Poori | Indian Poori Recipe | Poori Recipe | Maida Poori | How to Make Poori | How to Make Puffed Up Pooris | Breakfast Recipes

Poori, is my all time favorite breakfast recipe. I'm not a person who eat's the breakfast regularly but if I had to, I'll go for Pooris and medu vadas with poori masala. And sometimes for dinner I love pooris with paneer butter masala or channa masala.  If the pooris are perfectly puffed up I'll enjoy it to the best, I just love the very look of those puffy pooris they are much more alluring, don't you agree? This is one among the most commonly devoured breakfast or dinner recipe of South Indians after idlis and dosas and the most favorited too in other parts of India. To me pooris can be called so only if they are well puffed up, I've seen many struggling with this puffing up part. There's no trick or rocket science involved, just make sure your oil is at the right temperature and press the pooris well with a slotted spoon while frying and your pooris will puff up adorably.  Nothing else has to be taken care of. You don't have to use rava or sooji, you don't have to let the dough rest for a while, you don't even have to knead vigorously. You wouldn't believe most of the times I haven't left the dough rest, I just knead and make pooris instantly and have never found any trouble in getting those crisp and puffed up pooris. And I've always loved making pooris rather than chapatis as pooris can be cooked up in minutes and tastes brilliant. You need under 15 minutes of time for pooris and 20 minutes to cook the side dish poori masala or the poori kilangu as we call. So it isn't time consuming nor needs any effort and there's no reason to hate them! I prefer sing all purpose flour for pooris as they are easier to work with and also tastes better. So here's a post on how to make these puffed up beauties. 

INGREDIENTS

Makes 4 to 5 Pooris
Total Preparation Time - 15 minutes

1. Maida / All purpose flour - 100 grams (plus some extra flour for dusting)
2. Salt - 1/2 teaspoon (or less)
3. Oil - For frying (plus 1/2 teaspoon for kneading)

PREPARATION METHOD

Poori Recipe With Step By Step Clicks

• Take a wide bowl and add flour, salt and 1/2 teaspoon oil. Rub flour and oil together with your fingers. 

• Now pour water little by little and make a stiff yet soft dough. Dust some flour and knead for a minute. See that the dough is not sticky. (you don't have to knead it into a very soft dough like you'd do for chapati) 

• You can let the dough rest for a while say 15 minutes or just simply proceed to the next step.
• Now pinch smaller balls out from the dough and roll between your palms. 

• Dust enough flour over a pastry board or chapati board and place a ball over it, flatten gently and roll into round pooris (discs) using a rolling pin. The discs should not be too thin nor thick. Do the same with the rest of the balls. (Do not stack the flattened pooris one over the other as it may stick to each other. If you are going to roll too many make sure you cover the already flattened pooris with a towel or lid so that they do not dry)

• Now place a pan on flame and pour enough oil into it. When the oil turns nice and hot (not smoky hot but it should be definitely hot enough else your pooris will not puff up) slide the flattened pooris into it and gently keep pressing the poori with a slotted ladle until it puffs up. (It will puff up and brown a little) Turn the poori and fry on a medium flame until the other side and fry until it turns slightly golden brown. Never leave your pooris unattended as it will take just a few seconds to get fried and even get burnt. 
• Sometimes when your oil isn't hot enough your pooris will stay flat and won't puff up, don't worry and don't give up wait and fry your next poori it will puff up. 

• Now remove the poori from oil using a slotted spoon and drain excess oil.
• Serve hot with Poori masala. (recipe coming soon). 

TIP 1: To get puffed pooris the temperature of oil should be perfect. It should be hot i.e. a little hotter than the usual frying temperature, but not smoky hot. When you fry pooris you must be able to see the pooris rising up immediately but it should not brown too much. If your oil is not hot enough then the pooris will never puff up and will become flat and oily. 

TIP 2: Make sure your dough is not too soft and sticky, dust enough flour to make it stiff and kneading too much isn't necessary here. But if using wheat flour knead a little extra. For maida pooris I have never left dough to rest most of the times and still I get perfectly puffed up pooris. So letting the dough rest or not depends on the amount of time you have and it does not make any difference. Make sure you don't let the dough dry. 

TIP 3: You can refrigerate the dough for upto 2 days but not more than that as it will start to turn sour. Just pack the dough inside an airtight container and refrigerate. The before making pooris remove from refrigerator and wait until it comes back to room temperature. Knead and dust flour if has turned sticky and then proceed. 

TIP 4: Adding oil to flour will help avoid absorbing excess oil while frying. And your pooris won't be much greasy. 

TIP 5: Make the pooris a little smaller as it will be easier to fry and handle and also smaller pooris puff up easily. 

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