Dudh puli Pitha recipe | Makar Sankranti special Bengali Doodh puli pitha recipe

Dudh puli pitha recipe step by step – Dudh puli pitha or Doodh puli pitha is a traditional Bengali pitha (a type of rice cake), and Makar Sankranti (called Poush Sankranti in Bengal) is the best time to make it at home. Bengali Dudh puli pitha means half-moon shaped stuffed rice flour cake or dumplings cooked in sweetened dudh or milk. In this pitha, coconut and jaggery stuffed sweet dumplings are cooked in jaggery and cardamom mixed flavoured sweetened evaporated milk(contains a gravy like thick consistency). But it is not only common jaggery, rather it is Bengali winter special date palm jaggery known as nolen gur or notun khejur gur in Bengali language. 

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 pitha, sidho puli pitha, chitoi pithe made of newly harvested rice and date palm jaggery for worshipping goddess Laxmi. The main ingredients of this Makar Sankranti special Bengali dudh puli pitha are rice flour, coconut, date palm jaggery(khejur or patali gur), bay leaves, cardamom powder, little ghee, and full cream milk. The extract of bay leaves and cardamom mixed with the flavour of jaggery and ghee makes the milk and the pitha so flavouful. Most of the pithe(pitha) pulis are similarly popular in West Bengal and Bangladesh, this dudh puli pithe is one of them. Whereas Bengali of West Bengal 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, slightly cook the rice flour in bubbling hot water and knead it quickly being hot.

• 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 to prevent this doodh puli from getting hard.

• People make it with half rice flour and half all-purpose flour (maida) or suji (semolina), even using only half all-purpose flour and half suji (no rice flour) goes well to make a soft cover of this puli pitha. However, that is not the traditional puli pitha recipe because the main ingredient, rice flour which is missing.

• Even some add boiled and mashed sweet potatoes with rice flour to make a soft cover of dudh puli. However, I do not know the method and the measurement ratio of rice flour and sweet potatoes.

However, the easiest and fastest techniques are making dudh puli with suji, maida or sweet potatoes. 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 go with the same recipe, only steam the pitha instead of cooking them in milk.

How to make quick and easy sujir dudh puli pitha 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 (khoya kheer) as the stuffing of this puli pitha. 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 any good quality gur as stuffing.

since my childhood, I have seen my mom used to soak the rice one day before poush sankranti and ground it on the same day. Then spread that wet rice flour on paper or a kitchen towel to quickly make it dry so that she could use it the very next day for making pithe or pitha. The The next day evening, she started making the pithe with that homemade rice flour and first served it to Goddess Laxmi. Dudh pithe, Bhapa pithe or puli pithe, chitoi pitha, Gokul pithe, nolen gurer payesh etc. And that day we generally complete our dinner with those delicious pitha and payesh. Those wonderful days are still alive in my memory with those great taste.

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 however, I prepare such pitha recipes whenever I wish to have them. 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 dudh puli pithe or puli pitha recipe at home at ease. My step by step simple method can help you at their best. 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 pitha recipe | Makar Sankranti special bengali Doodh puli pitha 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 flour dough

• 1 cup of rice flour
• 1 1/4 cup of water
• 1/4 tsp salt

To make 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) for this pitha

• 1 lit full cream milk
• 3 green cardamom(crushed)
• 1 cup patali gur/Jaggery

How to make Dudh puli pitha (Doodh puli pitha) recipe step by step

Instructions

How to prepare the coconut stuffing or filling

• Take a pan with 1 cup of freshly grated coconut, and 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 is soaked by the coconut and jaggery mixture.

• 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 rice flour 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.

• 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 above picture. However, you can design it in a better shape, as you choose.

• After making all coconut stuffing dumplings, cover it with a damp cloth to retain its moisture.

How to prepare the milk for making dudh puli pitha

• Take 1 liter of full cream 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 with their husk or skin, can use cardamom powder too.

• 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 doodh puli 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.