special bengali dudh puli pitha is rice flour, coconut, khejur gur(patali gur) or date palm jaggery and milk. Most of the pithe(pitha) pulis are similarly popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh, this dudh puli pithe is one of them. Whereas bengali from west bengali call it doodh puli pithe and in Bangladesh, Assam, and Orissa call this recipe as dudh puli pitha.
How to make doodh puli pithe or pitha so soft after cooking it in milk?
Here are some tricks to make this doodh puli pithe so soft. Traditionally rice flour is used for making the cover of this dumpling or pithe. Rice flour is a tendency to make things hard if boiled. After using rice flour if the cover pithe or pitha gets hard then it won’t be eatable. And our super talented grandmas’ found out the easy solution to make it super soft.
- The first condition is, whenever you’re making bhapa(steamed) pithe or dudh puli, you must knead the rice flour with bubbling hot water.
- And secondly, the cover or pithar khol(in bengali language) must be so thin. Which I’ve learned from my mom which she has learned from my grandma.
My mom says people use different tricks for preventing this doodh puli from getting hard.
- People use half rice flour and all-purpose flour or suji.
- Even some adds boiled and mashed sweet potatoes with rice flour for making a softcover of dudh puli.
You may apply these theories but I prefer to follow the traditional recipe, not the sujir or moidar or misti alur dudh puli. Even for making bengali bhapa puli pithe, you can use half of this recipe then steam the puli pitha instead of putting it into the doodh.
How to make quick and easy sujir dudh puli recipe at home?
But if you are a beginner or just to make an easy but super soft doodh puli pithe then make the dough with maida sujir combination. Where suji must be half of maida and you need to soak the suji in mildly hot water for 20 mins. Then prepare a soft dough with maida and soaked suji with lukewarm water. And the rest of the process is the same as my mine though instead of using coconut you may use kheer as the stuffing of this puli pithe. Though tastewise it’s different from our traditional rice flour doodh puli.
What is doodh pithi recipe, is it similar to this bengali style doodh puli pitha?
No, doodh pithi and bengali doodh puli pitha recipe are not the same. Rather doodh pithi is the same as our one more traditional recipe Bengali chusi or choshi pitha. Pithi is basically made from rice flour or maida and later cooked in doodh and I’ll describe the same while introduce my chusi or choshi pitha recipe.
Here I made the stuffing of this puli pitha with grated coconut, date palm jaggery or khejur gur and dudh, even you may use only kheer and sugar or gur as stuffing.
since my childhood, I’ve seen my mom used to soak the rice one day before poush sankranti and ground it on the same day. Then spread the grounded rice flour on papers to make it dry that she could use it on the very next day for making all pithe or pithas. From the next day evening, she started making the pithe and payesh and first serve it to goddess Laxmi. And that day we generally complete our dinner with dudh pithe, bhapa pithe or puli pithe, chitoi pitha, Gokul pithe and nolen gurer payesh. Those wonderful days still alive in my memory with those great recipes.
My husband and I love traditional pitha recipes. Apart from this Doodh puli, patishapta, mug daler vaja puli pitha all are common pithe recipes in my kitchen in winter. Though Makar Sankranti or poush sankranti is the ideal time for making pithe I prepare such pitha recipes whenever I wish to have it. As I told you before I kept the khejur gurer patali and liquid nolen gur in my freezer.
Make this Makar Sankranti or Poush sankranti special super soft pithe or pitha bengali dudh puli recipe at home. After trying let me know your valuable comment about thispoush sankranti or Makar Sankranti special sweet by writing it down in the comment section below.
Dudh puli recipe
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 1 hr 10mins
Total time: 1 hr 30mins
Servings: 16 people
Course: Sweet dish
Cuisine: Bengali
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
For making rice dough
- 1 cup of rice flour
- 1 1/4 cup of water
- 1/4 tsp salt
For making coconut stuffing
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 1/2 cup grated or crushed patali gur
- 1/4 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 tsp ghee
For preparing the dudh or doodh
- 1 lit milk
- 3 green cardamom(crushed)
- 1 cup patali gur
How to make dudh puli pitha recipe step by step
Instructions
Prepare the coconut stuffing
- Take a pan with 1 cup of freshly grated coconut, sauté it for 2 mins.
- Then add grated or crushed patali gur or date palm jaggery with sautéed coconut. Mix it well.
- Just after 2 mins of continuous stirring, add milk to it. Cook it till the milk totally soaked by the coconut and jaggery mix.
- Then add ghee and cardamom powder to it and mix well.
- When the moisture almost evaporates then turn off the heat. Let it completely cool down.
Prepare the cover of puli pitha
- First, start boiling 1+1/4 cups of water with 1/4 tsp of salt on a high flame.
- once the water starts boiling, slow down the flame to its minimum and add 1 cup of rice flour to it with continuous stirring. Switch off the flame immediately.
- Take a mixing bowl and immediately start kneading the dough.
- First, do the mixing with a spatula and then use your hand(carefully as it’s hot) to make a soft and smooth dough of it.
- Then first make some lemon size dough or balls.
- Turn them into a thin(as much as you can) flat disc by pressing its sides down by fingertips or just roll it out with a rolling pin.
- Though the side of the disk won’t be even but don’t worry that is a sign of softness.
- Put 1 tsp or 1 1/2 tsp(as per the size of the disc) coconut filling into the middle of the disc.
- Then seal the edges of the dumpling’s or puli pitha’s cover(as shown in the pic) and first give it a shape of a half-moon.
- Then give it a perfect shape by little rolling its ends as shown in the pic. Though you can give it a shape of your choice too.
- After making all coconut stuffing dumplings, cover it with a damp cloth to retain its moisture.
Prepare the milk for making this dudh puli pitha
- Take one-liter full-fat milk in a wide pan and put it on medium flame. When the milk starts boiling then slow down the heat. First, add 3 crushed cardamom pods.
- Then add 1 cup of crushed or grated date palm jaggery or patali gur. Boil the milk for 15-20 mins. Even you may use sugar if khejur gur is not available around.
- After 20 mins, when the milk gets a little thick, then add the puli pitha to it. Let it boil for 10 mins without stirring it.
- Then after 10 mins, stir it gently and again cook the puli pithas for more 8-10 mins.
- After 8-10 mins, dudh puli pithe or pitha will be ready. Then turn off the heat and let it completely cool down before serving.
Tips
- The cover of this rice cake or rice dumpling (pitha’r khol) must be very thin and soft.
- Here I boiled the milk in the beginning to get a little thickness.
- Sometimes people add milk powder or rice flour to thicken the milk. For them, take 2 tbsp of milk powder or rice flour in a bowl and mix it with 3-4 tbsp milk. Then mix it with the milk which is boiling in the pan. But do it at the last minute means when the pitha puli is perfectly cooked into the milk.
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