Pooris for Yom Kippur 

Recipe by Mrs. Sophie Moses, with permission of her son, Nissim Moses 

Serves: 4-6 people 

Ingredients 

A. For the filling called ‘kanoli’: 

• 2 cups fine soojee (very fine semolina) 

• 1 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter) 

• 100 gm almonds 

• 100 gm pistachios 

• 100 gm currants 

• 100 gm cashews 

• 100 gm pine nuts 

• 2 tablespoon ghee 

• 1.75 cups Sugar or more if you want sweet 

• 2 pinch powdered cardamoms, nutmeg, or saffron (kesar) 

• 1 tbs vanilla liquid 

• B. For the Crust: 

• 2 cups maida (ordinary cake flour) 

• 1.5 teaspoon corn flour 

• 1 tablespoon ghee or margarine 

• A pinch of salt 

• Add milk and water for kneading. 

 Method 

A. Method for preparing the filling: 

Fry the fine soojee (Solet; semolina) on the hot tawa (frying pan) till golden, not red. 

Then add pure ghee and fry. 

Now fry the chopped cleaned almonds, pistachios and whole currants and add to the earlier fried semolina in the same plate. 

In a big vessel put in 2 tablespoons ghee and heat it on the stove top. 

Fry the semolina, almonds and currents, and while stirring add the vanilla and saffron or cardamoms 

When done, take it down and spread the mixture on a plate to cool. 

When absolutely cool, add sugar. 

B. For the crust: 

Take flour, corn flour, salt and ghee and mix them well. 

Then knead it with milk and water into a stiff dough. 

Keep it covered for some time (1 hour). 

Then pass it through a mincing machine 2 - 3 times. 

C. For Mohan (paste): 

Take 3 - 4 tablespoon ghee and then cream it 

Then add corn flour, little by little until it is ready. 

How to test if it is ready: In half cup water put a small (tiny) bit. If the lump floats, then the mohan is ready for use. 

Method: 

• Take the ready pastry crust and divide it into 5 equal parts. 

• Roll them into thin chapatis (thin flat pancakes). The best shape is a large rectangle. 

• Apply sufficient Mohan (do not be stingy, but not too much) on 1st chapatti and place the second on it. Continue to make thin flat large rectangular chapatis by applying sufficient mohan on the earlier one till all five chapatis have been placed one on top of the other. 

• Also apply paste on the 5th and uppermost layer and then roll them together into a fat rectangular shape about 8-10 wide, about 35 to 40 cm long and about 5-7cm thick. 

• With a sharp knife divide length wise into 2 parts. Then immediately cut slant wise and divide into about 17 or 18 parts the whole length of the original chapati roll. 

• This will give about 36 independent pooris encrusting parts. 

• Cut the five layered chapati roll into two halves. 

• Divide the two halves into several smaller units 

• Now take each small part (chapati starter) and roll it again quite thin. This should be done so that the inner edge of the main part spreads out into layered parallel visible strips. (These strips will develop into seven frilly veils after frying). 

• Then reverse the flattened chapati and fill it with the earlier prepared kanoli (about 1- 2 teaspoons). 

• Now wet the edges of the chapati with the filling on it & fold over and seal it by firmly pressing on the edges until it is sealed properly. 

• Using the rear side of the zigzag cutter, cut the edges with a zig zag cutter (make sure it is not open on any side). 

• Remove the excess after trimming and discard it. 

• The poori is now ready for frying. 

• Heat the oil (olive oil is often used) on a low temperature in a deep fryer. 

• Fry each poori until it is golden brown in colour, but not red. 

• Place the pooris on a sieve to drain any excess oil. Transfer onto paper towels to cool. 

• When absolutely cold, fill the pooris in a box.