Penilu, a delicious and crispy layered sweet puri that is made by delicately layering dough, smeared with ghee, rolled into pinwheels and deep fried. These are then dipped in sugar syrup or topped with cardamom flavored powdered sugar making it a delicious festive sweet.
These delicately layered puff pastry made for festive and celebratory occasions in Telangana. These penilu are crispy, flaky and layered puri dipped in cardamom flavored sugar syrup. Makes a great treat for your friends and family on any festive occasions and are equally loved by kids and makes a perfect sweet for Diwali parties and get togethers. These penilu are also known by KHAJILU in few parts of Telangana, CHIROTI in Maharashtra, Karnataka and few parts of Andhra Pradesh. We just need maida or all purpose flour, ghee and rice flour for making this irresistible dessert.
Key notes to achieve flaky and crispy Penilu
Prepare a satta, satta is technique for making the pastry extra crispy but rubbing the hot ghee/oil in to the dry flour until it resembles the breadcrumbs texture. Later by gradually adding cool water knead to make a soft and pliable dough.
Rest the dough, make the dough more pliable and it’s an important step achieving that perfect layers and also makes it easier to roll.
Later the dough is equally divided and rolled into thin rotis for layering. Rolling equal sized thin rotis for layering, helps in getting flaky penilu and also prevents puffing while frying in hot oil.
Smearing the ghee+rice flour mixture on each layer of roti, stacking with another and smearing more ghee+flour mixture. Rolling into a tight cylinder by applying the ghee+flour mixture helps in achieving those delicate layers evenly.
This tightened roll is cut into 1 inch thick discs, later rolling this each disc gently into puri’s with help of dry flour.
Always deep fry these rolled penilu one at a time on medium heat, to achieve that even cooking and perfect golden color. Pour hot oil on top of chiroti while frying, this helps in separating the layers and even cooking of the inner part of chiroti.
Later these hot penilu are either topped with cardamom flavored powdered sugar or once cooled down they’re dipped in cardamom flavored sugar syrup and let it drain and dry completely before serving.
Checkout more festive food and diwali special treats.
Palm jaggery whole wheat biscuits
PENILU
Ingredients
For the dough
- 1 cup Maida / All purpose flour
- 3 tbsp Ghee / oil
- 1 pinch Salt
- Water
For layering
- ¼ cup Ghee
- 2 tbsp Rice flour
For frying
- Frying oil
For sugar syrup(optional, instead use powdered sugar)
- 1 cup Sugar
- ½ cup Water
- 3 pods Cardamom
Instructions
Making the dough
- In a mixing bowl add Maida, pinch of salt and give it a good mix.
- Now add 3 tbsps of hot melted ghee/ hot oil and gently rub the ghee/oil into the dough and it should resemble to breadcrumbs mixture.
- Now gradually add cool filtered water, mix and knead to make a smooth and pliable dough.
- Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for an hour.
Prepare the flour butter
- In a mixing bowl add rice flour and ghee. Give a good mix until everything is completely incorporated.
Rolling the dough
- Now take the rested dough and divide it into 8 equal parts and roll into balls. Keep aside.
- Now sprinkle some dry maida flour on a rolling board or sheet, take a dough ball, roll into thin roti and keep aside.
- Roll all of the divided dough balls and keep aside.
Layering the dough
- Take a rolled maida roti apply the flour ghee mixture on it evenly, top it with one more rolled roti.
- Now apply more flour ghee mixture and repeat the process until all the roti's are stacked on one another.
- Now start rolling the stacked rotis from one side, apply flour ghee mixture one the rolled part and roll again.
- Similarly apply the flour ghee mixture on each fold made and make a tight roll.
- Cut this tightly rolled cylinder into small discs. Now press this small dough discs gently so that you can see delicate layers and roll into medium sized poories.
- Heat oil on medium heat, deep fry these penilu. Pouring hot oil on top of these while frying.
- Fry on the other side until they turn slightly golden. Store in airtight container and stays good for two days.
Making sugar syrup(optional)
- Heat a saucepan, add sugar and water let it completely dissolve on medium heat.
- Now add 3 crushed cardamom pods into the sugar water mixture and let it reduce and come to sticky thin syrup. Turn off the stove and let it cool down.
- Now gently dip the fried and cooled penilu on both sides into these syrup and place it on a wire rack.
- Cool and serve the sugar syrup dipped penilu, or top the plain penilu with powdered sugar and serve.
If you’ve tried this recipe and loved it, I’d love to hear your feedback by tagging your photo and share it with #mycurryveda on Instagram @mycurryveda or on Facebook . Also follow @taste.of.telangana on Instagram for more traditional recipes, culture and stories.
