Tota Puli | How to make Bengali Tota Puli

Tota Puli is my choice for T in the A to Z Bengali Sweet Series. There are some traditional sweets starting with T such as Talsansh Sandesh, Tangail Cham Chama, while I also came across Tripti, a Sweetshop version. For a long time, I was hooked on Tal sansh Sandesh as this one seems to be very traditional and popular.

However, I couldn't find a recipe to make it, and all the pictures I saw didn't give out much. The other two options were also not so feasible. I was almost giving up on getting a proper dish until I landed here and read about Tota Puli. This seems to be a traditional Bengali Sweet losing out on its popularity.

This is a fresh paneer / chhana kneaded and made into a dough, stuffed with sweetened khoya. It is then rolled out as a Puli and then deep-fried, before being soaked in a Sugar Syrup. After soaking for a while, the sweet is served as such with nuts garnished.

As the recipe wasn't very clear at a few stages, I had to arrive at my own measurement after reading about how it is prepared. I had a tough time keep the stuffed khoya intact. Maybe this needs some resting time for it to harden. I somehow managed to deep fry without breaking it as it was written this tends to get broken while either deep frying or during soaking in sugar syrup.

Tota Puli is the last in the series of deep-fried and sugar-soaked Bengali Sweets. If you scroll down further you will get to see my huge vessel having all the deep-fried Bengali Sweets. I made a huge batch of sugar syrup and the entire 6 liters of milk was made into chhana and kneaded. I took a portion of about 1 cup of fresh chhana to make different dishes like the Jilapi, Lyangcha, Nikhuti Payesh, Pantua. I made about 6 pieces of each dish, only Nikhuti and Pantua was more in number because of the size. Apart from family, I even took the whole lot to my colleagues and it was over within minutes.

As with all Paneer Based Bengali Sweets, you need to make fresh soft Paneer/Chhana and then knead it well.

How to Make Soft Homemade Chhana for Bengali Sweets

How to Knead Chhana for Soft Bengali Sweets

In this A to Z Bengali Sweets for Protein Rich dishes:

A for Aam Sandesh
B for Bhapa Sandesh
C for Channar Puli
D for Danadar
E for Elixir Sandesh
F for Fruit Sandesh
G for Gajarer Sandesh
H for Hot Chocolate Sandesh Truffle
I for Ice Cream Sandesh
J for Jilapi
K for Khirkadam
L for Lyangcha
M for Malai Sandesh
N for Nikhuti Payesh
O for Orange Sandesh
P for Pantua
Q for Quick Rasmalai
R for Rasgulla
S for Sita Bhog

Step By Step Pictures for making soft Chhana for Bengali Sweets

Step by Step Pictures for kneading the chhana to a soft texture.

Step by Step Pictures for making Tota Puli

Step By Step Pictures for making Sugar Syrup

The entire batch of deep fried Bengali Sweets.

Tota Puli | How to make Bengali Tota Puli

Ingredients Needed:

For the Paneer Layer

1 cup Paneer / Chhana / Cottage Cheese
2 to 3 tbsp Flour 1oo gm
1 tbsp Ghee
A Pinch Baking Soda

For the Khoya Layer

1/2 cup Khoya
1/2 cup Sugar powdered
A pinch Red Food Colour

for the Sugar Syrup

1 cup Sugar
2 cups Water
Few Cardamom

Cooking Oil for deep frying

How to make Tota Puli

For the Paneer Layer

Make the fresh soft chhana for making Bengali Sweets
Knead till you get tiny granules.
Take the portion required to make Tota Puli and add baking soda and flour by a teaspoon and start kneading it. Flour should be added in small quantities as it depends on the moisture of the chhana on how it would require retaining the shape.
Knead till you get a dough that's soft and can hold the shape. Remember you will be making a puli to the size that's almost 2.5 to 3 inches in length and half-inch width. Once you have kneaded, keep it aside.

For the Khoya Layer

In a bowl, take the khoya, sugar, and food colour. Mix well and make small balls.

Assembling the Tota Puli

Divide the paneer dough into equal balls.
Divide the Khoya dough into equal balls. If it is difficult to handle, refrigerate for a while till the khoya is easy to handle.
Now flatten the paneer dough into a disc, place the khoya over it and enclose completely as you would do any stuffed balls.
Then gently roll over the plate to get a thick rope of about 1/2 inch width. Make the ends pointed as a puli. Complete the rest.
Heat the kadai with oil and gently drop in the pulis and deep fry on all sides.

Making the Sugar Syrup

Melt the sugar with water and make a syrup that is not very thick like Jalebi or too thin as Rasagullas. The syrup will have to be a little thicker similar to Danadar, as it's not let to soak for long and is served as a separate sweet on its own.

Serving the Tota Puli

Once the syrup is done, drop the deep-fried Tota Puli and let it soak for a couple of hours.
Then drain the tota puli, garnish with nuts, and chill until serving.

Notes

The original recipe asks you not to soak in sugar syrup for long as it might break. Mine was intact after a couple of hours as well.
The Tota Puli is juicy and oozes out sugar syrup when you bite into it.

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Tota Puli | How to make Bengali Tota Puli

Tota Puli is a traditional Bengali Sweet that is stuffed with Khoya and deep fried and soaked in sugar syrup. This is served with nuts garnished on top. This traditional sweet is slowly losing its mark and not so commonly prepared these days. So learn to make it at your home with this recipe.

Course Sweets

Cuisine Bengali

By Cook Method Deep Fried, Stovetop

Occasion Diwali, Festival Meal

By Diet Protein Rich

Dish Type Deep Fried Dishes, Paneer Dishes

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 25 minutes

Servings 4 pieces

Author Srivalli

Ingredients

For the Paneer Layer

• 1 cup Paneer / Chhana / Cottage Cheese
• 2 to 3 tsp All Purpose Flour / Maida
• 1 tbsp Ghee
• A Pinch Baking Soda

For the Khoya Layer

• 1/2 cup Khoya
• 1/2 cup Sugar powdered
• A Pinch Red Food Colour

For the Sugar Syrup

• 1 cup Sugar
• 2 cups Water
• Few Cardamom

Other Ingredients

• Cooking Oil for deep frying
• Mixed Nuts for Garnish

Instructions

For the Paneer Layer

• Make the fresh soft chhana for making Bengali Sweets
• Knead till you get tiny granules.
• Take the portion required to make Tota Puli and add baking soda and flour by a teaspoon and start kneading it. Flour should be added by small quantity as it depends on the moisture of the chhana on how it would require retaining the shape.
• Knead till you get a dough that's soft and can hold the shape. Remember you will be making a puli to the size that's almost 2.5 to 3 inches in length and half inch width. Once you have kneaded, keep it aside.

For the Khoya Layer

• In a bowl, take the khoya, sugar and food colour. Mix well and make small balls.

Assembling the Tota Puli

• Divide the paneer dough into equal balls.
• Divide the Khoya dough into equal balls. If it is difficult to handle, refrigerate for a while till the khoya is easy to handle.
• Now flatten the paneer dough into a disc, place the khoya over it and enclose completely as you would do any stuffed balls.
• Then gently roll over the plate to get a thick rope of about 1/2 inch width. Make the ends pointed as a puli. Complete the rest.
• Heat the kadai with oil and gently drop in the pulis and deep fry on all sides.

Making the Sugar Syrup

• Melt the sugar with water and make a syrup that is not very thick like Jalebi or too thin as Rasagullas. The syrup will have to be little thicker similar to Danadar, as it's not let to soak for long and is served as a separate sweet on its own.

Serving the Tota Puli

• Once the syrup is done, drop the deep fried Tota Puli and let it soak for a couple of hours.
• Then drain the tota puli, garnish with nuts and chill until serving.

Notes

The original recipe asks you not to soak in sugar syrup for long as it might break. Mine was intact after a couple of hours as well.

The Tota Puli is juicy and oozes out sugar syrup when you bite into it.

Tried this recipe?Mention @spicingyourlife_ or tag #spicingyourlife_!

This is part of the A to Z Protein-Rich dishes, where I decided to showcase A to Z Bengali Sweets with Paneer/Chhana as the main source.

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