Bhakarvadi Spicy Bengal Gram Flour Savoury Pastry Rolls
Bhakarvadi
Mamta Gupta
Bhakar-vadi, originally from Maharashtra, is not a snack I was familiar with as I was growing up in northern India. However, it has now become popular as a ready-made snack that you buy in packets and everyone knows it. Traditionally, these rolls are deep fried. Here I have baked them in an oven, using a pastry similar to short crust pastry. I will experiment with a sweet filling later on, with coconut, nuts, melon seeds and sugar etc., watch this space! Makes approximately 60
Ingredients
125 gm. Bengal gram/chickpea flour or besan
125 gm. plain flour or maida
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
3/4 -1 tsp. salt
1 level tsp carom seeds
60-70 ml. cooking oil of choice
Filling
2 tbsp. desiccated coconut
1 tbsp. white sesame seeds
1 tbsp. urad dal (black gram dal), skinless
1 tbsp. poppy seeds or khus-khus.
1 level tsp. salt
1/4 chilli powder, adjust to taste
Ginger powder - 1/2 tea spoon.
1/2 tsp. Garam masala
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. coriander powder
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Instructions
Place plain flour (maida), gram flour (besan) in a bowl. Add salt, turmeric powder, carom seeds and oil.
Add enough water, a little at a time while kneading, until you have a firm...ish dough.
Wrap it in a cling film and leave it in a fridge until needed.
Heat a wok/karahi, add cumin seeds, urad dal and poppy seeds. Dry fry them stirring all the while, until a nice aroma rises.
Add coconut and stir for a minute.
Now add rest of the spices and salt. Turn heat off but continue stirring to roast the spices.
Cool and grind them to a rough powder. Add lemon juice and mix. If you like, you can add 1 tsp. of lemon zest as well to the filling.
Take pastry out of the fridge and roll it out into an oblong.
Turn oven on to 200 C or 400 F or Gas mark 6.
Spread the filling on it as evenly as you can.
Now it needs to be rolled up. To make it easy, I cut it lengthways into two halves.
Roll each half gently, making sure it is a firm...ish roll.
Now slice each roll into 1 cm. wide discs.
Line a baking sheet and spread the discs even on it. Bake for 20-30 minutes, until pastry is crisp. they need a little longer than a sausage roll to cook, because there are more layers of pastry in each vadi.
